January 4, 2013

  • Les Miserables book hangover

    This is how I have felt since I saw the movie.  Then I finished the book and the feeling multiplied.  I've been crying on and off for days.  

    Where has Les Mis been all my life!?  In my favorite books category it goes right under The Once And Future King, before Gone With The Wind and Great Expectations.

    I completely love how French it is.  How you take a book about young people getting killed in a civil uprising, and the oppression of the poor and make it completely romantic, is wonderful.  Not just the actual romance contained but the romance of life itself.  The romance of political upheaval.  The romance of living between meals, not knowing where your next piece of bread might come from.  THE RAIN WILL MAKE THE FLOWERS GROW!!!!  (OK that quote is only from the musical, not the book)

    My new favorite french word is Chevalier.   I've been here http://www.forvo.com/search/monsieur/  listening to French words all day.  

    I don't write in my books very often or fold page corners.  I made an exception.  These are the parts that I couldn't leave in the book.  

    "There is one spectacle grander than the sea, that is the sky; there is one spectacle grander than the sky, that is the interior of the soul."   

    "One can no more prevent the mind from returning to an idea than the sea from returning to a shore.  . . . God upheaves the soul as well as the ocean."

    "The rich young man has a hundred brilliant and coarse amusements . . . , busying the lower portions of the soul at the expense of its higher and delicate portions.  The poor young man . . . goes free to the play that God gives; he beholds the sky, space, stars, the flowers, the children, the humanity in which he suffers, the creation in which he shines. He looks at humanity so much that he sees the soul . . . within him, forgetfulness of self, and pity for all. . . . ,and thought which makes him noble."   

    "The power of a glance . . . Few people dare, now to say that two beings have fallen in love because they have looked at each other. Yet it is in this way that love begins, and this way only."

    "These passages at arms for progress often fail. The throng is restive under the sway of the paladins. The heavy masses, the multitudes, fragile on account of their very weight, dread uncertainties, and there is uncertainty in the ideal."

     

    Also, the novel deals with that horrible evil, circumstance.  Steal a loaf of bread? Go to prison for half of your life.  Become mayor?  Have your former overseeing officer come into your service.   Find the love of your life, she moves away.   Realize your in love with a guy, get shot and die for him.  Oh, the misery of life! 

    Leah K.