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27 April 2026
I gave up on this book partway through (toward the end of the first of two roughly equal-length parts). I did not maintain the momentum needed to get through. (The book has no chapters, just the two parts, and the prose is 19th century, not optimized for 21st century readability. I probably wouldn't have had a problem with it if I had read it straight through, but I found I couldn't pick it back up after a while off, had lost connection to what was going on.) From what I read, though, I recommend it.
According to the introduction by Adam Gopnik in the edition I read (2005 Modern Library Paperback Edition), the good characters (an altruistic secret society) are not believable. But perhaps the book is a form of speculative fiction, where human nature is like the ray guns or Mars of science fiction, the subject of speculation. Someday we may walk on Mars, someday unbelievable good characters may be real.
One moment was strangely good and recommended Balzac as a skilled writer. A character is seen as good and bad, back and forth, as more information is revealed.
The book discusses the backstories of its altruistic characters, showing how some altruistic people may come to altruism.
For all this, I will recommend this book, but only provisionally, since I quit partway through.