Reading the Classics: Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

I picked this book as my next classic because it is one of those classics that everyone agrees is actually a classic. Lately I have also been wanting to watch the movie, and I do try to read the book first if at all possible, before watching movie adaptations. 

The book

This is a whopper of a book coming in at about 1400 pages. The last 200 pages or so are notes, which I must confess I usually skip, unless I am completely lost in the story and need some help. 

The book was first published in 1862 and as I said it is considered not only a classic but one of the greatest novels of the 19th century. Aside from the narrative plot Hugo uses the book to discuss the nature of the law and grace, types of love, the sewer of Paris, language and other things, often in (very) great detail. 

The publication of the book was highly advertised and it was very much anticipated. The critics were divided as to whether or not it was a good book, although most of them were on the “not” side. But the readers seemed to love it and it was a commercial success worldwide. 

The author

Victor Marie Hugo was born in 1802 and died in 1885. He was a poet, a novelist and a dramatist in the Romantic Movement that was sweeping Europe at the time. In his homeland of France Hugo was mostly known for his poetic work, but Les Misérables is his best known work abroad along with The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. Aside from writing he also drew and campaigned for social causes, mostly famously the abolition of the death penalty. In his younger years he was a royalist, but later on he became a republican, and I guess he used his own experiences and changes of heart as a model for Marius in Les Misérables, who goes through a similar change. Hugo is buried in the Panthéon in Paris. 

Review

I sort of kind of knew the basics of the story before, simply from it begin so well known and there being theatre productions and an epic film based on it, but it was nice to get the story fleshed out and understand the timeline a bit better. Below I will go into some detail about the book, so if you want to avoid any sort of spoilers, don’t read the cursive, which is an in-depth summary. 

The story centers around a man, Jean Valjean, who in his younger years is sentenced to be a galley slave, because he stole a loaf of bread. He ends up spending 19 years in prison and when he gets out, he means to continue the “bad life” that prison has set him up for. He meets a benevolent bishop, whom he robs of his silver. He is swiftly caught, but the bishop insists that the silver was a gift and Valjean sets out again. Now he doesn’t know what to do or think and in his emotional turmoil he almost accidentally robs a young boy of a few sous. The whole story hinges on this “accidental” crime, as he is now again a wanted man. He escapes the law however and sets up a life of charity in a small town. 

Throughout the book he is pursued by a very tenacious police inspector, Javert, who is the kind of man that follows the law to the letter with no room for leniency or mercy. He persistently follows Valjean over a number of years, but often loses him at the very last minute. Valjean has adopted a young orphan girl, Cosette, and he escapes the law in order to take care of her. 

Meanwhile in Paris, some people are unhappy with the current state of affairs and are planning a revolution. A young man by the name of Marius is involved with this revolution, but before it comes to fruition he meets Cosette, and the two fall deeply in love. Through the classic entanglements of love stories, misunderstandings ensue and when Marius thinks Cosette is lost, he decides to give up his life for the revolution. Valjean, meanwhile, has other ideas, and while he secretly hates Marius for taking Cosette’s love away from him, he saves him for her sake. 

In the end the truth is told and forgiveness ensues all round. 

I went into this book expecting epic battle scenes and intense love, and I must say I was slightly disappointed. Knowing some of the story from popular culture I expected the revolution and the planning of it to play a much bigger part, but all the young revolutionaries were quickly done away with, and the barricade seemed more like a plot device for the romance and the story of Javert’s pursuit of Valjean. 

This book had almost 1200 pages of storyline in tiny writing, but that only put me off slightly. Dickens is one of my favorite authors and he can be a bit longwinded sometimes, so I’m used to flowery descriptions and usually don’t mind it. But Hugo is nowhere near as good at it as Dickens, in my opinion. There are pages on end of minute descriptions of things that have a tiny impact in the larger story. We get the entire battle of Waterloo, because one man is saved by another, and this has some importance later on. Okay, but we didn’t need to know every tactical move and the layout of the landscape. Similarly at one point someone escapes through the sewers and we get a detailed description of the layout and the history of these sewers. Not really necessary. There are a number of instances like this, and they did absolutely nothing for the story in my opinion. At one point I even skipped some pages, something I NEVER do, but I just couldn’t stand it anymore. 

During the actual story, I thought the book was well written for the most part, but nothing spectacular. Hugo has a way of bogging down the story line in really intricate writing that sometimes meant that I didn’t really know what he was saying. 

Most of the characters I found kind of infuriating. Valjean is definitely my favorite. He managed to turn his life around, and always did his best to do good, even if that good would eventually hurt himself. There were some moments, when he was being selfish, like staying in the convent to keep Cosette for himself, but he always took himself in hand and eventually did what was best for Cosette or someone else. Cosette I found pretty annoying. She just went along with anything and everything and was completely dependent on others to move her along in life. At the ending when she almost forgets Valjean I was ready to slap some sense into her. Hugo excuses her with saying something about youth and love, but that wasn’t good enough for me. Marius seems a bit overwrought and self-righteous, he decides what is right and then it’s all or nothing. When he is in a dilemma he is confounded as to what to do and is completely stumped because doing one thing means disregarding something else. Finally he comes around a bit and sees that the world is not black and white, but it certainly took him long enough. 

With the flowery language, the endless unnecessary descriptions and my lack of emotional investment in the characters I gave this book 3 stars out of 5. 

Is it still a classic to me?

I must say I don’t think so. From what I had heard about this book I expected the revolution part to play a much bigger role, but it was almost just a footnote for Cosette’s and Marius’ lovestory. Once I had finished the story I did find that I missed it. Simply because I had been reading it for so long, and also because I felt like I wasn’t really finished with the characters. But I couldn’t help thinking this book needed a tough editor more than anything else. 

All facts are from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Hugo