The sheer pleasure of hearing this wholly unremarkable book hit the wall... it almost! made it worth the read.
(I hated this. Truly, madly deeply. Dumb white boi in 19th century France aims to become successful at all costs, sleeps around with an exact number of 3 consenting women - Don Juan where? - and is made editor off his brilliant wife's writing talent, then stuff happens but not really, and somehow you end up reading about domestic abuse and confusing political affairs and religious Jesus-forgive-me crises and honestly, why does everyone love this?)