Les Misérables in Overdue Podcast

Dec 01, 2010 The Lady Anna rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, read-and-own-physical-book, overdue-podcast-episode, classics

I finally finished it!! I started it years ago and only had 400 pages left, but I finally read the rest. There were a lot of things I liked about this book, but a lot of things that were frustrating. Hugo has moments of absolute beauty and profound wisdom, mixed in with some of the longest, most irrelevant and redundant rants imaginable. This is the only book that has ever made me cry. The ending was much sadder than the musical, if you can imagine. The story is just the best, that's why this bo I finally finished it!! I started it years ago and only had 400 pages left, but I finally read the rest. There were a lot of things I liked about this book, but a lot of things that were frustrating. Hugo has moments of absolute beauty and profound wisdom, mixed in with some of the longest, most irrelevant and redundant rants imaginable. This is the only book that has ever made me cry. The ending was much sadder than the musical, if you can imagine. The story is just the best, that's why this book has lasted and that's why the musical has lasted. I love each of the characters in their own way, and of course Jean Valjean is one of the most important fictional characters of all time, in my opinion. Though I'd argue that the second most important character in this is Eponine. :)

If you're looking to read this just for the story you love, get an abridged version. If you're a master reader and really want the whole experience, you'll probably still want to skip sections. There are literally 15 pages in which he describes the Parisian sewers. His overuse of the word cloaca makes you think Valjean and Marius are somehow inside the rear end of a lizard than in the sewer, though maybe that's how Hugo thought of it. He's got an entire chapter on argot, which is French slang. His description of the barricade reads as such, "Marius walked down French street at the corner of French street and French street, until he reached the barricade at French street, which is at the corner of French street and French street, and this barricade was bigger than the one at the corner of French street and French street...." And then 3 paragraphs later he'll begin, "Ok, so anyway, Marius was walking down French street..." It's really almost comical at times. Its like he's so long winded that even HE forgot where he was. Usually, though, (except for the sewer pages), there's at least one profound observation in there that makes drudging through worth it, though you may disagree.

Anyway, obviously the emotional connection to the characters still comes through, hence the tears. Good luck if you try to tackle this monster! I'd love to know what you think!
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Jan 07, 2014 Stacy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, 2014-books-read

Really, what is there that I can say about Les Mis that hasn't already been said? Powerful, wordy, and compelling pretty much sums it up for me. So hard to read it without comparing it to the musical version which I've seen several times. The songs were playing in my head the whole time I read the book. ...more

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