( Cut for spoilers! )

Volume II (Cosette) and beginning of Volume III (Marius)

Oh, the lenghty digressions, the painstaking descriptions of things that barely relate to the story... Yes, sometimes Hugo is tiresome. But I'm glad that I'm not reading an abridged version. His long description of the Waterloo battle is impressive, and his portrait of the Paris gamin is

( Cut for spoilers )

I’m not going to comment on every chapter; I have no time for that. I’ll just comment on passages that caught my attention, for one reason or another.

( Romance-phobic! Hugo )

( A Just Man - cut for spoilers )

The edition I'm reading was published in 1963 by Éditions du Seuil, and it's the second volume of a collection of novels called L'Integrale. It's a beautiful hardcover edition, 566 pages, illustrated by twelve drawings by Victor Hugo; the cover shows a painting by Willette. I've just bought it from a used bookstore ( Read more... )

If everything goes fine, I'll be applying for a PhD program next year. Then I'll have to pass an exam in a language other than English or Portuguese. The obvious choice is French. So... I have to brush up my French. That's why I decided to start reading Les Misérables, by Victor Hugo. Would you like me to comment it as I read it? I'll probably read ( Read more... )