EVERYONE Has Read This but Me - The Catch-Up Book Club discussion

Welcome to our second Quarterly Long read! This quarter, April 2020-June 2020 we'll be reading Les Misérables by Victor Hugo.

Please keep in mind that this is a SPOILER FREE thread. For spoilers, go here.

How long has this one been on your TBR shelf? Why does this novel interest you? Do you know anyone else who is tackling this book this year?

I have wanted to read this book for a long time, at least several years. I know next to nothing about it, but I think my youngest sister loves it. The previews to the movie that came out in 2012 caught my interest, but I still have not seen it, either.

My library has the audiobook on CD, which I managed to check out before it closed, but it is 46 discs long and I fear they may be scratched. Plus, I'm not driving as much as I normally do. The books is on Overdrive, but there is no way I'll get through it in 2 weeks. So . . . I'm thinking about purchasing a downloadable version of the audiobook, but I'm not sure which translation is best or which narrator I would prefer. Any recommendations?

Hi Shelley, I haven't listened to it myself (so not sure who narrator is) but you can listen to it for free on Audible. If you go to stories.audible.com they have it there. Not sure I will get through all 58 hours!!

Les Misrables was the first book I read in high school and now I am about to be a college sophomore: things change and, hopefully, so will my view of Les Misrables.

Everything I know about the Battle of Waterloo came from this book, hahaha! It is an amazing book, I love it, I'm tempted to read it again with everyone except I have War and Peace on deck for this quarter, but it does have wordy detours about Waterloo, convents, and the sewer system of Paris to name a few. Just to give you guys a heads up. I found them fascinating, but if you don't, power through and don't give up! :)

(I actually have a "cheat sheet" for abridging the book without losing any of the story if anyone wants to get the story but doesn't want to have to slog through random facts and tidbits. I found them to enrich the story or as nice breaks, but I was also very familiar with the musical before reading this and that helped me keep my place better.)

I managed War and Peace, so now that I have a fitness regime of 'Big Book' stamina established, I am ready for Les Misérables! It is translated by Julie Rose, printed 2008, bought at that time by me and gathering dust ever since on my bookshelf. I can barely lift it!

I've been meaning to read this since I saw the movie in 2012 (which I loved ), but I could never bring myself to actually start it. This time I will, but I think even three months may not be enough... we'll see.

The very first time I heard of this book was when the movie came out. I told myself (like I do with any book-to-movie adaptation) that I was going to read the book first, since the movie looked interesting. It's been years and I still haven't! Looking forward to starting it.!

I use Hoopla and Overdrive and never had an issue getting the audiobooks free from the Library (or ebooks sent to my Kindle via Overdrive).

Amazing movie and amazing play. I need to read the book now.

Glad to find this discussion group. I have many "Everyone Has Read This but Me" type of books on my bookshelf including Les Miserables.
I have one Isabel Hapgood translation and one Denny Norman translation. I decide to go with the Denny Norman translation based on the result of a poll of 1579 readers (https://owlcation.com/humanities/Best...).
I prefer to read paper books because I find it easier to make notes in the books with a pencil (mainly vocabulary notes, as English is my acquired language).

I'm at chapter XIV of book one and I have a question.

The second sentence of the third paragraph of this chapter says:

Abstruse speculation contains an element of vertigo, and there is nothing to suggest that he hazarded his reason in any apotheosis. (Norman Denny translation)

Abstruse speculations contain vertigo; no, there is nothing to indicate that he risked his mind in apocalypses. (Isabel Hapgood translation)

So, is it apotheosis, or apocalypses in the translation that you are reading? What do you think it should be and what does Victor Hugo mean?

From Julie Rose's translation:

Abtruse speculations are dizzying, and nothing indicates that he polluted his mind with mystical claptrap.

I think it means the Bishop does not believe in thinking deep thoughts or in participating in the high-flying philosophical debates and dissections of words and phrases about the literal beliefs in the Bible as taught by the Catholic Church of that time.

I read the brief biography of Hugo in this edition's Introduction by Adam Gopnik. I cannot imagine how he survived the incredible political turmoil of France during his lifetime. He lived somehow through three revolutions and three monarchy restorations despite being a politically involved writer who always supported helping the poor, believed in free education and other progressive ideas, if not any disorder. His father was a general under Napoleon, his mother supported the monarchy. Both his father and Victor Hugo had failed marriages, but Hugo and his wife appear to have settled for what we today call an amicable 'open' marriage. Hugo outlived his wife and three of his children, died at age seventy-nine.

The introduction says Hugo did not believe or like established religions by the time he grew into his late middle-aged or elderly ages.

aPriL does feral sometimes wrote: "From Julie Rose's translation:

Abtruse speculations are dizzying, and nothing indicates that he polluted his mind with mystical claptrap.

I think it means the Bishop does not believe in thinking ..."

Thanks! That makes sense now.

just starting this. my ALL TIME FAVORITE MUSICAL. excited to read the inspiration

Just to report my progress. I finished Book Three today. I aim to read between 15 to 30 pages a day. It'll be nice to know others' progress from time to time.

Li wrote: "Just to report my progress. I finished Book Three today. I aim to read between 15 to 30 pages a day. It'll be nice to know others' progress from time to time."

I'll be there, Li!

:)

@Li, the Fanestock MacAfee translation reads:

Abtruse speculations are full of pitfalls; nothing indicates that he risked his mind in mysticism;

The original text reads:

rien n'indique qu'il hasardât son esprit dans les apocalypses.

@Kerri, you may want to check out An Infamous Army: A Novel of Wellington, Waterloo, Love and War by Georgette Heyer. Surprising that an author long considered writer of fluffy light Regency romances produced an exhaustively researched novel on quite a hefty subject. I read that Heyer was invited to lecture at Sandhurst on the subject, unsure if that's apocryphal.

Incidentally Heyer also wrote The Conqueror, about the Norman conquest of England, another departure from her genre and an excellent book, as well.

Finally got around to reading this book. Excited to read this with everyone! I had a beautiful hardcover (Isabel Hapgood translation) collecting dust on my bookshelf for ages. Guess social distancing is giving me time to check this off my list.

@Christine Thank you for posting that translation. On a few occasions I did find comparing between different translations enabled me to better understand the text.

Progress update: I just finished Part One: Fantine today, or 23% of the book. I feel encouraged by this progress, and I'm thinking maybe after this book I can take advantage of the momentum that has been built up through the reading of this book, and tackle one of the several other tomes on my bookshelf which have long been overdue, among these, there are War and Peace, Anna Karenina, Rememberance of Things Past, Middlemarch, etc.. I don't think the Covid-19 will be over anytime soon, do you?

Starting book three.

Gosh I love this line:
"I am wasting my words. Girls are incurable on the subject of marriage, and all that we wise men can say will not prevent the waistcoat-makers and the shoe-stitchers from dreaming of husbands studded with diamonds. Well, so be it; but, my beauties, remember this, you eat too much sugar."

blaming Fontane (and women really) for dreaming and deceiving themselves [and in this case, dreaming of marriage] as opposed to men being deceiptful.

@Kaseadillla I know this passage reads like Victor Hugo is blaming Fontane, but I don't see it that way. I think if Victor Hugo is living today, he would still be a liberal who supports civil rights including women's rights, but that would not have prevented him from writing this same passage in the same way today as he did in 1862 because the story was in the context of that 19th century society, and this passage can be read as an attack in passing on the unjust way that society was arranged, and I think by writing in this way - as if he was blaming Fontane - it has a stronger, more poignant effect on readers, giving them a feeling of hopelessness, which was Fontane's position.

Audio booking this behemoth! Someone asked way earlier about audiobook choice, I’ve got the one narrated by Bill Homewood and I think he does a pretty good job. I started with a version narrated by Frederick Davidson, but turned it off after just a few minutes because I really couldn’t stand his voice, read up on that later and found many felt the same way. I’ve heard George Guidall is the best narrator so if you can find that version I would go with that, but Bill Homewood’s version is free through my library app Axis 360. I’m just about at Book 1 of Part 2 and liking it so far, but I have to admit I’ve been using summary guides and reading one section ahead at a time of my audiobook. I find it helps me track the details of the audiobook a little better :)

I have the George Guidall audiobook and he really is great!

I am listening while reading sometimes, or just listening at other times. He is the reader for the same translator who translated my book. I can't remember if I intentionally bought the two to match together, but I welcome the opportunity now to listen and read along. The book is physically heavy for me, so I often just listen!

I'm at chapter 4 of Book Five of Part Two, where Jean Valjean is trying to shake off Javert's pursuit. Victor Hugo spends a lot of passages describing the arrangement of the streets. I can either skip over this section, or try to follow Jean Valjean's movements step by step by drawing a map of the street according to Victor Hugo's description. I decided to draw a map to help me to figure out what was happening. How do you guys deal with this kind of situation? Maybe you can follow these details eaier than I do?

I skim passages like that. If I am listening to an audiobook, doing something helps, like knitting or housework. Maybe if I had ever visited France I'd be more interested. However, sometimes such passages mean something to the story and that's when I approach it like studying a chapter for a school test. Fortunately, years of schooling develop the discipline of learning things which can be dull to learn! - a useful skill looooong after leaving school. Also, beautiful writing, like poetry, is attractive to me, and I want to linger or re-read such writing even if it is only descriptions of streets, but beautiful writing isn't always included in every paragraph of a book!

I am almost finished with book five where Javert has become suspicious of Valjean despite Valjean's good works.

Poor Fantine! Poor Cosette! Awful!

I give. Unfortunately, I currently do not have the attention span this book requires. Some day.

Best of luck to everyone else. I hope your efforts are well rewarded!

There is a note in the book that says 'le Petit-Picpus' is 'an imaginary quarter broadly based by Hugo on the Quartier Saint-Victor'.
So even if we visit France, we wouldn't be able to find this imaginary place. That puzzles me a bit as regards why Hugo spends long paragraphs describing this place. But I'm reading to improve my English as well as reading for pleasure, and I have never read any novels for a school test back in my days at school, so I don't mind spending some time on it now. It allows me to engage with the story better, and this is a worthwhile (and enjoyable) book to be used for this exercise.

Fair enough Shelley, that's how I felt with The Count last month... I hope to try again in the future.

Let the journey begin! Starting the book today, I never read it in its entirety, so I guess it’s time to give it a try.

Update progress: I finished Book 1 of Part Three. As I reached this part of the book, I start noticing that the spine of my book starts to show signs of cracking. So I did a google search for some ideas about how to protect the spine of my book and saw this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_co...
I tried it but I will not know how successful it will be until I have finished the book. Just thought I'd share this in case you are also holding a thick paper book in your hand and don't what to crack the spine. Anyone has any other proven solution to this problem?

Li wrote: "Update progress: I finished Book 1 of Part Three. As I reached this part of the book, I start noticing that the spine of my book starts to show signs of cracking. So I did a google search for some ..."

That's what I do! It mostly works, but the older the book, well. But I use the method shown in the video whenever I have a heavy book or notice the spine is cracking.

After a certain point of aging, books are simply delicate, especially those made cheaply. Paperbacks will not last. As I am in my sixth decade with books I bought fifty years ago, and I have also bought very used books because I didn't care but I promised to read some book and I can't get it from the library, sometimes it is what it is - cracked and tearing spines, pages cracking apart in your hands! Read fast!

: D

Thanks aPriL, then I will regard this method as proven.

A small incident just occurred: while I was curving the spine of War and Peace which I bought at a second-hand book market, I found some suspicious-looking white powder between two pages of the novel. What can this be? flour? baking-soda? or heroin (I've only seen it in the movies) or even anthrax (I've only read about it in old news)? I guess I'm being silly, but it is a silly business that white powder should find its way into a second-hand War and Peace and stays neatly within the bounds of just between two pages. What do you think it could be?

If it is anthrax you had better skim this book.

Seriously, a lab analyzed scientically a lot of American paper money over a month and discovered every bill was adulterated by cocaine. Also a lot of fecal matter. They could find not a single bill without traces of cocaine.

I'm on to Volume 3. Some of those historical or contextual books have been a grind, but the core story is beautiful.

Lol @april.... "If it is anthrax you had better skim this book."... Judging by the size of war and peace, cocaine seems quite plausible.

I'm up to Part Two, Book Five.

Finished Book VI of Part Three. 50% of the book.

I’m about to start part III and, honestly, it’s getting quite hard to keep reading it... Some parts are interesting but some others are a bit boring in my opinion.

Started Part 5 yesterday so I think I’m about 85% done! Really loving the main core of the story, but find my attention straying when Hugo goes on long rambles about history or other thing that don’t involve the characters.

I'm liking everything, including the histories. Hugo wants to understand what makes people become who they are. War and convents and prisons and politics can poison, twist and blight personalities. The following generations in ignorance or misunderstandings of a person's history live their own lives in more ignorance and misunderstandings, passing down the pain and agonies ad infinitum.

Even though I'm not familiar with a lot of the people or events Hugo referred to in the story, and thus unable to understand Hugo as well as his French contemporaries, I still enjoy most (if not all) of his digressions and I'm reading it slowly, chewing every (non-french) word and sentences for enjoyment. This is a book I want to read again sometime in the future. I like that Hugo is a poet and his writing is often like poetry, and takes you into the story with feeling and passion.

I agree. The book-long asides are a challenge, but are rewarding for how they add depth to the storyline. I have been using online lit notes to make sure I have understood the main takeaways in each of these sections. That has enriched the reading process for me. I'm at volume III book 6.

I'm at Book Eight, Chapter 5, "Things of the night". This is a very short chapter, but I have read it twice without registering what I had just read. I have to put the book down for today and I'll reread the chapter tomorrow with a refreshed mind, hopefully I'll understand what I read tomorrow.

I'm at Part Four, Book Thirteen, "Marius Steps Into the Shadows"

Just for fun:

https://youtu.be/qbn_Fzcxw3o

Russian Orthodox Church bells in New Jersey. Other countries of insurrection fevers.

aPriL does feral sometimes wrote: "Just for fun:

https://youtu.be/qbn_Fzcxw3o

Russian Orthodox Church bells in New Jersey. Other countries of insurrection fevers."
That gives me an opportunity to recall/review a vocabulary word I learned last year while reading The Once and Future King:

tintinnabulation

Enjoyed the bells @aPriL!

I'm a little over half way through and the editor in me wants to take a riding crop to Hugo. But he does have a much better story here than in The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and much more realistic (and interesting!) characters. I'm listening to it at night when I'm going to sleep (or can't) so if I sleep through a bit of the Battle of Waterloo then so be it. ;-)

I finished the whole book today. I think I will reread it in the future, perhaps next year. Characters are memorable, language (through Norman Denny) is vivid and powerful. It is a book worth rereading.