The BURIED Book Club discussion

Eugène Sue (1804-57) qualifies as BURIED for technical reasons. He was a huge hit back in his day. Eugene V. Debs was named after him and Victor Hugo.

He has two big books, The Mysteries of Paris, which I just encountered briefly in Benjamin's Arcades book, and The Wandering Jew.

Readers of Fat 19th Century Books :: attention!

Is that Eugene Debs tidbit by way of Marguerite Young, by any chance?

Nate D wrote: "Is that Eugene Debs tidbit by way of Marguerite Young, by any chance?"

Yep.

Burieds recommending burieds! The best way.

Nate D wrote: "Burieds recommending burieds! The best way."

Via her reviews in Inviting the Muses: Stories, Essays, Reviews I also found Alex Comfort, who wrote those Joy of Sex books but also wrote The Power House and Tetrarch. The former was even mis=shelved at The Village Bookshop in the erotica section. I have both books awaiting their turn to serve their distraction duty.

The Wandering Jew is a fascinating legend, and he's appeared in a few other books. Sue's long novel is rather conventional in structure and style, not to say old fashioned, so even though he is today buried I wouldn't recommend his version. (Maybe Sue deserves to be buried.) But I can recommend Viereck and Eldridge's trilogy My First Two Thousand Years (along with Salome: the Wandering Jewess and The Invincible Adam). These are books I picked up in an dusty old bookstore in Honolulu, in 1960, while traveling by ship to Australia. I read them during my voyage, and found them quite thrilling, especially for a boy starting an adventure. Now I see them as rather conventional in style also, but they do hold up better than Sue. But the best Wandering Jew story that I am aware of, by far, is The Death of Ahasuerus by Par Lagerkvist, one of my favorite writers. Although he won a Nobel Prize in 1951, and I see he has a number of reviews here at Goodreads, I would call him a rather buried writer. Would he qualify? And does anyone know of other Wandering Jew novels?

D.N. wrote: "The Death of Ahasuerus by Par Lagerkvist, one of my favorite writers. Although he won a Nobel Prize in 1951, and I see he has a number of reviews here at Goodreads, I would call him a rather buried writer. Would he qualify?"

He may well be underread -- but for our purposes here he's knot=BURIED ;; rather healthy numbers for several of his books. (If you've got any other questions about who may or may not be BURIED please feel free to ask in that thread over here :: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/... (you can read through the convoluted criteria if you like, but there's really no need for that))

But your remarks about Sue sound about how I had estimated him ; once great, but kind of attached to his time and place and not of much interest today(?). He was once as big as Hugo, but Hugo for some reason has maintained his place on our literary maps.

And, of course, welcome to goodreads and The BURIED Book Club, D.N.!