Greetings, fellow readers! I have some exciting news to share with you: after weeks of confusion and miscommunication, my copy of Les Mis has finally arrived! In between homework, Quidditch tournaments, and the zombie apocalypse (such is the life of a college student!), I managed to get some reading done.
First, let me warn you that this novel is not for the faint of heart: it clocks in at a daunting 1,463 pages and is roughly the size and weight of a large brick. If this book is a literary marathon, then I've only run the first mile. That being said, it was a great first mile!
(Spoiler Alert: I'm assuming you've seen the movie/play or have at least a rudimentary knowledge of the story.) I didn't realize this, but Jean Valjean doesn't even show up until Book II (just after the first mile marker.) Book I is entirely devoted to the backstory of the bishop who gives Valjean shelter and, ultimately, his precious silver candlesticks. This might be tedious for some, but I take a perverse pleasure in the density and obsucrity of sweeping Victorian novels, so I enjoyed it thoroughly.
It's been a while since I read a French novel in translation--I'd forgotten how much I love the quality they have that carries over even when the words are put into English. If you read novels in translation, you'll understand what I mean when I say there's something different about a novel that's been translated from, say, French than one that was originally written in English.
In the translator's note, the translator makes a compelling argument for presenting Les Mis in its unabridged form, and I'd like to share it with you:
"While several abridged editions exist in English, that expedient seems a mistake. It is almost impossible to predict the individual detail, the flashing image or human quirk precisely observed, that will burn its way into a reader's mind for good. The sound solution is to honor the author's wishes. If the heightened rhetoric of elation and despair occasionally strains our patience or credulity, the quiet perception on the next page generally restores it."
I will leave you with that thought, fellow readers,
Until next time,
Anna
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