I read Purgatorio and Paradiso for completism's sake.

There's a reason people only talk about Inferno.

megan -- When you get to the Count of Monte Cristo, nag me and I'll try to mock up the chart I scrawled at 3 AM to keep track of who was related to who. Granted, I'm terrible with names, so you might not need it. But someone should benefit from things I did on an all-night reading binge.

Which is to say: it's an excellent page-turner. So it may not take as long as you expect to read.

Speaking of, I'm looking for a good version of PL with comprehensive notes since Milton is so challenging and I haven't studied it formally. I've come across a Norton Critical Edition and Penguin Classics edition. Looking at the reviews, it seems the Penguin might be better, but I've had good luck with Norton Critical Editions in the past. Anyone familiar with these (or another annotated version) and have advice?

So it may not take as long as you expect to read.

Well, I'm reading it in French, so it will probably take me a bit longer than English, although I'm pretty sure his vocabulary is closer to Zola than Hugo. At least I hope so.

it will probably take me a bit longer than English

Oh, you, with your valid points. But yes, I think it'd still be an easier read than Hugo.

I should note that the chart I made is not as comprehensive as this one. (I should say that there are spoilers if you zoom in enough to actually read it.)

Kristin -- when I took a class on Milton we read a version annotated by Merritt Hughes. Which appears to be the basis for this one: [link]

I can't compare it to other editions, but that particular prof was very... particular, so I imagine he had a reason for choosing it. It's certainly extensively footnoted. (And it looks like the paperback I linked to is even more so, actually.)

The fact that I can't even get that chart to load scares me.

I think it'd still be an easier read than Hugo.

I think anything is easier than Hugo. When we started on the preface to Cromwell, my prof at the Sorbonne told the French students to be patient because they would probably have to look up every tenth word. And then she looked at the few Americans in the class and just shook her head and sighed.

Here's a bit from The Guardian on the Princesse de Clèves resurgence: [link] .

During a meeting back in February 2006, Nicolas Sarkozy took the opportunity to mock the "sadist or idiot" who had seen fit to include questions about a 17th-century novel in an exam for public sector workers. "When was the last time you asked a counter clerk what she thought of The Princess of Cleves?" he enquired, playing to the gallery. Cue laughter from the audience.[...]

But the presidential aspersions cast on Madame de La Fayette's masterpiece have kept coming. Last year, for instance, Sarkozy declared that voluntary work should be taken into account when civil servants are considered for promotion. It's just as important as knowing The Princess of Cleves off by heart, the clearly traumatised head of state argued.[...] Le Figaro, meanwhile, suggested that the president's aversion may be due to the fact that his personal secretary (allegedly) failed an exam because she was incapable of saying who had written the book ­ ironic, given that its authorship remains shrouded in mystery (it's now generally thought to be a collective work orchestrated by Mme de La Fayette).

So what's the story with this book, so famous in France, so little-known elsewhere? The Princess of Cleves is undoubtedly a literary landmark. It is widely regarded as one of the first historical and psychological novels; indeed, it's one of the first novels full stop. Its intellectual take on matters of the heart made it a template for much French literature and cinema. Yet, in spite of its brilliance, it is also a resolutely old-fashioned tale of unconsummated passion in which duty triumphs over love ­ one that most French people are force-fed at school and are happy never to read again. Until now, that is.

Sarkozy's personal vendetta – cloaked in anti-elitist demagoguery – has managed to turn The Princess of Cleves into an unlikely symbol of political resistance. In the eyes of many, it now exemplifies the sheer effusion of a culture that cannot be squared with this government's vulgar mercantile ethos. Christophe Honoré was so incensed by the president's declarations that he adapted the supposedly irrelevant novel into a teen movie set in a Parisian lycée (La Belle Personne). University lecturers and students, who have been on strike against governmental reforms for the past two months, have organised several marathon readings up and down the country. The most prominent one so far was staged outside the Panthéon in Paris: Louis Garrel, who played a leading part in Honoré's film, was among the numerous people who took turns to read five-minute extracts until the last sentence was uttered more than six hours later. The book has been claimed by sundry protesters and declaimed through megaphones during recent demonstrations where banners bearing messages of support –­ "Free the Princess of Cleves" –­ also flourished. A pastiche of the novel, drawing parallels between Henry II's lavish court life and Sarkozy's bling-bling presidential style, is doing the rounds in academic circles. Heavyweight politicians (Ségolène Royal, François Bayrou) and intellectuals (Régis Debray, Elisabeth Badinter) have publicly sided with Mme de La Fayette. On television, Jauffret invited every French citizen to send a copy of the book to the Élysee Palace in protest at Sarkozy's "glorification of ignorance". The novel even sold out at the recent Paris book fair and more than 2,000 "I'm reading The Princess of Cleves" badges were snapped up in record time (for those who can't lay their hands on one of them, you can join the inevitable Facebook group).

Ha. I love France for shit like that. You'd never get THAT in America!

I really like My Antonia, and Willa Cather in general.

I really like My Antonia, and Willa Cather in general.

Me too! I also love New Orleans. If you only liked New Orleans then we'd be in perfect agreement.