Did you know that Victor Hugo was named one of the prophets of a religion? Cao Dai, founded in 1926 in Viet Nam as a fusion of Eastern and Western religious ideas, named Victor Hugo as one of their three founding prophets/saints.

One has to ask: what kind of books does one write that causes a religion to make him into a saint?? If you read Les Mis, I think it pretty well answers that question.

Hugo is so insightful about each topic he explores. For instance, when he talks about being in love, he talks about how you get lost in the other person and nothing exists outside of the present moment of doing nothing together. He so perfectly describes this phenomenon.

Or when he talks about the sweetness of revenge, he fully captures everything about that experience in such a way that you feel you are personally being intoxicated by revenge, that you are reminded of times when you were.

Or for instance, the feeling of being down-and-out, curb-stomped by society. The book has this heartbreaking part where Jean Valjean, the felon straight out of the pen, gets kicked out of every place, even the dog kennel. You can really, really feel for him. And then, the bishop takes him in. So impactful. And the scene where the Bishop "buys" Jean Valjean's soul by giving away his silver is better than any apologetic for the Christian faith.

Hugo has a way of making key character moments so incredibly pointed and powerful. He builds up tension really really well, sometimes dragging scenes out to be quite long in the process, but it’s every bit worth it.

The characters: you have Jean Valjean, a man who goes to prison for many years for the crime of stealing a loaf of bread to feed his family. He is the central character who had a huge redemption arc and impacts so many other characters in remarkable ways.

You have Inspector Javert, a policeman who believes in the law in a way more reminiscent of religious fervor than anything else, and goes to any length to enforce it legalistically and brutally. His judgments extend even to his own mother’s sordid past.

I love this passage from Book 6, chapter X about Javert, when he thinks he has cornered Jean and enjoying the moment leading up to inevitably catching Jean.

“Knowing Valjean to be enclosed between the impasse on his right, the police agent on his left and the main party coming up behind him, Javert took a pinch of snuff. Then, with a demonic and sensual pleasure, he settled down to enjoy himself. He played his man knowing that he had him, deliberately postponing the climax, granting him a last illusion of freedom, relishing the situation like a spider with a fly buzzing in its web or a cat letting a mouse run between its paws—the ecstasy of watching those last struggles! His net was shrewdly cast, he could close it when he chose, and Valjean, desperate and dangerous though he was, could not hope to resist the force arrayed against him.”

So many amazing characters. You have Fantine, the young woman who goes into prostitution as a means to provide for her daughter, and has a sad life beaten down by the system.

And you have her daughter Cosette, who is one of the main characters, who is raised by Jean Valjean more than anyone else and is the epitome of innocence and beauty, completely unaware of her mother’s past.

“Cosette also became a different being, but without knowing it, poor child. She had been so young when her mother left her that she did not remember her. Like all children, like the tendrils of a vine reaching for something to cling to, she had looked for love, but she had not found it. They had all repulsed her, the Thenardiers, their children, and other children. They had been a dog which she had loved, but it had died. Apart from this, nothing had need her and no one had wanted her. The sad fact was that at the age of eight her heart had been cold and untouched, not through any fault of hers or because she lacked the capacity to love, but because there had been no possibility of loving. But now, from the first day they were together, everything in her that could think and feel went out to this man. She experienced something that she had never known before, a sense of unfolding.”

And then later, when she starts to become a woman, her character is such a new being and yet such a natural development at the same time.

“Knowing that she was beautiful she perceived, however indistinctly, that she was armed. Women play with their beauty like children with a knife, and sometimes cut themselves.”

And you have Marius Pontmercy, who falls in live with Cosette. Marius is a way more likable and fleshed-out character in the book than the movies. He has a backstory and his war-hero father and the whole subplot of him finding out his father was actually not a monster but a hero only just after his father had died was really tragic.

His father was a war hero who fought with Napoleon and was elevated by the emperor to the rank of colonel for his bravery and given the title of Baron. But after Napoleon’s fall, Pontmercy, like all the other veterans, are now treated shamefully, and are left destitute with nothing, no title, no land, no pension. Marius’s father, this war veteran, dies just about the time that Marius connects with his father for the first time, and this event sets up Marius’s story to become a part of the newest generation of revolutionaries and insurrectionists.

Will the new generation match up to the nobleness and grandeur of their fathers? And when Marius falls in love with Cosette, how will he choose between his two passions—her or the revolution?

And you have so many other characters, every one of them striking. For instance, the man who raises Marius and keeps him away from his father until Marius becomes of age is his uncle, Gillenormand, who is a hothead, an old guard yelling at the wind of new times, a classic picture of everything wrong with the old guard, the bourgeosie. And his aunt is yet another picture of a bourgeosie, but the softer side.

So many classic characters. I haven’t even talked about the priest who redeems Jean Valjean. Or the absolute scoundrel Thenardier who is a war profiteer and basically a profiteer off of any and all kinds of human misery. There is also a gang of convicts that get together for a heist and show the variety of different kinds of criminals.

There is also a section in an abbey where we see different kinds of nuns and how they are not all the same. Hugo never gives the impression that he simply stereotypes a type of person and plays that out in a two-dimensional way. In fact, I would say his superpower was really seeing people as they truly are, and dignifying (nearly) everyone, while not glossing over their flaws either.

You also have the ABC society, the group of revolutionaries that Marius gets together with, which again, this group has in it every type of revolutionary, from the hothead, to the eloquent, to the very earnest, to the lackadaisical. Marius getting together with the ABC society of revolutionary friends is an exhilarating time, reminding me of the play Hamilton.

But how does Marius fit in with them? I can relate to Marius’s deep isolation that comes from being caught between multiple groups of people with political beliefs I can't agree with.

Hugo is a master of making you FEEL things. For instance, the furtive dodging and hiding from Inspector Javert in Paris is so visceral because of the stakes: I feel like I desperately NEED Cosette to not be gobbled up by the jaws of the grotesque institution known as the French government.

Hugo is very insightful and profound as to so many things in life, such as the refining influence of a young man going through poverty.

“And he blesses God for having bestowed on him those two riches which the rich so often lack—work, which makes a man free, and thought, which makes him worthy of freedom.”

And there are so many insightful passages that I couldn’t even name them all. The insight that prayer joins two infinites. The concept of the eternal “now” of love. Or that “there is nothing else that matters in this world except love.” Or the illogic of nihilism. The theory that philosophy should be practicable. There’s even literary criticism in her, arguing that literature shouldn’t shy from the ugly. And there’s this amazing passage on how to truly live is to be in the great in-between.

So many things that you wouldn’t think of, counter-intuitive at first light, but when examined, it makes perfect sense. Real humans are paradoxical, and that’s what makes them so fascinating for me to study through authors who are really good at character studies.

If you enjoyed the adaptations, I highly recommend reading the book, although it is huge, and yes there are diversions about the sewer systems and everything else.

But here’s the thing. First, the diversions are easily skippable. Second, the reason you really should read this, is that so many big moments pack a much larger punch in the book because there has been lead-up to it, backstory of characters, so that when characters have big moments, it totally makes sense why they would do that. I already mentioned the example of the bishop—because we get introduced to his remarkable character and the way he lives his life, it makes much more sense when we get to that famous pivotal scene where he lies to the police, telling them that Jean didn’t steal the silver from him.

Another example. Everyone knows the scene towards the end of the attempted revolution at the barricades. In the movies this scene feels almost like a random turn in the story. It’s like the story is happening and we’re following it, and then all of the sudden there’s a revolution going on…ok sure why not? In the book it is considerably more developed.

We have a whole chapter dedicated to show how the “ABC Society”, a group of young male revolutionaries (of whom Marius is but one) incubates. We meet several personalities representing different types of people who join a revolutionary group: Enjolras, Courfeyrac, Grantaire, Combeferre, Feuilly, Joly. You have ones who are ultra sincere, and one man who is just along for the ride almost as a matter of being entertained. You have one who is much more comical, ones who are more outgoing, one who is the catalytic leader, the one who writes manifestos. You get to know their idiosyncrasies and ways of talking and some of their motives.

And so it means a lot more later when they fight and (mostly) die at the barricades. It packs a powerful punch.

Also, you have more build-up to the attempted revolution through learning about the people of Fauberg-St. Germain, which essentially, this working-class group of factory people who are catalysts for so many of the french revolutionary moments are essentially a character in their own right. Throughout the story there is this building tension of all the people of Fauberg-St. Germain creating cartridges, organizing themselves into an independent cell system, distributing propaganda...something big is coming. The attempted revolution isn’t just an out of the blue thing, and we get a sense of the magnitude and importance of it

In fact, it’s enthralling to imagine a whole populace mobilizing to stage an insurrection against their corrupt government. What would that look like in a modern context?

And in the middle of the attempted revolution, when it becomes clear what’s going to happen, that they are going to be crushed at the barricade, it means a lot more. And when they realize there is an opportunity for four of them to escape by wearing these veteran’s uniforms they have stolen…I love how not a one of them wants to leave. They would all rather die than leave in shame.

That's so realistic to the odd ways men behave in social situations like that. It reminds me of what Tim O’Brien wrote about young men being too embarrassed to NOT go to war.

Also, there's just something really genuinely rousing about a group of people being willing to die for something they believe in.

I won’t give away the ending if you don’t know the story yet, but I will say that for a book that is best translated as “The Miserable People”, it’s remarkable how many people get a happy ending.

This book was a magnum opus, something I’d wanted to read for a long time, and the themes it tackles of grace, redemption, people’s ability for change, fatherness, and the insights into the true human condition make it an instant favorite on my bookshelf. In particular I can think of no better work of art for tackling the theme of grace.

I think this book is for anyone who can take that theme seriously, is willing to put some effort into reading, and loves rich reading experiences. It’s a nice bonus if you don’t mind learning about history, although not absolutely necessary.

If you are interested in reading something to give you an idea of the background of the French Revolution, I have two recommendations. The first would be for if you just want a really quick book, 3 hours long, that’s essentially an encyclopedia of important people and events in the French Revolutions. It’s simply called The French Revolution by Encyclopedia Brittanica and there’s an audiobook that is free with many library memberships.

The second, which is in much more depth but was one of the most engaging history books I’ve ever read, is A New World Begins, by Popkin. I’ve written a review of it here: www.goodreads.com/review/show/5173621529

I feel this is one of the books that has enriched my experience of life the most.