frenchcookie49 reviewed Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (Signet classics)
It's a Classic for a reason.
5 stars
What more is there to say on the Best of the French Revolution novels? Victor Hugo, perhaps because of his living through the histories he is writing about, understands. He understands the Revolution. Why it matters. Why 1789, 1830, 1832, 1848 mattered. How it echos through the ages.
And it soars and drops like the starling. This novel is itself a road trip. You live with it, and lets it bore you at times. You listen to the old man talk about Waterloo. You become enthralled about slang. You weep at the barricade. You stop abruptly at the chalk cover gravestone of Jean Valjean.
In it Enjolras states "my friends, the nineteenth century was great but the twentieth will be beautiful." I'm sorry. We have let down the dead. We have let down those who have come before us. We have done poorly.
