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A review by kitsuneheart
Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
2.0
I know. I'm supposed to say it's a classic. That it's flawless. That it should be universally required reading.
BUT IT'S TOO LONG AND SLOW.
There are entire sections of this book that don't need to exist. The very beginning details the character of a priest whose only importance to the plot is to forgive Jean Valjean, giving him the impetus to become an honest man. And this is not a small section. It was at least an hour of the audiobook. The book could just have easily had the priest do his thing without needing to know his entire backstory. The same goes for the order of nuns that Jean Valjean stays with midway through the book. They are pious, we get it. We don't need to know their entire ethos. And the sections about the war? IT's basically a military textbook, and, surprise, we don't need to know every detail about the battle.
The parts that aren't unnecessary are nice though, again, slow for a modern reader. If more modern novels (anything in the last 30 years) are your thing, you're not going to get through this without some sort of help. I did the audiobook version from Librivox, which still took me nearly two months, and I can get through a 12 hour audiobook in a day if I'm enjoying it.
One of those few times when the movie/stage production is better.
BUT IT'S TOO LONG AND SLOW.
There are entire sections of this book that don't need to exist. The very beginning details the character of a priest whose only importance to the plot is to forgive Jean Valjean, giving him the impetus to become an honest man. And this is not a small section. It was at least an hour of the audiobook. The book could just have easily had the priest do his thing without needing to know his entire backstory. The same goes for the order of nuns that Jean Valjean stays with midway through the book. They are pious, we get it. We don't need to know their entire ethos. And the sections about the war? IT's basically a military textbook, and, surprise, we don't need to know every detail about the battle.
The parts that aren't unnecessary are nice though, again, slow for a modern reader. If more modern novels (anything in the last 30 years) are your thing, you're not going to get through this without some sort of help. I did the audiobook version from Librivox, which still took me nearly two months, and I can get through a 12 hour audiobook in a day if I'm enjoying it.
One of those few times when the movie/stage production is better.