Histoire d'un casse-noisette vs À rebours: 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 À rebours

À rebours Joris-Karl Huysmans · 1884 ★★★★☆ 3.8 294 pages · ≈ 5 h 27 m · Challenging Find on Amazon

The verdict

Ratings are close: 3.7 vs 3.8 — either is a safe pick by score.
Histoire d'un casse-noisette is the quicker read — about 3 hours vs 5 for À rebours.

Side by side