I first learned about Les Misérables in my sixth grade reading class. In what was a dubious use of instructional time, my teacher played us the entire cast recording of the musical version while we watched the words scroll by on a screen. Most of my classmates completely checked out during this, but I fell in love. I immediately begged my mom to buy me the soundtrack (which came on an expensive multi-disc CD set in those days) and listened to it over and over. Before long, I knew all the words and had a new favorite musical. I eventually got to see the show in person a handful of times, and it really kickstarted my love of all things Broadway. I knew it was based on a book, and I went out and bought it in the thick of my new-found obsession, but alas, I was twelve, and 1,200 pages was a bit much for me to handle at the time.
When I was building my Classics Club list, it was an obvious choice to include this novel. I was still a bit intimidated by the length, but I really wanted to see how it compared to my beloved musical and experience the full story of it for myself. I didn't want to get too bogged down reading it though, so I decided to tackle it bit by bit. I faithfully read 25 pages of it in between each and every book that I read this year. When I got to only 100 pages left, I just went ahead and finished. As it's now the beginning of November, this means that I've spent almost the entire year working my way through it. It was basically the soundtrack to my reading year--always running in the background. This strategy worked too; I never felt overwhelmed by it and I consistently enjoyed it all year long.
It's hard to give a concise plot summary of the novel because it is so long and includes a lot of information. In addition to the main story, there are pages upon pages of French history, cultural information, and philosophical musings. There are many characters that appear only once to fill out a minor detail of the plot and are never seen again. There's even an extremely long section detailing the history of France's sewer system (what a wild ride that was). At its heart though, Les Misérables is the story of Jean Valjean, a man imprisoned for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his starving family. He eventually escapes from prison and tries to start a new life for himself. He begins using a different name, becomes a respected member of society, amasses a fortune, and adopts a young girl named Cosette, whom he raises as his own daughter.
Despite his successes, however, Valjean is continually worried that his past will catch up with him. An extremely determined policeman named Javert has never forgotten about his case and wouldn't hesitate to arrest him if he ever crossed his path. Valjean's own conscience plagues him as well. Now that he's reformed himself, it bothers him that he is living a lie. Meanwhile, the political situation in Paris has come to a boiling point, and many young men are preparing themselves to fight against the monarchy. Valjean, not wanting to draw attention to himself, stays out of the situation. That soon becomes impossible, however, when Cosette falls in love with a young rebel named Marius. Once Valjean learns of their feelings, he can't help but be drawn into the rebellion in an effort to try and protect the man his daughter loves.
This novel is undoubtedly a masterpiece. Everything about it feels important and intricate. Hugo paid an incredible amount of attention to detail in crafting this story; places are described down to the street names and house numbers, characters' backgrounds are extensively described, and the historical information behind many events is provided to put plot events in their proper context. Honestly, the amount of details provided are exhausting, which is why my method of reading the story in several short sections over a long period of time worked well for me. I didn't get too overwhelmed with the vast amount of information and I didn't ever get too bored. Honestly though, boredom wasn't much of an issue in general here. The story is long, but not particularly boring if you're a seasoned classics reader. The only sections I struggled with a little bit were the digressions into history. There were several places where the action stopped entirely and Hugo would give a lesson on topics ranging from wars to religion to philosophy. These parts weren't exactly thrilling, but I could still appreciate the care with which Hugo included them. All throughout my reading, I had the sense that Hugo wanted his readers to truly understand all the implications of what he was writing about. I think his efforts went a bit overboard, but it's really something to see how nicely he crafted everything.
The characters really stood out here as well, especially Jean Valjean. His story is both heartbreaking and triumphant, and you really come to feel for him as you read about everything he goes though. Hugo uses him to ask a lot of questions about morality. Can a convict ever become a respectable man again? Do people that break the law deserve second chances? Is stealing something to feed yourself the same as stealing for other reasons? Of course, Javert's unbending, black and white sense of justice comes into conflict with these questions, and watching him pursue Valjean throughout the course of the text is genuinely compelling. Valjean's relationship with Cosette is also heartwarming to witness. Their bond shows the power that love has to reform someone and completely change their lives. The parts with Marius and the rest of the rebels were less interesting to me, but that's more a matter of personal taste. Those characters were developed as well as all the rest, and explored issues related to personal freedoms and patriotism.
In comparison to the musical, I was really surprised to see that the show actually does a nice job of conveying the feeling and general story of the book. Obviously, the novel contains a lot more details and some differences here and there, but honestly, the show is a great summary of all the key plot events. It is actually a fairly faithful adaptation. I found myself singing the musical numbers in my head while reading some of the chapters. I could tell exactly where each song would appear. Some of the lines from the book appear pretty much word for word in the show. It was a pretty cool experience to read because it felt like I was combining two things I really love, and deepening my knowledge of both of them.
Reading Les Misérables was a massive undertaking and took up most of my reading year. I started off feeling apprehensive about its length, but I ended up really enjoying it. I'm happy to say that it was totally worth reading. It was compelling, emotional, and complex. Finishing it felt like completing long, satisfying journey with friends. This was my last read for the Back to the Classics Challenge this year, and it was quite a nice way to end that too. I've had a bit of a shaky experience with classic novels this year, so it was nice to finish up this challenge with a good one.
Finishing this novel means that my Classics Club Challenge is nearly done as well. I just have to reread War and Peace, and then that will be complete too. I'll be working on that throughout November, so the blog will be quiet. That book is just as long as Les Misérables is, but I'm trying to read it within a month. Hopefully it won't be too trying of an experience!
Challenge Tally
Back to the Classics 2021 (A Classic in Translation): 12/12 - done!
Total Books Read in 2021: 46
