Les Miserables

Rating:
Summary: Literary masterpiece
Review: Les Miserables is an amazing book. It is extremely emotional, realistic, romantic, educational, entertaining, and humorous all at the same time. Near the end of the book the dramatic irony was killing me, I just wished that Jean Valjean would tell Marius everything! That is probably the author's intention though. I HIGHLY recommend reading this unabridged version. I have read one abridged version, and the power, completeness, and historical value of the book do not compare. It may seem like you have to labor through this book, but once you are finished, and realize all you have learned about 19th century French culture, social issues, history (Waterloo and the French Revolution), and religion, you will be extremely happy that you read it all.

Rating:
Summary: Emotionally Staggering
Review: 1432 pages and still a page-turner. This is beyond a shadow of a doubt the best book I have ever read. The character development starts out a little vague, but develops into broad sweeping palettes with exquisite detail.
Jean Valjean is likely the most famous character in all of literature. There are times when it seems as though Hugo is deliberately trying to run a stiletto of pain directly up the spinal canal of the reader. The trials and tribulations of Cosette go to the point where I had the intense desire to tear this book in half. There were times I had come to actually despise this book.
The level of emotion Hugo evokes is staggering. The reader is helpless before his mastery. By the end of the novel I was enraptured and in tears.
That this work is pure fiction from the mind of one man is beyond imagining. You cannot count yourself a true scholar if you have not read Les Miserables in the unabridged translation.

Rating:
Summary: A suggestion
Review: If you like Les Mis, read I Promessi Sposi(the betrothed) by Alessandro Manzoni. That si the greatest italian novel. Its very similar to les Mis, but not as well known over here.

Rating:
Summary: A vivid and captivating story of humanity in all its forms.
Review: This 1400+ page book follows the life of Jean Valjean, a man sentenced to nineteen years in prison for stealing a loaf of bread. The story begins in 1815, shortly after Jean Valjean is released from prison. He seeks lodging for the night with a bishop, but steals away the next morning with a set of valuable silver. Caught, he is brought back to the bishop, who proceeds to make him a gift of the silver, and tells him to use it to start a new life for himself. Due to constraints on review length, I will not go into a full synopsis here - I'm sure you can find a good overview of the story in one of the other numerous reviews here, but rather I will discuss some key aspects of the text.

I really loved this book. Hugo's writing is excellent, and he does a superb job of tying all ends of the story together. Nothing in the book is irrelevant to the central plot, even if the connection cannot be seen immediately. Hugo captures the intricacies of human interaction, and how one event can set off a chain reaction. For example, if Monsieur Myriel, the Bishop of Digne, had not forgiven Jean Valjean for his theft and given the silver to him under the condition that Jean Valjean use it to make a better life for himself, then Jean Valjean would never have reformed. He would not have settled down, become Monsieur Madeleine, and built a fortune and good reputation. If this had not happened, then Jean Valjean would not have become connected with Fantine. He would not have become Cosette's benefactor. Cosette would have grown up with the abusive family to whose care she was entrusted, and would have lived a miserable life. She certainly would never have met Marius.

This book, set in the decades following the reign of Napoleon, provides tons of information on the time period. Reading the reactions of different characters to historical events helped me better understand the differing mentalities of the era. Marius, raised by his grandfather, adopts anti-revolutionary ideas and disapproves of the Napoleon. But when Marius finally discovers the truth of his father, he switches viewpoints. His father served under Napoleon, and had beliefs in direct opposition to Marius's grandfather's. When his father dies, Marius is gripped with guilt at having shunned him. He takes it upon himself to learn all he can about Napoleon and his time, and ultimately adopts his father's philosophy, estranging himself from his grandfather. This highlights the societal rifts created by differing political viewpoints, even between family members.

Hugo had two main points to make in this book. One, that every action has consequences, often surpassing expectation; and two, that life is not black and white - there are shades of grey. I have addressed the first of these with the example of the kindness shown to Jean Valjean by the Bishop of Digne. The second point is well-made via the character of Javert. The police inspector is driven by duty. For him, something is either right or wrong, with no middle ground. Jean Valjean has broken the law and must be punished. Motives and circumstances make no difference - a crime is a crime. Because of his inflexible viewpoint, Javert is shaken when Jean Valjean later spares his life. He would rather have been shot than saved by a criminal. His upheaval is compounded when he discovers Jean Valjean, carrying Marius, at the exit of the sewer. A criminal that saves not one, but two peoples' lives is incomprehensible to him. Javert fails to reach a conclusion that satisfies his strict philosophy. He cannot bring himself to condemn the man that has saved his life and asked nothing in return, but not to do so would go against what he sees as his duty. Caught between these two ideas, and unable to justify either, he throws himself into the Seine and drowns. Had Javert been able to see the world in shades of grey, he would have realized that Jean Valjean was a victim of circumstance - a good man, forced by events beyond his control to break the law.

Some books are difficult to understand due to a lack of supplied background information. Les Miserables is just the opposite. For the most part I really enjoyed the book, but there are several point at which Hugo goes overboard in his description, to the point where the information isn't necessary. These sequences become tedious at times, like slogging through a deep mire. My motivation to go on was the interest I had in the central story, knowing that eventually the book would return there. Examples of such overly long tangents include the Battle of Waterloo sequence, the description of Paris street life, the history of the convent where Jean Valjean and Cosette hide, and the history of the Paris sewers. At these points it seemed almost as if Hugo were attempting to make the book into a history text, rather than a novel.

On the whole, however, I was very satisfied with the book. As I have said, Hugo's writing is excellent. His detailed descriptions of everything in the story makes it come alive. Referencing specific street names in Paris gives it realism. Minute details of human interrelations are captured vividly, and one feels as if the characters are real. There were points where I felt great compassion for Jean Valjean in his nobleness despite hardship, and places where I detested Marius for his insensitivity. There were places at which I was greatly annoyed with Cosette for her naivete and submissiveness, and toward the end I even pitied Javert for his inability to resolve his internal turmoil. The invocation of such emotions in the reader are signs of a good writer. I would highly recommend this book to anyone. It will remain one of my favorites for a long time to come.

Rating:
Summary: Best Book I Ever Read
Review: I saw this first, as a movie, and I liked it well enough to pick up the book. It seemed a daunting read at first, but Hugo weaves his tale so skillfully that by the end, you wish it was twice as long. It's a serious tear-jerker - the only book that has ever made me sob like a baby. Les Miserables takes you through every imaginable emotion in this uplifting classic that leaves you madly in love with life, and eager to do some good in this world.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful classic
Review: This book is written with complete and vivid details. Hugo is long winded in his explanations and descriptions of his world and sometimes I had to grit my teeth to keep reading and not skip parts. The story however gripped me and held me to read every page, one of the greatest books I have read. If you've seen the movie and liked it you will be so much more impressed with the book it has so many more details.

Rating:
Summary: Don't let the musical fool you...
Review: I read this after having seen the musical when it was in town. I love the music. I love the story. I love it all. I bought the book and fell in love all over again. There are a few differences between the musical and the book and that's why the book is so wonderful. Once you get over the inital shock of the length of the book, you will quickly read it because you fall in love with the characters and their trials.

Rating:
Summary: [e-mail]
Review: I read all of his books and he is a very bad man - racist I would say. He is pol himself and always belittles other races, especially black and arabs. This man should be in jail, arruba shallma kebun for him. Hope I will get to him. Don't buy his racist books.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent yet slightly inaccessible book
Review: The famous Les Miserables comes in many forms, translations and editions. Mine was exactly 900 pages. I enjoyed the book very much except it's a text which you only start to appreciate about past the halfway point - so not for the impatient! Hugo's style is quite unusual for the moden reader due to his involvement in the literary movement of romanticism as well as his own ideosyncracies. For starters, today it is considered a rule of writing to "show and not tell". This is a rule Hugo breaks often. However, I personally don't find the rule to be that valid - a good telling is better than a poor showing and besides rules of literature are meant to be broken. Les Mis deals with such an epic number of characters, places and events that to show every event would take 9000 pages! Secondly, Hugo is fond of digressions, sometimes over 50 pages long, on tangents. As a result it seems that they are either ramblings irrelevant to the story or essays inserted into it. The essay-like part I don't mind but either of them are something you'll have to get used to.

So overall, it's not an easy read and often you'll wonder if it's all just a useless exercise in grandiouseness. But then, the book will hit you and it will put everything you've read before into context and you'll realise how it all fits together in a sublime whole. Or at least that was my experience.

It's impossible to outline the plot of Les Mis in a review as it can only really be examined after reading it. It goes in directions never thought possible and takes off again and again. Basically it's about the life of Jean Valjean, an escaped convict who reforms himself but is still pursued by the law. He represents the great virtues Hugo was trying to get across and his persecution by the world (in hundreds of shapes and forms) is the tragedy of the novel. But the novel's title is translated as "The Wretches". As such, it's main other preoccupation is with the unfortunates of French society in the early 19th century. It is here that Hugo launches on his crusade against both society's oppression and human cruelty and on a reverse crusade promoting love and compassion.

There are many major characters but all can be exemplified by Cossette - a young orphaned girl mistreated by her adoptive family who are a bunch of criminals. But then, Jean takes her away and shows her life...

This is a wonderful book about the depths of suffering and redemption, both on a personal and social context. Despite its many faults, I found that as soon as I finished reading it it was very moving and made all the book's faults seem to exist for a specific/sublime purpose.

Rating:
Summary: Les Miserables
Review: I read this book and I thought it was one of the best books I've EVER read! It was super. It also gives you a chance to learn a little French:) If you read this, be prepared to use a dictionary (Both French and English!) because there are some real difficult words, well, in the edition I read there was some real hard words. But I rate this with high marks!