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.
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.
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...
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.
