Yes, I’ve made it to the end of the readalong! I spent the entire year with Jean Valjean and co., from the battle of Waterloo to the sewers of Paris and beyond. I appreciated Victor Hugo’s vivid and poetic language, his wide-ranging imagination, and his sense of drama. I truly feel I’ve been living part of my life inside a book, and I’ll miss it now that the journey is over.
This is not a book for sober realists or prudent minimalists — it’s too full of coincidence and over-the-top emotion. But it contains much that is inwardly true, picturing the mysterious weaving of life and destiny in manifold, memorable pictures. Though I rolled my eyes a few times, especially at the absurdly starry-eyed love story, there were many more times that I found words to remember and repeat to myself.
I didn’t mind the digressions or the lengthy descriptions, which have often been edited out and abridged. Reading these at a slower pace helped me to experience them as a meaningful part of the whole narrative, not something to be skipped or rushed through to get to the real story. Waterloo was a bit of a slog, but I was surprised to find the famous barricade scenes were where my attention wandered most. I couldn’t keep all the doomed fighters straight, and all their death-and-glory histrionics seemed ridiculous and pointless, rather than noble and inspiring. This was where a modern sensibility got most in the way, for me anyway.
The story, as I’ve come to see it, is about the conflict between hardened, superficial morality (which is only another face of the crime that it opposes) and a real, living morality based on love and freedom. Jean Valjean’s life was transformed by the Bishop’s gift of love, which turned him from a killer to a giver of life, yet this transformation was never recognized by the crushing power of the state, nor even by his own family. In the very last few chapters the question is whether he can pass on this gift to the next generation before he dies. Will Marius and Cosette perceive him for who he really is? Will they be able to grow beyond the beautiful, entrancing, but limited circle of love that they experience only through each other?
I’m going to leave that question open — as Hugo does until almost the very end. I think it’s the question he means us to take away from the novel into our own lives.
I’d like to read this book again, though I think I’ll take less than a year to do it. The earlier chapters are quite dim to me now and it would be good to have the whole story arc better in my grasp. However, the experience of reading a chapter a day (more or less) was very interesting, and also something I’d like to try again.
Our host, Nick at One Catholic Life, is announcing the 2019 readalong. of four books whose chapters add up to 365: Don Quixote, The Count of Monte Cristo, Lilith, and The Old Curiosity Shop. (War and Peace is the only other book he knows of with just 365 chapters – I’d love to do that at some point, though not this year).
In 2019 I may join in for the second half of Don Quixote, which I need to finish. I’m interested in the others, too, but I think I need a year off from such a big commitment. What about you? Would you do a year-long read of one or more novels?
The Emerald City Book Review Archive 
I have also enjoyed reading Les Misérables this year, so thank you for pointing me to this challenge! It was definitely a slog through some of the chapters (for me, the ones discussing Marius’ poverty were the worst, as they coincided with some financial hardships of my own, which only magnified them in my mind as Hugo waxed philosophical about everything… and I entirely skipped the ones that were philosophically pondering the sewers, because I do not need to think about fecal matter over breakfast), but ultimately I feel I’ve redeemed my high school self, who carried this unabridged copy around daily and never finished the brick of a book. I probably appreciated the tangents a lot more this time around, too, so it’s been interesting to see how I’ve grown as a reader.
I’m going to join the group for Don Quixote as well, and might also re-read The Count of Monte Cristo (another one I recall reading and enjoying in school).
This challenge also inspired me to join a War and Peace reading challenge over on Instagram, along with another friend who started reading Les Mis about halfway through the year, so we are both committed to reading more big books in 2019!
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Ha ha, I did not want to read the sewer chapters while eating either! Some things one is grateful not to have to think about.
I am glad you found it a worthwhile experience, and definitely also notice that I’ve grown as a reader since first trying to penetrate this as a twenty year old. Don Quixote, ho!
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I too managed to cross the finish line in time. Like you I really enjoyed the leisurely pace. I am not sorry to have read the digressions but I would support anyone who wanted to read an abridged version, however. The core story is pretty rip-roaring.
In contrast to your experience, I found the barricade scenes pretty fabulous. When Marius uses the pistols…well, I saw it vividly in my head (and I have never seen an adaptation of this book). Also, when Marius DOES NOT use the pistol in the Gorbeau tenement many chapters prior…I was practically screaming at him to act.
My biggest problem was Cosette and what an empty headed thing she was. That is where my modern sensibility got in the way.
I am going to join Sylvia and read Don Quixote this year. If Nick does War and Peace in the future, however, I would definitely join in. Reading a long book this way is rewarding, if at times frustrating.
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You’re right about Cosette. There were in fact no properly developed female characters in the novel, which was a great pity.
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Well done! I don’t know if I will ever be ready to tackle this book. Theoretically, I like the idea of a year long readalong – a little bit of the same thing each day – but I don’t think I’d actually be able to carry it out.
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I didn’t always perfectly carry it out; I would forget to do my daily reading for a week or so at a time. And I feel a bit relieved now I don’t have that obligation. But it’s definitely an interesting experience if you ever decide you are up for it.
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