October Book Club Selection - Les Miserables

Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

From Wiki:

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An 1862 French novel by author Victor Hugo that is widely considered one of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century. The title is variously translated from the French as The Miserable, The Wretched, The Poor Ones, The Wretched Poor, or The Victims. Beginning in 1815 and culminating in the 1832 June Rebellion, the novel follows the lives and interactions of several characters, focusing on the struggles of ex-convict Jean Valjean and his experience of redemption.

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You can get a digital copy for free via Project Gutenberg. Otherwise, hit up your local book store or Amazon and get reading!

Post your thoughts as you read in this thread, mark the big spoilers.

We'll set a hard deadline to be done with the book by... October 22nd. Go go go!

So excited. I've never read Les Miserables but I love The Hunchback of Notre Dame so I am prepared for long descriptions and twisty plots.

This book is very long. I've only read the abridged version (and that's the one Miriel is reading). Since this is only lasting a month I would recommend some sort of abridged version if you are a slow reader like me.

Is there an easily obtainable abridged version online? I should probably read that as these older books are a bit denser than I prefer and I'm time poor currently.

I might just give this a go. The musical is one of my secret guilty pleasures. DON'T TELL ANYONE :shifty:

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Originally Posted by Psychotic

I might just give this a go. The musical is one of my secret guilty pleasures. DON'T TELL ANYONE :shifty:

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Paul and I left no wine untasted

I've finished with the Fantine section of the book and so far, I really like it! I do think that the character's dialogue is kind of strange. Everyone always seems to be exclaiming things or doing soliloquies. But maybe that's just how they talked back then?

But I kind of love old-timey writing and how everything is so tragic or so good or so evil.

Also, motivation to get through this book:



AhhH!! Can't wait!

For honesty's sake, I am going to skip the very long war and Napolean parts. Don't even care.

Gonna dust off my tattered old copy tonight, yay!

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Originally Posted by Shorty

For honesty's sake, I am going to skip the very long war and Napolean parts. Don't even care.

Gonna dust off my tattered old copy tonight, yay!

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I think those are the main things cropped from the abridged version, so you should be alright by skipping those. If you can't find a free version of the abridged Les Mis, I would just get the version Miriel posted and skip those parts (it's pretty obvious when Hugo goes into a discourse on that war, and he talks about it forever). It's almost like Grapes of Wrath where there are sections that have nothing to do with the plot and are mainly there to set tone.

I thought Fantine's section was the best part of the whole story, to be honest. I think the dialogue is a mixture of how they talked back then and the fact that it's a translation so dialogue won't always translate the way it was intended in the original language.

Anne Hathaway looks like the perfect Fantine to me. I can completely see it.

No one will ever beat Geoffrey Rush as Javert, though. He was the perfect embodiment.

There sure are quite a lot of handy dandy coincidences in this book.

That's 19th century writing for you.

Soooo muuuuuch deeeeeetail.

I think I could probably get through this book by...say...death. Not by the 22nd. So boring.

It's a very good book.

Just...looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong.

As a fan of history and religion, I find some of its side stuff to be fascinating. I read the book because I consider myself a bit of a Romantic (the literary/philosophical version) and this book seemed like a good expression of those viewpoints. The chapters on monasticism and how it really flies in the face of spirituality and what it means to be human was very appealing.
The chapter on Louis Philippe was also good.

But that's just Hugo giving his own beliefs. On the actual narrative, he is a master of tragedy. I have seldom hated anybody as much as I hate the Thénardiers, nor have I felt such pity as I do for...well, a lot of characters. Fantine was the worst at the start but then's also poor old Mabeuf.

On the flipside, I was a huge fan of the Bishop. I was actually disappointed he wasn't in the book longer. I think Hugo did a mastrful job of showing how a genuinely holy person can act.

I would highly recommend anyone who's having trouble reading the book check out the audio book version.

I'm stranded in the Marius section. Can't find the will to continue...

Ok, so I finally finished reading this weeks after the deadline.

Thoughts:

Javert was pretty much insane, right? I mean, I understand that as a character he was supposed to be this incredibly unbendable figure who doesn't see any shades of grey. But he was just so ludicrous a villain throughout the whole thing. And then he offs himself in the end because he just cannot comprehend that Jean Valjean could possibly be a good person. It's like, dude. LET IT GO.

I liked Cosette a lot as a kid, but found her so absolutely dull as a lady. I hope she's a more robust character in the musical. I hate that she allowed Marius to separate her from the man who rescued her and raised her and showed her absolutely nothing but love and kindness. Seriously Cosette? Pssh.

I dislike that the Thénardiers got away free and clear and then became freakin' SLAVERS. Jesus.

I liked the first parts of the book way more than the latter. I breezed through Fantine, Cosette and was doing ok for awhile in the Marius section but after that reading being laborious.

I'm glad I finished though. I'm super excited for the movie!

I think Javert was supposed to represent the ludicrousness of the police force in general. Similarly, the Thenardiers get away because society rewards people of that time. Lot of symbolism in that story for the time period which of course no one gives a smurf about today. Would have been better if JVJ capped their asses. Hopefully Hugh Jackman goes Wolverine on them in the movie.