‘The Brick’ is finally finished! Kate and Sheila discuss Les Miserables in its entirety… (spoiler alerts galore-avoid if surprises you adore) …it has taken us a bit, but so totally worth it!
Victor Hugo shows readers that, “Heroes come in all shapes” from the unbelievable bravery of young Gavroche to the mysterious motives of the misunderstood Jean Valjean.
Hugo can bloviate like no other author, from Waterloo to the sewers of France! He can also pack quite a punch in few words:
“One cannot goad people into moving faster than they are prepared to go. Woe to him who tries to force their hands.” People will rise to the level of expectations but we must let them rise (like bread in the making) we cannot force anyone’s progress! Victor nailed it!
“What is Progress? We have just said it. It is the permanent life of all people. But it sometimes happens that the momentary life of individuals is opposed to the eternal life of the human race.”
Do we oft times put the pebbles in first? Do we worry and fret over the trivial? Eternal life is one that is lived in harmony with God❤️He is our Rock He must come first!
“But a civilizing race must be a masculine race…Those who become effeminate bastardize themselves.” In our society young men are committing suicide 4 times the regular population! The war against toxic masculinity has wreaked havoc by giving young men false identities, leaving our society with boys.
Readers are taken on a journey starting with injustice and evil and falsity and darkness toward justice and goodness and truth and light! What an emotional roller coaster ride for determined readers! Warning: Not for the faint of heart!
The novel as a whole is one of the longest ever written, with 655,478 words in the original French. Hugo explained his ambitions for the novel to his Italian publisher:
I don’t know whether it will be read by everyone, but it is meant for everyone. It addresses England as well as Spain, Italy as well as France, Germany as well as Ireland, the republics that harbour slaves as well as empires that have serfs. Social problems go beyond frontiers. Humankind’s wounds, those huge sores that litter the world, do not stop at the blue and red lines drawn on maps. Wherever men go in ignorance or despair, wherever women sell themselves for bread, wherever children lack a book to learn from or a warm hearth, Les Misérables knocks at the door and says: “open up, I am here for you”.
Let’s put on SCUBA gear before embarking on this deeper than deep dive! Thanks for joining us on our quest to read the best! May you have a day that is blessed with a book, a cuppa, and friends!