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Why don't more people know about this novel? I mean, it was fantastic but dear God, it was awful. The melodrama! The metaphors! The human grossness! Like beautiful horrible poetry.
I knew I was done for when I read this:
"This is the saddest story I have ever heard."
And this:
"I know nothing--nothing in the world--of the hearts of men. I only know that I am alone, horribly alone."
And when I read this:
"Society must go on, I suppose, and society can only exist if the normal, if the virtuous, and slightly deceitful flourish, and if the passionate, the headstrong and the too-truthful are condemned to suicide and madness."
I wrote one word in the margins. That word was: FUCK.