A review by pk1
Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

Did not finish book.

2.0

2.5. DNF at page 935 of 1,304. Very disappointed! This started out so promising. I really enjoyed the first 2 sections but once I got to Marius' sections it got verrryyy slow. For a book touted about a revolution, there was more talk about the 1789 revolution and discussion about the philosophy of revolutions than the actual events of the 1830s revolution, which I expected this to be about. It was a lot of talk building up to a revolution that still hadn't happened at page 935!! Honestly, I started skimming once I got to Gavroche's section in Part 4. I couldn't stand the relationship between Cosette and Marius and found the majority of their sections unnecessary. Hugo unfortunately bogs the novel down with superfluous details. My interest waned to the point where I decided to just read a plot synopsis of the ending (sacrilege, I know). (I had seen the Liam Neeson film in 9th grade so vaguely remembered the overall plot and ending). This could have been so much better if Hugo had edited this down. I enjoyed the social commentary a lot in the first 2 sections, but it became repetitive and annoying the further it went. Hugo just stuffed too many themes and events into this one novel. I can say I tried. Life is too short to force yourself to read a dense 1300 page classic.

It's books like this that make me further appreciate Thomas Hardy's ability to not only write beautifully AND comment on society, but that he was also able to get his point across effortlessly in a 1/3 of the size of Hugo's beast and didn't needlessly bloat his stories for profit. (Hardy was also paid by installment)! Choose smartly. Instead of Hugo, choose [a:Thomas Hardy|15905|Thomas Hardy|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1429946281p2/15905.jpg].