Les Misérables
Decide its fate
The record
Time
An eveningA season1456 pages, about 29 hours: the length of 4.5 typical books on the shelf.
Getting in
Walk right inSteep climbBook One covers Bishop Myriel’s life, and Jean Valjean’s story begins in Book Two.
One of a kind
Others do thisNothing else doesA Substack review prefers Hugo’s digressions to Melville’s in Moby-Dick, and a book blog ranks Hugo below Tolstoy.
The case for it
on Bishop Myriel
“This morality, sold for eighty thousand dollars, is represented by Bishop Myriel. The character is drawn with great force, and is full both of direct and subtle satire on the worldliness of ordinary churchmen.”
Unsigned review · The Atlantic Monthly, July 1862 on Bishop Bienvenue
“I could have read a thousand pages of Bishop Bienvenue’s story.”
a book blog on the supporting cast
“These are highly original and magnificently colored inventions of humans.”
a Substack review on the cast of characters
“We weren’t introduced to a wider cast of characters until about halfway through the novel”
a book blog
The case against
on the length
“It’s a 400-page novel hidden in a 1400-page book of Hugo’s opinions on everything.”
a book blog on the Bishop’s introduction
“seventy pages learning about a man who, after the first few chapters, virtually disappears”
a book blog on Marius, the romantic hero
“romantic hero, Marius, reminds me of the tenor lead in some mediocre 19th century operetta”
a book blog on Cosette’s personality
“very sweet, very beautiful, very pure, very innocent… very nothing, in other words.”
four stars · a book blog
