A Weighty Tome: 2019 Challenge: Les Miserables

[Eldarwen]

Woohh! Well done!

I'm slowly making my way through Cosette, hopefully putting a bit of a dent into that today.

[Judy]

Good luck! 💪

[Eldarwen]

The Thénardiers are despicable people.

[Keely]

They really are.

I’m about halfway through Volume 3 and while it would be nice to finish the Volume by the end of this month, I don’t think I will do it. But if I manage another book or two, I will be happy.
I’m also looking forward to hitting that 50% mark. I’m at 46% right now.

[Wishbear]

I need to get back to this. It's been so long, I can't even remember where I left off. I know I'm done Cossette but how far did I get after that remains a mystery.

I'm doing the lion's share of reading in one of my group challenges but I think I might need to pull back and set aside an evening a week to dedicate to Les Mis. Reading it has been one of my main goals since I started on Goodreads in 2013. Just like real life, I can't let group goals always over shadow my personal accomplishments.

Now to actually follow the above and stick with it to the end :)

[Sammy]

Eldarwen wrote: "The Thénardiers are despicable people."

I can think of very few that are more despicable... And they get worse...

[Karen ⊰✿, Fiction Aficionado]

Sammy wrote: "Eldarwen wrote: "The Thénardiers are despicable people."

I can think of very few that are more despicable... And they get worse..."

Yes - so awful!

[Eldarwen]

I'm not generally one to enjoy these extremely long-winded tangents Hugo loves going off on but I found myself liking the description of the convent in Cosette - book 6.

[Eldarwen]

Finally finished Cosette!!

Gosh, that took me ages! And as much as I enjoyed the convent description at first, it became tedious after all because it just wouldn't end.

[Eldarwen]

Marie (UK) wrote: "I was very interested in Hugo’s opinion of the purpose of cloistered communities –"

Yes! I was surprised to see just how critically he looked at cloistered communities in general, and not just in France. I hadn't expected him to be that critical.

[Sammy]

Eldarwen wrote: " because it just wouldn't end."

Hugo in a nutshell, lol. To be fair, I do find a lot of his tangents interesting. but I'd rather not have them in the book, as it completely destroys the pacing. He should have written them as non-fiction add-ons, lol.

[Eldarwen]

I think nobody would have read that ;-)

It does destroy the pacing though, that's for sure! Especially when some of the explanations are of the obvious sort or just overly extended. But that's what happens when you're paid by the page.

[Moderators of NBRC, Challenger-in-Chief]

Reminder for September
We are still reading:
Volume IV - set in Paris, in rue Plumet and rue Saint-Denis

[Eldarwen]

Ah crap o.O
I've completely neglected Marius hahaha. I wanted to be done by the end of August... oops! Blame Lava for that ;-)

[Cat]

I'm still in Cosette. More precisely, I've just finished the Waterloo section, the purpose of which seemed to be
(1) show off historical knowledge
(2) eventually bring the Thenardiers in as bad eggs, robbing dead brave soldiers etc etc.

I'm not convinced it was necessary, but it wasn't quite as tedious as learning all about the saintly Bishop in book 1.

This chat about a detailed investigation into convents in the 19th C isn't filling me with the spritely joy of reading to dive back in :-/

[Keely]

I fell a bit behind where I wanted to be and I am at the end of book 5 in Marius.

I’m considering getting a audiobook copy so I can listen to the more tedious parts. I currently have a couple of other audiobooks on loan which I want to finish first, however I will be travelling at the end of this month so I should have time at the airport and on the plane to read some of this or listen to it if I get an audiobook copy by then.

[Judy]

I've been back from my holiday for a few days now and I've made some good progress on this! Which means I've also crossed page 1000! I've decided that I want to finish this beast before TTVII begins and ideally even by the end of September, but let's see how this goes.

I really like how the different plotlines are mixed in this section and it's so fun to see some of our characters finally meeting after so many pages! They're experiencing completely different things while existing in such close proximity - quite fascinating to think about. The plotlines laid out in volumes 1 through 3 seem to tighten and everything is starting to really come together (after it kind of already started at the end of vol. 3).

[Karen ⊰✿, Fiction Aficionado]

Judy wrote: "I've been back from my holiday for a few days now and I've made some good progress on this! Which means I've also crossed page 1000! ..."

woohoo! nice work!

[Karen ⊰✿, Fiction Aficionado]

I'm about half way through Volume IV

I have to say, I loved, and laughed so much (view spoiler)[where Cosette is at the start of this volume all about how she has completely forgotten Marius, and then when she reads that manuscript she is suddenly in love with him and could never have forgotten him.
I love this display of how fickle emotions can be and how our memories protect us. (hide spoiler)]

[Eldarwen]

Nice work indeed! It must have been an awesome feeling to cross that 1000 page!! :-)

I wanted to catch up on this during September but some people thought I had to play on their Lava team :-p

[Judy]

It was! I kept thinking "wow now I just have a regular sized big book left to read" 😅

[Keely]

Wow, 1000 pages! I'm stuck around the 500 page mark (although I know it depends on what version you have).

I haven't read much of this at all in a while. I have an audiobook that I am about halfway through and then I will purchase a copy of this in audiobook and solely listen to that until it is finished. I have been given permission to listen to things on my phone when I am out the back alone at work and even had a conversation about listening to audiobooks with my manager, so I have begun doing that.
I know that this would probably have a crazy amount of hours left, but if I were to listen to it to and from work thats about 40-60mins and then I could get maybe 1-2 hours in at work... I'd be done in no time... right?

[Judy]

It definitely goes by quicker than you'd think! I try to go for 1-2 hours a day (at 1.5 speed).

Good that you can listen at work now! That really helps me - I get a lot of listening time in when I'm doing boring data analysis stuff. Sometimes it even makes me look forward to those tasks 😉

[Judy]

Volume 4 Book 7

This romance between Marius and Cosette is kind of cracking me up. (view spoiler)[Like, he doesn't even want to see her ankle cause she is so pure and he does not want to ruin that - and my favorite thing was when she leaned over and he could've gotten a glance at the top of her boobs but NO HE LOOKED AWAY 😂 this is basically the complete opposite of the romance novels I also frequently read and I am way too amused. (hide spoiler)]

I also wonder how those formal/informal address dialogues (esp. between Marius & Cosette and Marius & Eponine) are solved in the English version?

[Sammy]

Judy wrote: "Volume 4 Book 7

This romance between Marius and Cosette is kind of cracking me up. [spoilers removed]

I also wonder how those formal/informal address dialogues (esp. between Marius & Cosette and ..."

They use "thou" for formal in the English version.

[Judy]

Sammy wrote: "They use "thou" for formal in the English version."

Interesting, thanks!

[Judy]

I'm done with volume 4!

I really really enjoyed the second half of this volume - things really got moving and so much was happening. Drama! Danger! Death!

[Sammy]

Judy wrote: "Sammy wrote: "They use "thou" for formal in the English version."

Interesting, thanks!"

to be honest, it kinda threw me a little at first, because it isn't really the same thing, but you kinda get the idea of it after a bit, lol.

[Karen ⊰✿, Fiction Aficionado]

Judy wrote: "Volume 4 Book 7

This romance between Marius and Cosette is kind of cracking me up. [spoilers removed]

I also wonder how those formal/informal address dialogues (esp. between Marius & Cosette and ..."

Haha yes I agree the romance is quite funny.

[Judy]

Vol. 5 Book 1

Not really spoilery but just to be safe... (view spoiler)[Hooo boy, Enjolras'/Hugo's predictions about the 20th century sure were optimistic... if only he knew what was to come... (hide spoiler)]

[Keely]

I finially downloaded an audiobook version. I will now listen to it when I can. It says I have over 20 hours left, but I am going away on Sunday and have a 2 and a half hour flight and then a couple of hours wait till a second flight which is only about half an hour. I should get a good chunk done that day and then the same when I come home again a few weeks later.
Hopefully that will get me caught up to where I should be.

[Keely]

I lied about how much it said I have left. it was closer to 30 hours. I managed to get a good hour and a half to 2 hours which was about 2 'books' worth so I am now up to Volume 3 book 8.

I'm not sure how I feel about Marius yet. I still indifferent. Maybe that will change as I get further.

[Karen ⊰✿, Fiction Aficionado]

Glad you were able to get some in, even if you have longer to go than you thought! ;)

[Judy]

Cause I have just reached the sewer system section (while eating lunch...), sharing this seemed appropriate: https://twitter.com/SparkNotes/status...

[Sammy]

Bwaahaahaa! Don't say I didn't warn you, lol.

[Judy]

I'm.... honestly not as bored as I was during the monastery section 😂

[Cat]

I'm continuing to limp through the book, reading odd chapters during lulls in other challenges.
Valjean & Cosette have just arrived at the nunnery, meeting up with the rescued carter with bells on his knees, whilst Javert is howling his frustration.

Victor's given short shrift to the requirements of the order! (is it a real order or one he's made up for the book, do we know?)

[Eldarwen]

I haven't actually checked, but I think all of his references are real.

[Judy]

Apparently the nunnery is made up, but largely based on Hugo's mistress's experiences.

As for the order, after rereading a couple pages, checking the footnotes of my edition and doing some googling, I have come to the conclusion that they are real (or at least very similar to existing orders).

All of it this order stuff is pretty confusing since I have close to zero previous knowledge and trying to translate it back and forth between English and German is hard... based on what the book says and my research, I have come to the conclusion that they are some sort of Cistercians and/or this order.

[Judy]

Eldarwen wrote: "I haven't actually checked, but I think all of his references are real."

My footnotes mentioned a couple of times that while Hugo tried to stick to real references, he also had a tendency to change years when the events he wanted to talk about didn't really match up with his chronology 😅

[Eldarwen]

Who remembers all those years anyway ;-)

[Judy]

I have 80 pages left - less than 2 hours in the audiobook! This is happening tomorrow! 🎉🎉🎉

[Sammy]

Judy wrote: "I have 80 pages left - less than 2 hours in the audiobook! This is happening tomorrow! 🎉🎉🎉"

Huzzah!

[Judy]

I've made it!!!!

Overall I quite enjoyed it - the good sections were really good and while I wasn't super invested in all the characters, puzzling out their connections (and waiting for how and when we'd see them again) was so fun.

I do see the point of the tangents. He gives us a lot of context for the events of the novel, and yes, it's definitely more than we need. But I also understand that he might have just wanted to include everything he knew on the topic cause he had done the research - I've definitely been tempted to do that when I've "over-researched" cause it feels like such a waste to just leave it out. (tbh the hardest part about my BA thesis was cutting down the two 300 page books I read as research to a 2 page summary each - they were both so interesting and there were so many things to note!)

About the ending... (view spoiler)[I thought it was really interesting that Hugo chose to reveal so many secrets to Marius at the end, but not everything! It goes to show that 1) sometimes it's not important to know "the whole truth" and 2) sometimes we just don't know things and there's nothing we can do about it, because everyone who knew is either dead or pretends they don't know anything or doesn't think it's important enough to tell. (hide spoiler)]

And a couple of last thoughts about Enjolras & Grantaire cause I have a bunch of friends who were obsessed with them when the movie came out and have read a few fanfictions myself... (view spoiler)[From the way their interactions were phrased (and this might have to do with my translation), I do think it was a deliberate implication that Grantaire had (unrequited) romantic feelings for Enjolras. Hugo wrote about all kinds of people deviating from "the norm" in this novel and I don't think it's far-fetched to believe he'd also lightly touch upon homosexuality. (hide spoiler)]

[Eldarwen]

Well done!!!

[Sammy]

Yeah! Great job Judy! From now on, it's all downhill (in terms of page count anyway, lol!)

[Sophie, The other one]

Well done Judy! Glad you enjoyed it and interesting thoughts about that relationship.

[Judy]

Thanks! ☺️

[Keely]

Awesome, well done Judy, must be such a relief!

I completely agree with what you said about the tangents and figuring out their connection as I feel the same way and sometimes I just want to get back to the characters, especially when the tangent comes after a really exciting bit.

I finally finished Volume 3 today and even made it as far as book 2 in Volume 4! Listening to and from work and some while at work is paying off. I have a longer shift than normal tomorrow so maybe I'll be able to listen to even more!

[Cat]

I'm still in Cosette, learning about the convent.

Having read through 30plus pages about the nunnery & so forth, starting to forget that this sprang from JVJ hiding from Javert, I got to a chapter where Hugo says "now we'll have a small digression, irrelevant to the book, but just for some comic value"
I hurriedly noped myself out of there! My tolerance for digressions being used up!

Will return to Les Mis in a couple of hours...

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the dense texture Hugo is creating, but I couldn't face even 3pages of a random nun's life!