ClassicsCategory Archives

Book Review: Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

  • Method of Obtaining: I purchased my copy.
  • Published by: Carefully Crafted Classics
  • Release Date:  11/28/2012 (This edition)
        

In this story of the trials of the peasant Jean Valjean–a man unjustly imprisoned, baffled by destiny, and hounded by his nemesis, the magnificently realized, ambiguously malevolent police detective Javert–Hugo achieves the sort of rare imaginative resonance that allows a work of art to transcend its genre.

Reason for Reading:
  • Preparation for the upcoming movie release.

I also recommend:

My Review:

It’s always a daunting task to write a review of a book not only widely read but also extremely popular. Especially after one read of the primary text (and no knowledge whatsoever of the musical, aside from the minute or so of the previews shown for the upcoming release). So rather than wax poetic about Hugo’s insanely thorough, beautiful writing as many others have done, let me simply give you my impression of Les Misérables.

The first 10% or so of the Kindle edition that I read dealt primarily with a description of Bishop Myriel. About 5% in I was a bit confused, wondering why all this information was necessary for a character that, admitted by Hugo, was not an integral part of the book. However, I managed to fall in love with that sacrificing Bishop and felt I knew him so intimately that by the time Jean Valjean arrived on the scene, I could predict the good Bishops movements. And aside here, the letter and actions of the Bishops sister and housekeeper had me laughing and thoroughly enjoying myself, mostly because I, as an unmarried woman in today’s society, would never have been able to so meekly assist my brother in that way.

Jean Valjean – such a character. 19 years spent in horrific conditions all because he stole some bread. After his run-in with the Bishop, his encounter with Petit Gervais, and his arrival in Montreuil-sur-Mer I began to get an idea of why the Bishop was such an important character to begin the book with. It was a beautiful thing to see the changes being wrought in Valjean.

And then there comes Fantine. Honestly, I think Fantine is my second favorite character of the book (second to Bishop Myriel, I really did love that old man). She is the perfect tragic figure: mother to a beautiful child, abandoned by her lover, trust-worthy to a fault, abused, neglected, self-sacrificing, and all of it unrewarded until she lay on her deathbed… but even then happiness is denied to her. As miserable as Valjeans life was throughout the book, I think Fantine’s situation is what really gives weight to the title that Hugo chose.

And from Fantine there comes Cosette. Although there is plenty in the book about the girl, and then the young woman Cosette, I came away with less of an impression of her than of the other characters. In fact, I felt more connected to Marius than Cosette – although that might have been simply because Cosette comes off as a bit of a wimp, not due to anything that Hugo does, necessarily. It’s just strange to read about her passive behavior from a 21st century perspective.

The only other main character I want to touch on is Javert. Javert was the epitome of fear to me. He had a nasty habit of always showing up in a city filled with people, leaving the correct impression that he and Valjean were connected in a way that could never be broken. I appreciated Hugo’s treatment of the torment that filled Javert at the end of the book and thought that his story ended in a most fitting manner.

Hugo spends time not telling the stories of these main characters by elaborating on everything from an incredibly detailed description of the Battle of Waterloo (of which I now know more information than I know how to deal with), slang, the street urchin or gamin, the sewers of Paris, religious orders, and politics. Of these I found Waterloo, the religious order description, and the information on slang to be the most interesting. I read the Hapgood translation of the book for Kindle, and was rewarded with a lengthy introduction and beautiful illustrations throughout the book that enhanced the reading. I laughed, cried, felt sympathy, and completely immersed myself in this story and came away from it feeling richer – and that feeling is how I know I just read something incredible.

Don’t just take my word for it! Check out what these bloggers say!

Darwinbookcats | Lines from the Page | Wonderings and Wanderings

Lydia
23 December, 2012
Classics, Historical, reviews, Social Issues
2 comments
, , , , , , , , , , ,

Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin

Order from:

 

Reason for Reading:

I also recommend:

Summary from GoodReads:

In The Aeneid, Vergil’s hero fights to claim the king’s daughter, Lavinia, with whom he is destined to found an empire. Lavinia herself never speaks a word. Now, Ursula K. Le Guin gives Lavinia a voice in a novel that takes us to the half-wild world of ancient Italy, when Rome was a muddy village near seven hills.

Lavinia grows up knowing nothing but peace and freedom, until suitors come. Her mother wants her to marry handsome, ambitious Turnus. But omens and prophecies spoken by the sacred springs say she must marry a foreigner—that she will be the cause of a bitter war—and that her husband will not live long. When a fleet of Trojan ships sails up the Tiber, Lavinia decides to take her destiny into her own hands. And so she tells us what Vergil did not: the story of her life, and of the love of her life.

My Review:

I’m going to admit right now, I’m not very familiar with Virgil’s Aeneid. It’s not exactly “light” reading, and I’m feeling good for having just conquered Beowulf for the first time. That said, I was still insanely interested in Lavinia by Ursula Le Guin when I saw that it was on a list for one of the best books based off of literary classics.

In language that, for all it’s strange names and odd places, is quite simple to read, Ursula Le Guin takes us through the poet’s (Virgil’s) vision of Latinum and Lavinia. Lavinia’s voice is quiet and thoughtful, dictating very precisely her love of the truly pious, which she defines toward the beginning of the book so you are made very aware of what she is looking for. There is fighting, but second-hand retelling of the fighting so the book does not focus on the sensation of it. There’s intrigue and love and desire. There’s a story of respect between fathers and daughters and wives and husbands. And most of all – this book tells a side of a story that doesn’t get told by Virgil, and does it well.

Le Guin did a beautiful job with her research and the writing is really spectacular. This was the first book I’ve read by her and I’ll be seeking out her fantasy novels – if this is any indication, I’ll gladly live in any world she has designed.

Don’t just take my word for it! Check out what these bloggers say!

Echos from a Distant Mountain| Eclectic Closet | Bippity Boppity Book

Lydia
26 July, 2012
Classics, Historical, Literary Fiction, reviews
2 comments
, , , , , ,

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

Order from:

 

Reason for Reading:
  • I heard about this book last year while attending school.

I  also recommend:

Summary from GoodReads:

Wide Sargasso Sea is the story of Antoinette Cosway, a Creole heiress who grew up in the West Indies on a decaying plantation. When she comes of age she is married off to an Englishman, and he takes her away from the only place she has known–a house with a garden where “the paths were overgrown and a smell of dead flowers mixed with the fresh living smell. Underneath the tree ferns, tall as forest tree ferns, the light was green. Orchids flourished out of reach or for some reason not to be touched.”

My Review:

Wide Sargasso Sea is the story that Charlotte Bronte did not tell – and Jean Rhys’s masterful job in doing so. I had first heard about this book in an introduction to literature class I took Fall of ’11, but although my interest was caught, I was floundering under the heavy weight of homework and recovering from a car accident, so the title got pushed to the back of my mind.

Then, Spring ’12, in my British Lit class, once again the title came up. We had been discussing Jane Eyre and Bertha – the mad woman in the attic, and batting around various theories. One of the theories that caught my interest was how Bertha was the parts of Jane that she had suppressed through years of practice. This was brought to mind especially with the similarities between the two characters. But then, once again, the title of Wide Sargasso Sea was put onto the board and I remembered that this was one I wanted to read.

Then, fairly recently, an article was posted to Twitter of “modern literary adaptations” of classics that should be read. Once again, there was Jean Rhys’s book .. so excuses aside, off to the library I went.

Wide Sargasso Sea is a short, but meaty read. I actually read the book twice – two afternoons in a row. The story is one of Antoinette (known later as Bertha) and the path that led to her madness. Jean Rhys gives a powerful voice to the mad woman in the attic and, as expected, the story behind Bertha was a tragic one which parts a very unflattering picture of Mr. Rochester.

If you would like to keep a romantic ideal of Mr. Rochester, I’d recommend steering clear of this title – however if you, like me, love Jane Eyre and would like to see Bertha given a voice (because, really people, she was LOCKED away in an attic), then I recommend picking this book up and letting it blow your mind a little.



Don’t just take my word for it! Check out what these bloggers say!

Amy Reads| The Literate Man | Literary Corner Cafe

Lydia
30 June, 2012
Classics, Literary Fiction, reviews
5 comments
, , , , ,

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Order from:

 

Reason for Reading:
  • This was the first choice for a book club that I joined for the summer.

I also recommend:

  • Anything by Kafka

Summary from GoodReads:

Awe and exhiliration–along with heartbreak and mordant wit–abound in Lolita, Nabokov’s most famous and controversial novel, which tells the story of the aging Humbert Humbert’s obsessive, devouring, and doomed passion for the nymphet Dolores Haze. Lolita is also the story of a hypercivilized European colliding with the cheerful barbarism of postwar America. Most of all, it is a meditation on love–love as outrage and hallucination, madness and transformation.

My Review:

This is not a book for the faint of heart. Wow, I don’t even know where to begin with a review on this one.

I was hoping to make the book club discussion centering on this title so I could get my thoughts in order – but alas, life stepped in and I was unable to make it so you all will have to suffer through my trying to get everything straightened out.

Vanity Fair, for its blurb on one edition of this book, says it’s “the only convincing love story of our century,” which, frankly, scares me to death. Why? Because the nitty gritty is that this love story is between an older man and a 12 year old girl.

That’s the surface of the story – but then there’s so much more to it than that. The narrator of this book is filled with so much remorse and justification and self-loathing that it’s nearly impossible to not be captivated by his voice and follow along the story. I was seriously disgusted with myself because, at one point, I was nearly as eager as he was when contemplating murder or scheming to get his way. That scared me – and Freud would have a field day with that (Yes, I read those essays of those Mr. Freud.)

It’s that type of writing, the one that binds and drags you along on a journey you really do not want to go on, that makes for great writing. And Vanity Fair’s blurb? Well, I think in a way it addresses that narrative voice, it’s harsh reality, bitterness and despair. Who can tell the heart where to love, or why it shouldn’t?

This is a tough read for many of those reasons and more. If you attempt it, I recommend you do so with a friend so these are the things you can discuss.

 

Don’t just take my word for it! Check out what these bloggers say!

Sunday Brunch | Roofbeam Reader| The Mantle


Lydia
7 June, 2012
Classics, Literary Fiction, reviews
6 comments
, ,

To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

Order from:

 

Reason for Reading:
  • Required reading for my British Literature course

I also recommend:

  • Dubliners by James Joyce

Summary from GoodReads:

The novel that established Virginia Woolf as a leading writer of the twentieth century, To the Lighthouse is made up of three powerfully charged visions into the life of one family living in a summer house off the rocky coast of Scotland. As time winds its way through their lives, the Ramsays face, alone and simultaneously, the greatest of human challenges and it greatest triumph–the human capacity for change. A moving portrait in miniature of family life, it also has profoundly universal implications, giving language to the silent space that separates people and the space that they transgress to reach each other.

There are very few exceptional and miraculous novels that have the power to change their readers forever. To the Lighthouse is one of them.

My Review:

This book has been on my bucket list of books to read for years. Last year I attempted to read it, but ended up putting it down after a mere 20 pages in, admitting defeat. Then, when I looked at the syllabus for my British Literature course this last semester I noted with both glee and dismay that, at the end of the semester, we’d all be reading it together.

Now that I’ve come through the reading and discussing of To the Lighthouse, let me be the first to say .. I wish I could experience it all again for the first time. This book changed me. It gave me a sense of satisfaction for finishing it – but more so it opened my mind to a completely different way and style of storytelling. Before I’d always gravitated toward the big stories (although, I also appreciated the emotional, more intimate stories as well). But Virginia Woolf writes these nuanced relationships and thought patterns with such skill that even the slightest thought becomes one of those “big story” moments … and that is what changed me.

It’d be hard to pick one scene out of this book that’s a favorite, but if pressed I think I would choose the scene where the family and their guests are seated at the dining room table. There is such complex writing in that scene that I imagined a little thought-fairy, tripping happily from mind to mind, allowing the most private, innermost thoughts there own time and space to emerge and cry out for help, for love, for hope.

This is a book that anyone who considers themselves to be an avid reader should read. It’s tough, I’m not going to lie and say it’s not, so sit down with a pencil, draw connections visually, have a piece of paper to write notes, actively engage with the text. Trust me, once you do that the rewards are bountiful.

 

Don’t just take my word for it! Check out what these bloggers say!

The Blue Bookcase | Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog | Ela’s Book Blog


Lydia
2 June, 2012
Classics, Historical, Literary Fiction, reviews
2 comments
, ,

Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson

Order from:

 

Reason for Reading:
  • This was required reading for my American Lit II class.

I also recommend:

Summary from GoodReads

Work from the prolific American author best known as the author of Ramona, a novel about the ill-treatment of Indians in Southern California.

My Review:

Sometimes I wonder if there’s a point to reviewing older novels. I mean – there’s obviously a point to reading them, and Ramona presents a good case for that. But after reading a book like this it’s hard to imagine that others haven’t read it, or something like it… until I remember that until this past semester, I’d never even heard of Ramona.

For those of you who, like me, had never thought to pick this book up let me just say that it will frustrate, awe, and inspire you. The story is one that speaks of epic, sweeping love and loss, but it’s buried in pages upon pages of description which, back in the day before the internet, television, and radio, would have passed for entertainment but today just feels as if it’s one more thing to push through in order to get to the meat of the story.

Thankfully, I read this book for a classroom setting – so three days were set aside for us to get to the meat and actually talk about the themes and ideas in Ramona.

Here’s what I came away from this talks with:

Even in a story, such as Ramona, when the author is seeking to shed light on the issues of the time (specifically the tensions between whites, Mexicans, and Native Americans), in order for Ramona to be related to she is given “white” characteristics – i.e. blue eyes from her Scottish Father.

Sweeping stereotypes are made not only about the whites (and honestly, as far as stereotypes go, they were pretty harsh but necessary ones) but also about Mexicans. Even the Native Americans in this book did not escape judgement from Helen Hunt Jackson.

Jackson has no problem spending 70 pages talking about the little things – making a bed on a porch, tension-filled relationship between Ramona and her adoptive family, and so on.. but she spends less than a paragraph on a vital turning part of the story. In fact, the action and result of this turning part happened so quickly I thought I’d imagined it happening and had to go back to re-read it.

I understand from our discussions the importance of a book like Ramona and I believe that it’s important that it continues to be read and talked about – but more than anything, I wonder how that will be possible with the changing of our culture. We talk in 140 character tweets – so how can we expect young adults today to be patient enough to read pages upon pages of description? It saddens me to think that this story is one of many that will end up lost as a result – so if you decide to read just one “classic” American story this year, think about choosing this one.

Don’t just take my word for it! Check out what these bloggers say!

As The Crow Flies (And Reads!)


Lydia
24 May, 2012
Classics, Historical, reviews
4 comments
, , ,

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Order from:

 

Reason for Reading:
  • This was required reading for my American Lit class.

I also recommend:

Summary from GoodReads:

Of all the contenders for the title of The Great American Novel, none has a better claim than The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Intended at first as a simple story of a boy’s adventures in the Mississippi Valley-a sequel to Tom Sawyer-the book grew and matured under Twain’s hand into a work of immeasurable richness and complexity. More than a century after its publication, the critical debate over the symbolic significance of Huck’s and Jim’s voyage is still fresh, and it remains a major work that can be enjoyed at many levels: as an incomparable adventure story and as a classic of American humor.

My Review:

It’s always daunting, isn’t it, to review a classic that so many people have read?

We discussed Huck Finn in my American Lit class this semester, and overall there really was quite a bit to discuss, despite the story being a very well-known one (at least to me). There is more to this book than than a simple story of a boy and a man floating down the river in a raft.

What I loved about this reading of Huck Finn is that we were also to read Toni Morrison’s Introduction to it. It was through this Introduction that I was able to see the story in a completely new light – and to understand just what was so “wonderfully troubling” about it.

Morrison talks a lot about silence in the book – the silence in those moments of floating down the river, the silence with regard to learning much of anything about Jim’s family, the silence with which Huck treats his friendship with Tom. Then there’s the silence of Jim toward Huck – why did he fail to disclose who that man was under the cloth?

This is an extraordinarily troubling book, but yes.. a wonderful one as well. It’s enlightening – it shows how hard the struggle was to accept the idea that a human is a human, no matter his or her skin color. It’s educational, it reminds us of where we’ve come from in an effort to remind us of where we should not return. It’s captured history through the dialect of Jim. It’s a look at two individuals escaping slavery – Jim the actual slavery, and Huck, escaping abuse at the hand of his father.

I always recommend these books. Tom Sawyer is more suited to younger audiences (although I personally find Tom to be a scoundrel), but Huck Finn is a must read for teenagers and adults.

Don’t just take my word for it! Check out what these bloggers say!

Blatant Biblioholic

Good Books and Good Wine


Lydia
9 February, 2012
Classics, reviews, Social Issues
5 comments
, , , , ,

The Shining by Stephen King

Order from:

 

Reason for Reading:
  • A friend of mine is a HUGE Stephen King fan and I wanted to explore horror this year – so .. here we go!

I also recommend:

Summary from GoodReads:

Danny is only five years old, but he is a ‘shiner’, aglow with psychic voltage. When his father becomes caretaker of an old hotel, his visions grow out of control. Cut off by blizzards, the hotel seems to develop an evil force, and who are the mysterious guests in the supposedly empty hotel?

My Review:

Here’s the thing about Stephen King.

… He scares the bejeezus out of me.

Seriously. So, I’m going to tell you a story about picking this book up. No joke at all. This is what happened.

I picked up The Shining around 9pm at night. I wanted to read, it was there, it needed to be read. But I’d heard horrors about Anthony Hopkins and that hotel in Colorado and.. I wanted to be able to sleep. So I told myself – I’ll read ’til it gets scary.

150 pages later, I thought.. huh, this isn’t that bad. I’ll keep reading…

Then my mind began to process everything coming through it and OH MY GOSH I COULD NOT CLOSE MY EYES.

I fully expected lots of gore, lots of slashing madness, but what I didn’t expect was the psychological impact something like a shaking elevator, or locking someone in a walk-in fridge would do to me. My hands were SHAKING as I read the book, but.. to be honest, it was a lot of fun and I can’t wait to muster the courage to dive into my next Stephen King adventure – “It”.

Don’t just take my word for it! Check out what these bloggers say!

The Librarian Reads


Lydia
8 February, 2012
Classics, Horror, reviews, Suspense/Thriller
2 comments
, , , ,

The Turquoise by Anya Seton

Order from:

 

Reason for Reading:
  • I’ve had this on my TBR for two years, figured it was time to get around to it.

I also recommend:

Summary from GoodReads:

It is the story of a beautiful, gifted woman who leaves the magic mountains of her native New Mexico for the piratical, opulent, gaslit New York of the 1870s—only to end her search for happiness back in the high, thin air of Santa Fe.

Santa Fe Cameron, named for the place of her birth, was the child of a Spanish mother and a Scotch father and inherited from both a high degree of psychic perceptivity. Natanay, an American Indian, saw this and gave the little orphan a turquoise amulet as a keepsake; this turquoise, the Indian symbol of the spirit, dominates her life.

For Santa Fe Cameron, life is made up of violent contrasts: the rough wagon of the gay young Irish medicine vendor who brings her East and the scented hansom cabs and carriages waiting before her own Fifth Avenue mansion; the glittering world of the Astors and a dreary cell in the Tombs.

My Review:

Have you heard of Anya Seton?  I sure hadn’t.  I’m not sure what possessed me to put this book on my TBR list back in 2009, but THANK GOODNESS I did.  Because y’all, this book was magnificent.

It was published first in 1946, and the copy I got from the library was bound in one of those old style books – unassuming, no pictures, gold lettering on top of an orange cover.  I looked at that book and thought.. what was I thinking?  And then I started to read… and I read more and more and next thing I know I’m waking up at 6am so I can pick up where I left off.

This is an epic story.  Santa Fe Cameron was born to a dying mother, and her father dies when she reaches the mere age of 7.  She is taken in and raised by a local family – but is always considered to be different, due to the Scottish features of pale skin and gray eyes.  Early in the story, she is told she will have to make one of two choices, and … you, the reader, can decide if she made the right choice.

Santa Fe’s trip through this story is a rough one.  It’s filled with love and heartbreak, gain and loss, and some of the most intelligent, strong, female characters I’ve ever read in a book of this age.  I adored this story, and like I said earlier, I am so glad I put it on my list.  This one is highly, highly recommended by me – and I cannot wait to get to the other Seton book I have here sitting on my desk.

Check out these reviews!

Book Group of One

Lydia
24 January, 2012
Classics, Historical, reviews
1 comment
, , ,

My Antonia by Willa Cather

Order from:

 

Reason for Reading:
  • I’ve heard about Willa Cather for quite some time now, so I figured it was time to pick something up.

I also recommend:

Summary from GoodReads:

The story of Antonia Shimerda is told by on of the friends of her childhood, Jim Burden, an orphaned boy from Virginia. Though he leaves the prairie, Jim never forgets the Bohemian girl who so profoundly influenced his life. An immigrant child of immigrant parents, Antonia’s girlhood is spent working to help her parents wrest a living from the untamed land. Though in later years she suffers betrayal and desertion, through all the hardships of her life she preserves a valor of spirit that no hardship can daunt or break.When Jim Burden sees her again after many years he finds her “”a rich mine of life”,” a figure who has turned adversity into a particular kind of triumph in the true spirit of the pioneer.

My Review:

I feel a sort of kinship with this book.  I wasn’t forced to read it when I was in school, so I approached it with fresh, adult eyes and I think that made the experience one that is an experience to cherish.  I also grew up in Nebraska, and it’s so farare that I read stories set there that I felt an immediate connection.

My Antonia begins somewhat slow – and after reading a particularly difficult book, I’ll admit, my heart sunk a bit.  But once the story got going, once I started being sucked into the narrative of this young boy, I started to fall in love with the writing, the story, and the characters.

Immigration, and treatment of immigrants, always provides an interesting topic to read, and write about, and that shows in this book.  As an adult, I appreciated much more the hardships and tragedies experienced, then I would have as a teenager, which results in putting Willa Cather on the list of authors I want to experience more of.

Check out these reviews!

Rocks, Waves, Beach

Lydia
12 January, 2012
Classics, Coming of Age, Historical
10 comments
, , ,