Joachim is hans' cousin! His mother and father died when was a child. He identifies more with grandfather. I'm at the halfway point and enjoying it very much. I love Buddebrooks!
I have read it twice & it does rank highly, even though it is impossible for me to name an all-around favorite. I would also list Broch's The Death of Virgil & Musil's The Man Without Qualities. I look forward to the reading.
Hey, your video just popped up on my computer and, I'm sorry, your faces don't fit. There was a total mismatch between your smiling happy faces and the words underneath "Les Miserables discussion". You don't look at all Miserable!-) Thankfully. Hooray! I look forward to you all discussing a light, humorous novel some day when the title will fit your faces.
Javert's idea of "good" is basically "respect your superiors, obey the law". For Javert, Valjean is a criminal who tried to evade jail three times, who once liberated broke parole, who became an imposter and became mayor through lies and who fooled him, who evaded the law again, who bought a little girl from her legal custodians and at last but not least, participated in an insurrection against the Crown. We know why Valjean did all those things, but Javert doesn't and he doesn't care because he's not interested in Valjean's reasons. He broke the law and that's all. Also, I wouldn't say that Javert is always hunting down Valjean. It's just that when he crosses Valjean's tracks, he goes to the hunt. Then Valjean escapes and there can be years before Javert detects him again. I think there's a main character you forgot to mention: Marius de Pontmercy, the son of a Napoleonian baron who died in Waterloo, disowned by his rich maternal grandfather, a staunch monarchist. He falls in love with Cosette and is part of the ABC Club. I find this character interesting because it brings the point of view of the upper class, albeit destitute. Very interesting discussion, and I appreciated the part about Victor Hugo himself. You should read Notre-Dame de Paris next. Like Les Misérables, it has an interesting antagonist in Claude Frollo, who is far more nuanced than what Disney gave us in The Hunchback of Notre-Dame...
Interesting discussion! I’m 1000 pages in (1300 total). It has been wonderful in parts, boring in others. I don’t regret reading it, but he does ramble and digress for the odd 30 or 50 pages at a time! As was said in the discussion, the key scenes do stay with you and are superbly written.
This was an excellent and enlightening discussion. Thank you all so much. I read Les Miserables a year ago March and it still remains with me. It has become one of my favourite books of all time and definitely right up there with Tolstoy's two heavyweights! I would like to try some more Hugo because the only other work of his I have read is The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
What a wonderful discussion! I adored Daniel Deronda, but I think y’all are right that a knowledge of the Jewish Bible/ Old Testament-as well as a bit of Jewish history-is really useful.
Amazing how we listen to music went through convulsive changes, record, cassette, cd, digital. There was a moment when it was thought books would disappear, Amazon destroying independent book shops, kindles. For books the tide turned and 'progress' was reversed. Best wishes.
🙋🏻♀️Sweet! 🎉📚 Looking forward to reading this for the First time. I’ve only ever watched bits and pieces of the movie(s) etc. Oh, and I joined Discord, but I’m pretty new to it.. not seeing any chit-chattty excitement about starting it. Thanks for the opportunity!
i’m 16, an have never truly come across Les Miserables in a way that’s accessible to me. thank you for sharing this! eager to read it for the first time. 😊
I can't join in the reading because I am up to my eyeballs in books. But I do look forward to hearing the discussion. I read it a few years ago. I think it was that edition you are holding. (Darn, now I'm wondering if I still have it.) While he did drive me crazy with going on and on (and on... and on... and on!) about this street and this building and the history of this and that, I did end up enjoying it. I'm a huge fan of the musical so I had the general idea of the story. And, duh, the fact that there are multiple translations didn't fully dawn on me until now that I'm hearing you mention it. I'm also more aware of that in general, as I was doing research on what translation of The Brothers Karamazov I should get. (Finally decided on P&V. We'll see how it goes.) It will be helpful to hear about the various translations because I do hope to reread it some day. It really is such a beautiful story.
What a fascinating video, folks. I agree that translations can be great, but not P&V, overhyped and chunky, especially their Dostoyevsky. You make me want to reread Moby Dick yet again.
This is really fun folks. I “read” Moby Dick in my grade 12 lit class. I recall the atmosphere of the book and really forcing my way through and feeling that it took a long time to get to the chorus. Tbh, I was probably too young and likely skipped parts. Over twenty years later I’ve been wanting to give it a second chance. You’ve inspired me to do so!
I'm so excited to join y'all!! This will be my first time reading Middlemarch...even though I've had it on my shelf for years! I can't wait!!! Thank you for hosting this!
