1901: Sully Prudhomme - Journal Intime

"In special recognition of his poetic composition, which gives evidence of lofty idealism, artistic perfection and a rare combination of the qualities of both heart and intellect"

There is a series in Coron Publishing Zurich that's called "Nobel Prize in Literature", and "Journal Intime et Pensées" is Volume 1. It includes a short history of the awarding of the first Nobel Prize in Literature to Sully Prudhomme - a lot of people thought Leo Tolstoi should have been the one and wrote a letter to him in apology. (Tolstoi answered humbly saying he didn't mind and he very much preferred the sympathy and honour coming with the letter, subscribed by people such as August Strindberg and later nobel prize laureate Selma Lagerlöf).

So:
I found it genuinely awe-inspiring that someone who, besides studying engineering and law, in his spare time writes a diary that is of such precision, full of analytical insights, even though some of which have been rendered obsolete by the course of time and now are left to seem like mere living room psychology.

Still: I liked this book a lot because it's very self-reflective and because some aspects of the life he describes and opinions he holds are still valid, and relevant, today, but the most interesting parts I found to be those that describe the life and society of his time (Paris in the 1860s) in aspects that differ from the society we live in today, writing with total confidence things society would oust you for today.
(I had a german copy, translated by Gerda Munk and Hans Roesch. The translations below are mine).

October 1st, 1862
"Good day. Roman law - worked with joy... I am worth more than I thought." and
June 20, 1868
"I have the bad habit of getting up late. Not that I enjoy staying in bed after having awoken, but indescribable fatigue holds me. Getting up costs me an effort. I'm sorry about the morning hours, the only cool ones of the day, where the mind is light, clear and quickened..."
(I find it very easy to identify with somebody that has trouble getting out of bed and feels his self-esteem rise after a good day of work, it's nothing to be proud of except for the honesty to admit it to oneself).

He wasn't married, saying "I think that, once I'm old, I am not going to say this word [love] anymore; it only belongs with lips that kiss" (6/23/1868), yet he had some very wise things to say about it - "the punishment for him who doesn't love is that he doesn't enjoy being loved" (1/27/1869).

However, the parts I liked best were similar to this one:
"(...) the woman has to obey unless the husband submits to her command; for want of a majority, votings can only separate. So the man is the master in his own house because he made its foundation. He can't force the woman to stay with him, but is she with him, she must obey. (11/29/1864)
It goes on like that for a good bit and then every once in a while, and I find it curiously philosophic.

Did I enjoy reading this book? Yes, even though probably for the wrong reasons.
Will I read more by this author? Probably not, but I copied some of his aphorisms for future use.
Do I recommend this book? I don't know, I'm certainly not discouraging you, it may be hard to come by though.