Le Balcon vs The Duchess: Which Should You Read?
Both live on shelves: Brothels, Prostitution
Le Balcon
“On the ceiling, a chandelier, which will remain the same in each scene.”
The setting of Jean Genet's celebrated play is a brothel that caters to refined sensibilities and peculiar tastes. Here men from all walks of life don the garb of their fantasies and act them out: a man from the gas…
vs
The Duchess
Thrown out of her ancestral home by her brutal half-brothers after the death of their father, Angélique Latham makes her way to Paris, where she takes in abused streetwalkers and transforms them into upper-crust…
The verdict
- Readers rate The Duchess highest: The Duchess 4.5 · Le Balcon 3.8.
- Le Balcon is the quickest read — about 2 hours vs 6 for The Duchess.
- Le Balcon has the widest readership — 3542 ratings behind its score.
How to choose
Scores by source
| Le Balcon | The Duchess | |
|---|---|---|
| Goodreads | 3.8 (3542) | — |
| Hardcover | — | 4.0 (2) |
| Google Books | — | 5.0 (1) |
| Apple Books | — | 4.5 (521) |
Reception
| Le Balcon | The Duchess | |
|---|---|---|
| Ratings | 3542 | 521 |
| Editions | 79 | 11 |
| Film adaptations | 1 | 1 |
| Want to read | 3882 | — |
| Written reviews | 155 | — |
| Wikipedia attention | 45 | 391 |
| Pages | 114 | 336 |