Histoire d'un casse-noisette vs Paul et Virginie: Which Should You Read?

Both live on shelves: Translations from French, French fiction

Cover of Histoire d'un casse-noisette

Histoire d'un casse-noisette Alexandre Dumas · 1845 ★★★★☆ 3.7 185 pages · ≈ 3 h 26 m · Challenging Find on Amazon

vs

Cover of Paul et Virginie

Paul et Virginie Bernardin de Saint-Pierre · 1789 ★★★★☆ 3.7 311 pages · ≈ 5 h 46 m · Demanding Find on Amazon

The verdict

Ratings are close: 3.7 vs 3.7 — either is a safe pick by score.
Histoire d'un casse-noisette is the quicker read — about 3 hours vs 5 for Paul et Virginie.
Histoire d'un casse-noisette is the easier read (Challenging), Paul et Virginie more demanding (Demanding).

Side by side