Les Misérables

"This was quite an experience to say the least. This book was very long and challenging. Everyone always refers to "the sewer scene" when referring to Victor Hugo's style of writing about very small and seemingly unimportant details. I actually didn't think that scene was that bad compared to his detailed play by play of the Battle of Waterloo. The overall message when not droning on about battles or sewer systems was actually very inspiring and relevant even today. I would recommend that people give reading the book a chance despite the size (it's called "the brick" and "a doorstop" for a reason). I will say this however:<br/><br/>If you have watched the 2012 movie edition-good for you wanting to get the basic rundown of the plot with some very high profile actors.<br/><br/>If you have watched/listened to the musical-good for you wanting to support live theater while learning some history and French culture. <br/><br/>If you have attempted to read this book but never finished- good for you for making and effort I am proud of you. <br/><br/>If you have successfully read this book the whole way through, line by line, and section by section- you rock and must have some great determination (or a looming deadline for school)."

"My favorite book of all time. "

"Honestly one of the best books written. Jean Valjean’s story quite literally changed my life. Not only Jean Valjean’s story, but also Fantine’s, and Marius, and all of the characters have descriptions with such detail that makes it hard to forget them. The story shows true understanding of one’s persona and shows the characters as real people. The students who went to Revolution, the students who showed up basically just in Marius’ chapter to basically die where still thoroughly introduced. "

"I just... Can't anymore. First, it was the waterloo section now it's some convent. Both of which have nothing to do with the story. I hate not finishing a book but I am bored.<br/><br/>Like always though read it yourself and form your own opinion."

"As of now, I'm saying it's a DNF. I read almost 800 pages of this absolute behemoth. The audiobook I had wasn't really intriguing. I haven't touched it in like two months. It was fun, but Victor Hugo's random tirades into side characters lost me. My favorite book was Fantine, but I could hardly stand Marius and almost stopped reading several times in his section. I'll come back to it one day. It is a very intriguing and moral book, but it's just so dense, it's hard to get through."

"I am finally done with this book - it was really long. It is well written, the story is good and it gives a great historical background of the time period. It only gets 4 stars though, because it is just so long."

"I still randomly think of how incredible the tale of Jean Valjean is. The theme of transformative redemption is woven through several characters making it easy to grasp onto one and never want to let go. It also makes a grat winter read. #classics #victorhugo "

"The one star rating goes to this specific abridgment I could not make myself finish. It was very frustrating because it would jump around so much that I couldn't make heads or tails of what was going on, yet I am very familiar with the storyline (I am a huge fan of the musical and have seen many movie versions; I have also read a lot of the SparkNotes about the novel). I put the poor abridged version away and finally found my non-abridged version! SO glad that I did! :)"