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Fictionalized story about life of a Friedrich von Hardenberg - Novalis. He was German poet and philosopher from Early Romanticism era. Focus of this story is on his student time when he falls in love with the 12 year old Sophie. What I liked in the book is vivid portrait of life and customs of the German nobility (opening scene with the laundry day is amusing and beautiful), but I didn‘t like third person narration. Between so-so and pick. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book probably means more to people who are familiar with Enlightenment-era German writers, but I enjoyed it anyway. You get the sense of the realities of life set against the intellectual life men of a certain status could have, I suppose. I would rate it somewhere between so-so and pick, honestly; I never was tempted not to finish and I loved the ‘Germanic‘ texture in the writing.

I can‘t read this. The style gave me a headache in just ten pages and then I looked up a plot summary. Apparently it is about justifying a grown ass man sexually fixating on a 12 year old girl.

Extreme ew-factor aside, the prose made Jeff Shaara seem like pleasant reading.

This is about how the discussion went. Few read it and those of us who did were dumbfounded.

I am really struggling with this book. It‘s supposed to be some kind of masterpiece and I feel like an idiot because that mastery is completely evading me. About a third of the way in so would hope that I‘d have a grasp. Not. Am I supposed to know this philosopher or his history?

Today's guardian book page covers many things and way too many items to do individual post for, So here we go: https://www.theguardian.com/books

For @shawnmooney we got The Blue Flower. For #WonderWomanWednesday we have wild women. There is a cool article about Marlon James's new project, Harry Potter stuff, Borges, international translation, Ibsen, and a whole lot more.