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"Les Miserables" by Victor Hugo-Part 2

 
Ugh.  I must say that I didn't enjoy the second part of Les Miserables as much as I did the first.  I read from pg 300-600 this month and it just was kind of painful.  There were like 20 pages that gave the history of a fictional convent.  It took a LONG time to get through this section because it was pretty boring at times.  The first 150 pages were pretty good.  I got to see more about Jean Valjean and Cosette and these sections were very interesting and kept me wanting more.  However, the story left these two characters and introduced Marius Pontmercy.  I am not sure what role he is going to play as the story continues but I didn' t like him much.  He seemed like the typical spoiled rich boy who wants to rebel against his strict upbringing.  I am hoping I will eventually like him but right now he is kind of a brat.

I mentioned it in my last post but this book reminds me of War and Peace a lot.  They both have a multitude of characters and both of the stories contain long, boring sections about battles and other historical events.  Not that I don't like history and reading about historical events but I am not sure that I care about every detail of the Battle of Waterloo. 

When I finished the first section, I was excited to continue reading this book.  Now I am a bit apprehensive.  We'll see how things go next month.
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  1. Kevin StilleyNovember 10, 2012 at 5:11 PM

    It is interesting that I struggle with some of my favorite authors in the way you describe. Authors like Hugo, Sienkiwicz, Tolstoy and others can seduce you into the story with the power of their words, but it almost seems that sometimes the storyline fades away and you become lost in the descriptive text. I think this is why Aristotle put so much emphasis in his Poetics on the primacy of plot.

    http://www.kevinstilley.com/victor-hugo-select-quotes/

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