This is not, incidentally, my own view on how to judge people in power. Hugo cites in particular his efforts to prevent executions. And the man is good good sometimes to the point of being admirable. What can be held against him except the throne itself? Dismissing the monarch, we are left with the man. Having not reached European history (by way of the rest of world history) by the time college ran out, Im gleaning facts from Hugos novel rather than bringing knowledge of French history to it. You have been warned, dont go to the plot and character discussion page. Therefore I recommend you read the book and watch the play and only read that page afterward, or not at all. I will compare it to that play, the musical, which I take to be the standard theatrical presentation of Victor Hugos Les Miserables.Įverything I say in the plot and character discussion page has the capacity to spoil a plot for those who have not both read the book and seen the musical nor would the comparisons make much sense to you. I saw the play first, a student production at the Catholic high school in Worcester, with actors from many schools, which Cathy took me to and which I liked. (A key point, made on page 1061 and mentioned again later, is that human excrement is an excellent manure and to dump it into the sea is a huge waste of wealth.) Plot and Characters I read them in the order they belonged, and they didt and they were hardly unusual in these respects.) Whenever they were written, Hugo frequently indulges in marvelously extravagant asides a good example is Part Five, Book II, which comes during an escape scene and is dedicated entirely to a fourteen page, 400 words-a-page chapter on the the Paris sewer.

(Denny moved two long passages to apendices because he felt they had no bearing on the plot at all. Victor Hugo appeared to write this novel with no self-control, and the translator Norman Denny suggests essays written separately were incorporated into the novel later. I know it is not bold to repeat an established belief, but I have read it and I agree.

One-volume edition, paperback, 1,232 pages (Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books, 1982-1987).Ī masterpiece of literature. Translation and introduction by Norman Denny, Folio Press, 1976.

Les miserables julie rose