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Summary: les miserables
Review: Les miserables by victor hugo, is an intreging novel filled with immense emotion. The author has you on the edge of your seat leaving you filled with anticipation, pity, joy, and hatred. Throughout the novel a love affear is created making a romantic jist to the story. The main character suffers so greatly it makes you understand the lifestyle of people in all classes during the french revolution. I highly recomend this story for all readers , due to the fact that it has a variety of themes. At the end of the story you are left with tears of both sadness and joy due to the beautiful character victor Hugo created as jean valjean. A man so kind and perfect it's hard to resist the temation of feeling a part of the story. I truelly enjoyed reading this book, it intertained me as well as teaching me a lesson about the french revolution in an indirect way.
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Summary: Les Miserables - A Classical and a Masterpiece
Review: What to say about this huge and fantastic masterpiece? It's incredible from the beginning to the end, the redemption of Jean Valjean, the obssession of Jarvet, the love of Marius and Cossete, the tragedies of Fantine, the evil Thenardie, the revolution of 1832,its an historical book with an incredible romance. The book is a fine exemple of the romantic literature from de XIX century and shows with passion and reality France and the city of Paris like they were. For the ones who said that the meetings of the caracters happened in an absurd way, I just have one thing to say: its a novel, its a fiction with a little of reality, its a great book and one of the most importants of the literature, Les Miserables is the reality from yesterday similar of the reality of today, after 150 years still teach us some valuable lessons...
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Summary: A Romantic classic, a sprawling epic, a poem
Review: This huge novel is a classic of Romanticism, a movement which had many facets and one well-known literary characteristic, a fault known as "The Pathetic Fallacy." When your hero is feeling sad and is in a dark forest, you commit the pathetic fallacy when you describe the forest as sad. Forests have no emotions and can feel nothing, so it's silly to talk about "sad forests." It's also very suspect to speak of "history" as wanting something, or of "progress" as "sleeping." "Les Miserables" is chock-full of such metaphors, so you'd better get ready to enjoy it for what it is!Hugo was primarily a poet, who had learned how to conjure with words. Where some people might imagine a poet beginning to write with a story or an idea in his mind, Hugo would just let words form beautiful patterns in his mind -- and from the beautiful patterns a poem would slowly emerge, sometimes with a message which surprised Hugo himself. Expect a lot of this in "Les Miserables" -- it is sometimes absurd, but it can also touch you and abruptly move you to feel more deeply than you imagined a novel could ever do. If you've ever taken a course on "how to write fiction," realize now that Victor Hugo simply ignores all the "rules" of novel-writing; indeed, he tramples them beneath his feet. Famously, he opens "Les Miserables" with a 55-page digressiond describing the life of a saintly bishop, Monseigneur Bienvenu, but you will realize later that -- far from being a digression -- the character of the bishop is a keystone to everything else in the novel. There are other huge digressions -- on Waterloo, the history of convents, the sewers of Paris, and so on. You may decide to skim some of this, but I STRONGLY recommend against buying an abridged text and letting someone else do this for you!! (This review is of ISBN 0-451-52526-4, the unabridged Signet Classics paperback.) Novels are supposed to have believable characters and credible plots; "Les Miserables" has neither. The characters are like the saintly bishop -- larger-than-life, exaggerated, even grotesque. The story is, when you stop to think about it rationally, extremely unlikely and filled with totally implausible coincidences -- but it works! The scene where Marius spies on Jean Valjean and the criminals who are determined to murder him (their benefactor) -- this is simply one of the most chilling and spellbinding things ever written. Jean Valjean is a giant among men; his implacable foe, Javert, is a Sherlock Holmes taken to mad extremes; Marius and Cozette love as lovers have never loved before. Hugo's technique is to intercut his fascinating tale with long descriptions of historical events and real people; he then cuts back instantly to his compelling story, and then interrupts with more long explanations. It works. It really works. Not only do you get the hypnotizing story, you also get the entire history of nineteenth-century France explained to you, in the Victor Hugo version -- a version which has become pretty much the standard French understanding. Hugo explained the history of the French Revolution, Napoleon, and the rest to the French themselves. As Baudelaire remarked, "Les Miserables is the legend of the nineteenth century." Of course, this novel cannot be swallowed whole uncritically; no book can be. Hugo is at times a sentimentalist, who wants to have all his ideas be true, no matter how contradictory they are: hey, if it sounds good, it must be true! And he can get downright scary when he goes into ecstasies about socialist revolutions and the divine will of history stirring the souls of the common man. (The Cao Dai religion of Vietnam lists Hugo as a patron saint, as well as Jesus and Lenin). Nevertheless: Hugo may have broken all the rules, and he sometimes writes things which are dead wrong -- but he wrote like an angel, and produced one of the most magnificent novels ever written. Don't miss this one! (If you read some French, looking at the original is well worth your time. Many passages lose a lot of beauty in the translation, simply because the prose is so poetic.) Highest recommendation!!!
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Summary: Absolutely memorable
Review: At mid-life, why did I finally read "Les Mis"? Because of the "buzz" - something I rarely subscribe to - and because a canvass of the great works of world literature dictated I do so. I expected to confront a somewhat labored and overly drawn melodrama, and I did - but one, I found, whose characters are burned into your memory forever. A tremendous story of redemption and commitment, "Les Mis" resonates with anyone who loves, or has loved, deeply. Hugo is a storyteller of the first rank. Long after this read is over, you're willing to forgive some contrived coincidences and broad characterizations. Subtle, it isn't; grand, by all means. So I ended up making a leap of faith. And maybe, that's what Hugo had in mind all along with this masterpiece.
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Summary: A Definite Must Read
Review: Les Miserables is one of the greatest novels of all time. It doesn't just have an intriguing story-it has a dozen intriguing stories! That's one of the great things about Les Miz--it has something for everyone. It starts out with the reformation of the saintly convict Valjean and his moral battle with the fanatical policeman, Inspector Javert, but the books picks up many more characters along the way. First comes Fantine, a down-on-her-luck single mother, and her sweet young daughter Cosette, later adopted by Valjean. There's the godlike young revolutionary leader Enjolras, and his quirky band of followers, Les Amis de l'ABC. The villain (contrary to popular belief) is not Inspector Javert, but a greedy con artist named Thenardier. Two other main characters are Thenardier's children, (thankfully nothing like himself) the snarky, golden-hearted street urchin Gavroche, and the lovelorn waif Eponine. And my personal favorite, "Baron" Marius Pontmercy, Cosette's brave-but-confused young suitor/stalker. The novel is packed with everything a reader could ask for--suspense, drama, romance, action, and plenty of crazy twists and turns to keep you on your toes. In addition to being a moving work of fiction, it teaches a good lesson (well, several good lessons, actually). For example, Les Miz does a great job of showing how some "bad guys" are victims of society (Javert) and some are just natural scum-buckets (Thenardier). It also shows how people can get past the circumstances they were born into and become wonderful people (Gavroche). I could go on for hours, but you probably don't want that... It teaches a lot of history as well. A lot of readers have complained about the long tangents, and I tend to agree on some points. I recommmend skipping "The Intestine of the Levithan" and just skimming the Waterloo section for first-time readers. However, there is a lot of info on nineteenth century France mixed right in with the plot. You get to learn about the severity of the justice system (Valjean), and how politics could divide families (Marius), and how tough life was for Gypsies (Javert). Not only that, but the Paris Uprising of 1832 was a real event, and most of the characters were based on real people. Valjean and Javert were both based on Inspector Vidocq, Marius was based on Victor Hugo himself, and Enjolras was based on the real leader of the uprising. Hugo really manages to bring the time alive for you. In short, this is a great book all around. And I'm not just saying that because it's my Bible (hehe). The book isn't nearly as difficult to read as it looks. If you're like me, you'll get so into it that you won't even notice the length. I strongly recommend Les Miserables to every literate person out there.
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Summary: Hugo's Greatest,Through and Through
Review: Les Miserables is a rare book, in which words cannot describe the sheer joy I have looking back on reading it. Hugo gives his charecters such backround information, page upon page of history, that you cannot help but feel like these people were real, and you have strong emotions for them in the end. It is the only book that ever made me cry, for reasons that would give away the ending, I won't tell why. At first I was afraid that I'd never be able to finish a book this long,without losing interest anyway, but as I started getting through it's massive chapters, I could not stop. I read the book in two short weeks,and loved every second of it. Hugo has such a flair for writing, (yes its true that he gets carried away on the subject of politics of the time, and gets very descriptive, but the true story more than makes up for it, for every one bad politics page, there is one hundred amzing pages that move along the story amazingly)that I dare any one of you to read this book and still say you like one from any of today's authors better. This book opened my eyes to the classics, after reading it, I realized that the classics weren't all just pointlessly long books, where you couldn't under stand what anyone was saying. After this I quickly picked up the Hunchback of Notre Dame, great book too, and Victor Hugo secured the oft emty favorite writer spot in my mind. This book is truly life changing,every word poetry, every charecter real. The story is a universal one. I leave you with this one thing to say, for the love of god, don't see the movie!
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Summary: Simply Smashing
Review: It IS daunting to pick up a book of 1,470 pages of close print. But it is worth it. Keep plugging away. It's great! Each character is beautifully detailed, and although the events are melodramatic, the characters are psychologically complex and deep. I even like all the background detail. Hugo spends an entire "book"--major section of one of the five parts--on the Battle of Waterloo. I personally find military history pointless and boring; but this comes alive and is wonderful for all of his trenchant observations on human affairs and politics. All in all a great book, and a fun-to-read education. The translation is remarkably modern and easy.
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Summary: A fantastic epic in wich everyone's a jerk.
Review: Oh, everuthing that happens in this book to Valjean, most of all, is horrible. Marius is quite an idiot to me, Fantine is stupid enogh as to fall for a man whose only interest is her body, Javert goes on a on trying to catch Jean-Valjean with no real reason at all and Cosette is alive because Fantine and Jean Valjean gave her everything they had, and yet she's like a spoiled brat, and she is not. Many people have complained about that, but that is the very idea of the novel.
It isn't realistic. all the characters thavel through the whole France and no matter where they go, they always find each other, and the world is just to damn to be true. Maybe it was, but the idea of the novel is to portrair how horrible the world is if you've chosen to be on the good side. And whats the result? Everyone's a miserable. Valjean because of all his suffering, and the others for being so horrible with him and with themselfs and other people. That's why te novel is named like that. God, even the prists are miserables. Remember when Jean Valjean gave a prist some very good money for Fantines funeral, and he just used it to other porpouses, getting rid in a horrible way of her body? I was so mad at the world when I read that.
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Summary: Read the Unabridged Version - Amazing!
Review: It is true that Hugo's novel in it's full text is daunting, but IT IS WORTH THE TIME AND EFFORT!!! He does spend chapters just describing one character or historical refernce, but when he uses these in the action of the book, it is AMAZINGLY POWERFUL! I found myself sitting in awe or in tears or smiling or without breath. The impact is unlike anything I've read in fiction. The reader develops a intimacy with the characters that I long for in other works - they become dear. They become human and you feel their emotion and live their experience.
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Summary: "Who am I?...24601."
Review: I've just discovered the musical and I wanted to read the book as well. To be honest, I knew that it would be unrealistic of me to try to plunge into a 1,400 page novel. In glancing through the introduction to the unabridged version, even scholars consider it digressive and longwinded. I opted to read the abridged version instead. The result? I feel I have an idea now of the story, yet I am not sure I have really read Les Miserables. What is lost in the story, what is considered extraneous, is a lot of the background and the character definitions. I would have liked to have spent more time with Gavroche. I'm still not sure how the July Revolt started or why or how Marius was involved. We skip most of Fantine and her suffering. A lot of the questions remain unanswered. What we have left is the plot. That is enough for me to recommend this book. I would have never have read it otherwise. I think I have an idea now of Hugo as an author and Les Miserables as a novel. Some day however, I'll read the whole thing.
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