Les Miserables Redux

I’ve slogged my way through all 1,429 pages of Les Miserables, which did not hold my interest as well as The Count of Monte Cristo. A big part of the reason is the frequent monologuing inserted by the author. He launches into lengthy descriptions of people, political movements, or underworld dialect that are—frankly—boring and bog down the plot. These are sections that are, for the most part, missing from the movie version I watched a couple of weeks ago. That movie followed the basic plot quite faithfully, with only slight inaccuracies obviously made in order to condense the mammoth amount of material into a movie of reasonable length.

But I like Cossette and Marius less in the book than I did in the movie. They are just—forgive me for being blunt here—stupid. And selfish. Cossette seems to care primarily about clothes in the book (and dreaming about Marius, of course). In the movie, Marius appears to have convictions; while in the book he seems to be persuaded by every new influence. I thought he was pretty stupid in the movie for not figuring out that he owed his life to Jean Valjean and for forbidding Valjean from seeing Cossette, but he seems even denser in the book. He stops working just to dream about Cossette. Wouldn't you think he'd want to make something of himself and earn some money to support her? And then he starves himself, but sends money regularly to Thernadier in prison after he's witnessed Thernadier's evil character! And he tries to get himself killed in the revolution because he doesn't know where Cossette has gone! I just want to slap him upside the head and tell him to get a clue!

The book is not quite as depressing as the movie. When reading the book, one is at least aware that Jean Valjean does experience some short-term happiness in between the setbacks. The movie crunches all the crises together so that it seems he never gets a break. He basically doesn't, but there are a few short periods of peace before each hammer blow upon the anvil of Jean Valjean.

What I enjoyed most about the book was Hugo’s acknowledgment of God’s sovereignty. While stressing God’s sovereignty, he clearly shows the importance of how we treat others. Although an escaped convict, Jean Valjean is portrayed almost as a type of Christ in his suffering and self-sacrifice.