After 1305 pages, this morning I said goodbye to the world I’ve been enveloped in for nearly a month
Incase you haven’t guessed, for the past month I’ve been reading Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, and I finally closed the book earlier this morning.
I know that the novel is renowned for the suffering and despair the characters feel, but some of the scenes were just so incredibly brutal and heart wrenching - I truly wasn’t prepared. It was humanity at its rawest and most beastial, and harrowing to think about how the lines of fiction are heavily blurred with the reality of French society during the period.
One thing that I was absolutely astounded by was the sheer beauty of the prose throughout the entire book. At such a mammoth length I assumed that there would be areas where the prose became stale, repetitive, bland, but Hugo was obviously such a master craftsman - it never faltered even for a moment. There were countless times that I just stopped in awe at the passage I’d read, absorbing the beauty. It makes me wish that I was as well read and literarily-knowledgeable as Hugo so I could’ve understood and fully engaged with every reference to literature, folklore, and history which he weaved throughout.
There were so many memorable characters throughout, Fantine, Gavroche, Eponine, Javert, Valjean… I mean it’s truly endless the amount of people you meet if you dive into the world of Les Miserables. Infuriating, treacherous, despair, hopeful - I really experienced all of these and so much more as we see these storylines weave in and out of each other so perfectly. Additionally, the fact that Hugo’s narrative voice was directed to the reader meant that he always gave us context to a recurring character every time they reappeared, which I found incredibly helpful because there are just so many to keep track of.
I truly don’t think you’d regret picking up this notorious brick, there may be scenes of Waterloo, of the Petis-Picpus convent, even the Parisian sewer system’s development, but despite that they are actually quite important to the overall narrative drive.
This is the official goodbye, and thank you to Hugo from me.