Tittle : Les MiserablesAuthor : Victor Hugo
Publication date :March 3rd 1987 by Signet Classics (first published 1862)
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Let's talk about another classic! I am sure Les Misérables sounds familiar to you, even for a non classic reader. Oh, even the Hollywood recently made it into a musical movie (quite an old news, actually). This is also the book I read a few years back. I was a beginner in classic book at that time (I still am, actually) and I giggled at narration. The style is so much more different that today's book and if it's your first time reading classic, you may find it a little weird.
Jean Valjean was sentenced to stay in prison for nineteen years because he stole a piece of bread. The day when he finally free, no one would give him a job or help him because he was a prisoner. Valjean then change his identity and became a rich and successful person. Valjean with his adopted daughter Cossete had to live their life through the darkest days in France history.
This is book is notoriously thick. It took me about two or three months to reach the last page. It is full of emotion and how Hugo described his story really amazed me. It was hard to live peacefully back then, even when you are rich and successful. The court cannot give justice, the people were starving, women sold their souls, it's a never-ending pain.
Les Misérables made me laugh and cry at the same time. I cried when I read the story about young Cossette, I smiled a bit when when Valjean became a successful man, but it doesn't end there, mind you. Still, as a person who reads mainly modern books, I did notice weirdness in the writing style and the plot. For example, this book tells a story about a man who fell in love with a girl he never spoke to. She wasn't even aware that he existed. He would just looked at her from afar admiring her beauty. He knew at that very second that she was the one he was going to marry.
I mean, really?
Slow down, Romeo! What made him so sure about his feeling for her if all he did was looking, without getting to know her first? How would you feel if you are the girl? Imagine having a secret admirer that would follow you wherever you go and then drop a love letter for you. Creepy, right? Well, it just doesn't make sense. But, hey, maybe that's just what the guys and gals did back then *shrugs*.
Now, here's my favorite quote :
“The future has several names. For the weak, it is impossible; for the fainthearted, it is unknown; but for the valiant, it is ideal.”
Very inspiring, don't you think? 5 rating for Les Misérables. It is one of the best book I have read in my life. It is full of life lesson actually and it really did changed the way I think, at least now I believe that some classic books are worth the hype.
Now I want to hear about you. Have you read any classic books lately?
