I'm doing it. The unabridged brick and me, we're taking a journey together this month. If you want to join me, you have to read 50 pages a day to finish (so, a few more now to catch up). Despite being up to approximately page 275, which for most other books would be almost near the end - or at least halfway - 275 is barely a drop in this 1400-plus page bucket.
I'm reading it on paper and listening to the audiobook, in combo. Trying to set myself up to succeed, y'know. I listen to it when I take walks and then read whatever's left at the end of the day. Though I'm not a huge audiobook fan (nor am I a fan of this narrator), it's been helpful for Les Mis: not only can I listen while doing other things, the emotion of the narrator adds to the story. While Hugo is a big fan of description and repetition, he's not so much on description-of-dialog. Is the character sarcastic? dramatic? sincere? Because the book is from a very different time, and I've not studied this period of literature, I find it difficult to successfully interpret the emotional valence.
I'll give you weekly updates of my progress and thoughts, bullet-style:
- I'm slightly behind (need to read ~20 pages from yesterday, plus today's pages), but am mostly on track.
- The saintly bishop is my favorite so far.
- Valjean's waffling about whether or not to turn himself in is super anxiety-provoking. I know that feel, bro.
- The musical is sad; this is sadder (probably due to that Hugo-ian penchant for repetition).
- Though, I'm surprised at how close (at least so far) the musical is faithful to the book.
- *run into a dream sequence* Not even for you Hugo; I'm skipping that nonsense.
- The chapters are short, so you get a nice steady sense of progress.
- Themes so far: the beast within; honor (external) vs. honesty (internal); The Law and The Religion
- Those Thenardiers are truly awful, aren't they?
xo,
Devo
Read like the wind!
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