Les Miserables by Victor Hugo is an immensely long novel, 1300 pages in the paperback version I read. It took years for Hugo to write and it is not a quick read, I completed it over several weeks, including the first few hundred pages during a trip in France. I recently read a biography of Hugo which did not do justice to the breadth of his knowledge and interests; the power of his intellect. He was obviously extremely well informed about scientific and other developments and took a great interest in not just politics but all areas of knowledge. His use of language is extremely powerful, and immense credit goes to the translator of the edition I read, who was able to maintain the descriptive power of the novel in English. I read the Penguin Classics paperback, translated by Christine Donougher.
The novel is fascinating in that the actual plot perhaps would consume 60% of the book. Many chapters are more akin to essays, giving background on a topic that is somewhat related to the story. For example, the Paris sewer system gets many chapters, we get an extensive discussion of slang, there are numerous diversions to talk about human character and behavior. The sewer system chapters reveal Hugo’s knowledge of geology. There are also many historical background chapters; the book was written and Hugo lived during a period when France vacillated between kings, a republic, the Napoleonic regimes and Hugo provides first-person testimony to the events surrounding these changes of government. Hugo was himself exiled from France for a period of time, while he was working on this novel.
The basic plot is probably well-known; a man steals a loaf of bread to feed his starving family, and as was common in many countries at the time, receives an abhorrent sentence for this simple act of desperation. He escapes multiple times, often recaptured and sentenced to more prison time. At one point between imprisonments, he builds a business and becomes wealthy and he adopts a young girl who is orphaned. He was always a decent person and becomes very religious and very conscientious, despite his identification of himself as a criminal and convict. Much of the novel is the story of his effort to protect the young woman and her and his eventual fate.
A couple of quibbles about the novel. Hugo is a French chauvinist, he exaggerates the role of the country, even at the time he was alive, in the development of democracy and the advance of civilization. Surprisingly little is said about the United States, even though our Declaration of Independence and revolutionary war were the seminal events putting in motion wider demands in Europe for greater individual rights, including in regard to governance. And at times his writing is a little melodramatic. But this truly is an outstanding work of fiction–brilliantly written, exposing many human truths, informative.
