Take a photo of a barcode or cover
thekingcrusoe 's review for:
Les Miserables
by Victor Hugo
I'm not crying, YOU'RE crying.
I don't even know where to begin trying to review this book. Nearly everything about this is so perfect to me. Yes, there are tangents; yes, a few of said tangents feel bloated or pointless.
But the truth is, I can count on 1 hand how many times I wasn't outright enjoying myself. Book One of Part Two (Waterloo) was a slog at the time, but becomes very lovable in hindsight - a section of Les Mis that on a re-read I'm sure I would love; and the first few books of Part Three were a little slow and boring for me, but I think those were just off, and again, on a re-read, I'll love those as well, because I know what they mean.
And in regards to all other tangents (such as about Slang, the Sewers, etc.), I had very little issue with those either. Sure, I would have more appreciation for some of them if I had more context (such as knowing French, as the Slang book would like, and such as knowing France, specifically Paris, itself, as the Sewer book would like). But when it comes right down to it, the tangents were (as the term might suggest) tangentially RELATED to the main stories in ways that made them fun in their own ways, even if the occasional side-steps away from the main story can occasionally feel cheap.
However, there is next to nothing I would change about this book, particularly this edition, translated by Christine Donougher. This translation had 1 instance of the wrong type of quotation being used, and one instance of 2 words being in the wrong order, but otherwise there were ABSOLUTELY ZERO copy-edit errors, let alone any full sentence that felt out of place. It was a beautiful read, and very digestible. This translation came out in 2013, and you can tell. It reads like a modern classic - like I said, very digestible - without EVER losing the tone and feeling of the early-to-mid 19th century setting. It feels so authentic that the tone alone is addicting.
And then there's the actual STORY. Holy. Cow. Hugo really knows how to plot a story.
Threads pop up and "disappear" just to pop up again in important ways later, in the most brilliant of ways. And one of the things I love the most about Les Mis is that Hugo knows how to write a pseudo-mystery. Meaning, that when he writes about a revelation to come, he writes it in such a way that allows the reader to pick up the pieces and figure out EXACTLY what's he doing mere pages before he pulls the rabbit out of the hat to confirm what we found out. Just in this aspect, the novel was more fun to read than most everything I've read this year, if not more fun than everything I've read this year at times. And don't even get me started on Chapter 4 of the Final Book (Book Nine) of the Final Part (Part Five: Jean Valjean). It was the one single time that I couldn't and didn't see coming what Hugo brought up, but it was no less stunning.
The plotting is brilliant, the characters are WONDERFUL (even the really easy to hate characters are written brilliantly), and Hugo jerks emotions out of you at several moments throughout.
Next up, this novel tackles philosophy in the best of ways. There are books and chapters sprinkled throughout that handle philosophy and inner-arguments the way that Tolstoy does in War & Peace, but throughout the story, there are several moments of the main characters wrestling with themselves about what they should do, and they are most enrapturing and beautiful chapters in the world. Many of my favorite chapters of the year come from these internal arguments characters have with themselves.
I loved this book. So much. And the final page has probably my favorite quote of any novel ever - and that quote is only a favorite BECAUSE of the 1300 pages that came before it.
In some sense, it's impossible to call Les Mis literally "perfect" because of the tangents, no matter how much I found myself still (strangely) enjoying them. However, I think Les Mis might be perfect to me.
Les Misérables was always a bucket list book for me. I've had my eye on it ever since 4th grade. I KNEW I would someday read it. No Matter What. And I could not possibly be more glad that I did.
I don't even know where to begin trying to review this book. Nearly everything about this is so perfect to me. Yes, there are tangents; yes, a few of said tangents feel bloated or pointless.
But the truth is, I can count on 1 hand how many times I wasn't outright enjoying myself. Book One of Part Two (Waterloo) was a slog at the time, but becomes very lovable in hindsight - a section of Les Mis that on a re-read I'm sure I would love; and the first few books of Part Three were a little slow and boring for me, but I think those were just off, and again, on a re-read, I'll love those as well, because I know what they mean.
And in regards to all other tangents (such as about Slang, the Sewers, etc.), I had very little issue with those either. Sure, I would have more appreciation for some of them if I had more context (such as knowing French, as the Slang book would like, and such as knowing France, specifically Paris, itself, as the Sewer book would like). But when it comes right down to it, the tangents were (as the term might suggest) tangentially RELATED to the main stories in ways that made them fun in their own ways, even if the occasional side-steps away from the main story can occasionally feel cheap.
However, there is next to nothing I would change about this book, particularly this edition, translated by Christine Donougher. This translation had 1 instance of the wrong type of quotation being used, and one instance of 2 words being in the wrong order, but otherwise there were ABSOLUTELY ZERO copy-edit errors, let alone any full sentence that felt out of place. It was a beautiful read, and very digestible. This translation came out in 2013, and you can tell. It reads like a modern classic - like I said, very digestible - without EVER losing the tone and feeling of the early-to-mid 19th century setting. It feels so authentic that the tone alone is addicting.
And then there's the actual STORY. Holy. Cow. Hugo really knows how to plot a story.
Threads pop up and "disappear" just to pop up again in important ways later, in the most brilliant of ways. And one of the things I love the most about Les Mis is that Hugo knows how to write a pseudo-mystery. Meaning, that when he writes about a revelation to come, he writes it in such a way that allows the reader to pick up the pieces and figure out EXACTLY what's he doing mere pages before he pulls the rabbit out of the hat to confirm what we found out. Just in this aspect, the novel was more fun to read than most everything I've read this year, if not more fun than everything I've read this year at times. And don't even get me started on Chapter 4 of the Final Book (Book Nine) of the Final Part (Part Five: Jean Valjean). It was the one single time that I couldn't and didn't see coming what Hugo brought up, but it was no less stunning.
The plotting is brilliant, the characters are WONDERFUL (even the really easy to hate characters are written brilliantly), and Hugo jerks emotions out of you at several moments throughout.
Next up, this novel tackles philosophy in the best of ways. There are books and chapters sprinkled throughout that handle philosophy and inner-arguments the way that Tolstoy does in War & Peace, but throughout the story, there are several moments of the main characters wrestling with themselves about what they should do, and they are most enrapturing and beautiful chapters in the world. Many of my favorite chapters of the year come from these internal arguments characters have with themselves.
I loved this book. So much. And the final page has probably my favorite quote of any novel ever - and that quote is only a favorite BECAUSE of the 1300 pages that came before it.
In some sense, it's impossible to call Les Mis literally "perfect" because of the tangents, no matter how much I found myself still (strangely) enjoying them. However, I think Les Mis might be perfect to me.
Les Misérables was always a bucket list book for me. I've had my eye on it ever since 4th grade. I KNEW I would someday read it. No Matter What. And I could not possibly be more glad that I did.