Archive for Musicals.Net Musicals.Net |
| Katie-chan |
Reading the BrickHi,I understand that a lot of you here have read the unabridged English translation (or even the original French version  ) of Les Miserables in this forum? Wow. I'm impressed.
Can you tell me your tactics? Any way to not give up after like 200 pqges? I bought the Brick for $ 7.98 a few months ago. It's the only unabridged paperback version that's available in English. So I started reading it. It was hard, but it worked - at first. You know, English isn't my native language, but I thought I was pretty good at it - until I started reading Les Mis. When they started talking about all this political Napoleon/battle/whatever stuff, I actually skipped like 50 - 60 pages. Shame on me. In the end, I stopped reading around the time of the Valjean trial (page 300-somethig, I think)... I still feel really bad about that. I mean, I love to read, and I read a LOT, and if it's an "easy" book, I read up to 100 pages an hour. But this one... Did you guys just rush through it like it was Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets or did you sometimes "force" youself to go on? How long did it take you? Does anyone have any tips for me to finish it? (Maybe I'll even start at the beginning again... I don't know.) Katie |
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| Moci |
Truth be told, I pretty much devoured the whole thing in about a week. There is more than one translation though, so how enjoyable it is can depend on whose you're reading. The Lee Fahnstock & Norman MacAfee one is my personal favourite (although recently I've only been able to find my Norman Denny translation, which is a bit clunky and probably best avoided). If you've got the Hapgood translation, then you've not got a hope of getting through it, it's incredibly boring and badly translated. And thats pretty much all the translations that I'm familiar with, although I've heard good things about the Julie Rose translation as well.
I know a lot of people skip stuff on their first readings- the Waterloo section and the Year 1817 part in particular. If you do feel a need to miss these parts out, then you can. They're more long winded descriptions and digressions by Hugo, although they're very well-written and vivid descriptions and digressions. If your interest level is waning though, they won't really affect your understanding of the plot. If you're finding it hard going, then don't force yourself to read loads, just do a few pages at a time. I'm trying to make it through the original French at the moment and I'm finding it hard to work through quickly, not because I'm finding the French too difficult, but just because my concentration levels are different when I'm trying to read nineteenth century novels which aren't in my native language. But breaking it down into bitesized chunks seems to work well, even if I'm likely to be still be reading it in six months time. |
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| Orestes Fasting |
Normally I'm a speed reader, but Les Mis�rables is something I just have to dwell upon. Read a few pages, sink into the ocean of Hugo's prose, pause and stare into space while thinking about what he just said, etc. It's more enjoyable if you're not trying to read it fast.
Here are some other things that might help: 1. Know what you can skip. If you're ten pages into Waterloo and starting to lose patience and wish Hugo would get back to the plot already, it's good to know you can take a deep breath and skip to the last two pages of the digression. The digressions are interesting in and of themselves, but you can skip them without missing plot points. (This is an invaluable resource for knowing which digressions it's okay to skim or miss entirely.) 2. Get a general idea of French history from the Revolution to about the 1850s. Everything after the Revolution and Napoleon tends to get ignored in history class, but since Les Mis is set in the period directly afterwards (1815-1833), it can be very helpful to know the basic political factions (royalists/ultras, Bonapartists, republicans) and the succession of regimes. (The monarchy was restored after Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo in 1815 and Louis XVIII took the throne, succeeded in the 1820s by his ultraconservative brother Charles X, who tightened his absolutist fist too much and was overthrown in the July Revolution of 1830, which instead of a republic led to a constitutional monarchy under Louis-Philippe.) On another, more allegorical level, it's useful to know a little bit about the Revolution of 1848, Louis-Napol�on's coup d'�tat, and the fact that Hugo hated Louis-Napol�on--he often uses the events of Les Mis to 'shadow' more recent happenings. This isn't strictly necessary, of course, but it helped me understand the book a lot better and I was much less bored by the political parts once I had a basic grounding in what was going on. 3. On the other hand, don't feel like you have to understand every word. Hugo is verbose; if something is important he'll probably beat you around the head with it multiple times; he's also fond of obscure allusions that many specialists wouldn't be familiar with, let alone casual readers. Relax and let his prose wash over you. 4. Don't rush through it--read slowly and take breaks if you need to. The first time I read the book, it was over the course of four or six months. I'd read part of it, put it down and read something lighter, and then come back to it a week later. There's no rush. It's not an easy book, but it's worth it. |
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| jackrussell |
It's not something you can read quickly like Harry Potter. It's something you wallow in.
And don't worry about the interminable digressions - the worst two being Waterloo and the discussion of working-class slang, you can skip those without feeling in the least guilty. Maybe go back and read them later though. |
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| High-baritonne |
I tried to read the Norwegian translation. It was horrible, but I'm soon starting on the english translation, I've got it at my summerhouse, and I am visiting it during easter. | ||||
| What you own |
I read everything till Fantines death. Then after that I started to skip around alot. Till we meet Cosette. Which I read all of and Valjean takes Cosettes away. Then I just skipped arould alot. So I read bits and pieces. After a while the Libabrey started calling and demanding it back. Or I would have to pay a pretty big fee. So I kinda gave up.
So I read straight threw till about when he saves Cosette. Then I skipped arould alot. It's hard beauce your like Ughh I know something really excting is going to happen but it's like a really dry part for another 100 pages!! I love Felix's speech through. That I read all of and was proud of my self for doing so. |
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| Katie-chan |
Thanks for your answers.
I have the Fahnenstock/MacAfee translation... I think I'll start reading it this weekend, or during spring break at the latest. But first I'll research a little about that time... (Yeah, the Waterloo section was what I skipped, too.. I mean, come on, he describes all the locations as the capital letter A for like two pages... phh...) I'll let you know how it goes 
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| Set_Buildin_Dad |
I read it shortly after the musical came out. I was doing a lot of airline travel in those days, and reading the brick on those long legs made the time go by faster. I had one occasion where a well educated French gentelmen was in the seat next to me. He was very impressed that I was reading Hugo. I was almost done with the book at that point and we had a nice conversation about it ad Hugo's other work (mainly Hunchback) on the flight. | ||||
| lesmisloony |
The Fahenstock/MacAfee is a little dense, but a lot more readable (in my opinion) than the beautifully accurate Wilbour. It's not as readable as Denny, which is certainly not as faithful.
And Rose looks to be the most readable of all (bordering on hilarity, even), but I've only looked at a few passages thus far. Maybe over the summer... |
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| Vice |
I agree. *wallowwallow* I've been working on it for about 6-8 months. I'm usually a speed reader and I usually have issues finding challenging books so I'm really enjoying the challenge. I had a 9th grade reading level in 4th grade. I read Dorian Gray for fun in 7th grade. The last challenging book I read besides Les Mis was A Clockwork Orange... not using the glossary. (That's too easy.) I REALLY like having a challenge, because it makes me think, and it's unusual... for me. ... It also pisses me off slightly for taking so long to read... lol But I love it. |
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| bigR |
yes, many of us have read the brick, but that's because this section of the forum is crowded with insuferable little nerds. you'd be amazed to find out the things some of us find fascinating 
I don't know how much it took me to read the brick the 1st time, something around 3 months probably... I read it in french (no extra points for that since I'm bilingual) and if it makes you feel better I had studied Hugo at school, I knew bits of Les Miserables by heart since I was 6 years old, I knew several of his poems by heart, I was familiar with 19th century french history, I was familiar with french 19th century novels (we were stanging 19th century novels adapted to the stage when we were still in pre-school!!!). To sum it up, everything you need to understand Les MIs had been hammered into my head since my tenderest infancy... and I still found it incredibly dense (and old fashioned, and grandiloquent, and so many other things., don't get me started on my mixed feelings about the brick..), but incredibly fluent at the same time. Hugo is a master with language. The topics might be dense, but the writing is so good that if you let him take you by the hand the bastard takes you wherever he wants you to go!! 
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| Paula74 |
I love it. 
I bought my Brick back when I was 14 and had just seen the first national tour. I love books...even very long, very wordy books. So The Brick was perfect for me and I just simply started reading. I think it took me about a week...no skipping. I love it then and have read it countless times since. I find that I end up appreciating different parts of it each time as I've grown up. For example, Fantine's downward spiral didn't hold my interest at first and Javert interested me somewhat more than Valjean. Not that I didn't always love Valjean...but now I really find him much more interesting than I did at fourteen. My Brick is all covered with tape, pages folded, passages underlined...I buy new copies, but end up giving them away and going back to my first one. I need to read it again. |
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| MlleTholomy�s |
The Rose translation isn't that bad, really! |
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| Quique |
I've read it straight through once and jumped around a lot twice more. The last time being a couple of summers ago. | ||||
| lizavert |
It took me about four weeks to read it the first time. Of course, I was pretty much reading a paragraph or two every chance I got. | ||||
| What you own |
Two of the things I found hard with the brick is since I tend to read alot at school it was hard to lug arould. I mean god talk about big!! (I now know why it's called a brick. Espically when it's hard cover.) It took up way to much space in my back pack. But becuase when I'm at school I only get to read little bits and pieaces it made it hard. Because thats a book you have to think. It's very easy to get lost. The I would ge confused and have to read it over again. That was probabley my biggest probleam. | ||||
| MlleTholomy�s |
It gets lighter as time goes by, lol. |
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| lesmisloony |
The French one came in three little paperback volumes, so I found it easy to always have the first one on me throughout high school...
...never got past the bishop, though. Maybe if I gave it another shot I'd get further, what with all the Racine, Moliere, Corneille, and Descartes I've been assigned lately. |
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| Paula74 |
I used to buy purses and such based on how well my Brick would fit in them along with necessary mundane things like wallets and make-up and keys. |
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| Torrentious |
If it's for entertainment value that I read, I would personally AVOID all "unabridged" versions (especially of any classic books) and go straight for the much updated ones with all the boring/useless stuff cut out.
I really don't know how people can prefer the "unabridged" editions of everything. To me, that's almost like saying "they should put a new section at the bookstore for unedited books". That's almost exactly what many classics are, even if the editing they DID receive was just... old-fashioned and minimalistic. |
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| ilovebway |
I began reading it before I auditioned for the show at a local theatre but I didn't get very far into it. I usually read when I have a spare moment in the car or when given time in school but it's so huge that I wasn't able to carry it around. I'm hoping to read it over the summer (granted, if my future AP Lang teacher doesn't assign us a hevay load of summer course work). | ||||
| mezzogeek |
It took me a whole summer, but I managed it  Thing was, I kept getting it out of my local library, and going back every two weeks to renew it. I finally found a copy in a second-hand book store by the time I got to Marius leaving home
I haven't read it all the way through again, but I tend to dip in and out of it. |
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| music is my life!!! |
i downloaded it off google books last month lol
i'd read the first section at school, but found ti sooo pointless...... stupid bishop of digne.... then i skipped to the fantine pages, which i found to be simply beautiful! |
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| MlleTholomy�s |
Y-You didn't like Monsieur Myriel? D: |
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| lesmisloony |
*joins in the D: making* | ||||
| bigR |
And who decides what is the boring/useless stuff? Do you trust the criteria of a publishing house employee who's been told by his boss, "cut me 300 pages out of that brick so that we can reduce production costs and earn more money". Because, surprise!, and welcome to the real world, that's the true reasoning behind abridged editions. And you know, there is also a reason why they only make abridged version with the classics. And it's not because they are more boring or difficult to read. They'd love to abridge any famous book they know they are going to sell anyway. But they don't because most authors would never give their permission. They butcher classics because they are public domain and they can do it for free. |
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| music is my life!!! |
because although he's important in the plot, i just couldn't be bothered to read all that nonsense.... plus, there's not really any girls' roles in that section for the show, and i needed to do some fantine research!
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| lesmisloony |
Tsk.
bigR, I'm always so interested to see what you have to say about the publishing world. I'd never considered any of those points when it comes to... abridgement? (I wanted to put abridgenation)... but they're very valid! I hate abridged stuff. And I hate buying movies that aren't in widescreen. If somebody went to all the trouble to write those extra pages or to decorate the set in that corner of the shot, I want to be able to see it, dangit! As to Hugo's digressions: I complain about them, but in fact when it comes time for me to read them I don't mind terribly. Mostly because I ravenously devour any extra morsel of information about the time period that I can. We could write some killer convent-based fanfic, you guys. |
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| Disney-Bway27 |
I'm still working on it. I'm hoping to make a pretty big dent on it over Spring Break--I purchased it back in January and with my language arts class forcing us to read Great Expectations and To Kill a Mockingbird (a positively wonderful novel--thank goodness I read it before this awful class, though), I've had almost no time to read it though. Oddly enough, I'm not having many problems reading it. I found myself getting sidetracked when it was introducing Fantine and her friends but after that, I found it quite engaging. Another odd thing that's been happening to me while reading is that I can stop reading and come back two weeks later and continue reading like nothing happened. Since I've had no time to read it, I've only just gotten to Fantine's death. So far, it's a wonderfully entrancing novel. I'm hoping to finish it during the Summer.
Slightly off-topic, but one day my language arts teacher was comparing Victor Hugo and Charles Dickens and practically slammed Hugo and made Dickens out to be a literary god. After saying Hugo only wrote two novels, I had to object. It was just getting ridiculous. We had a full-fledged debate between Hugo and Dickens... The sad thing is I won. I'm quite an opinionated little person, so that probably helped. It also probably helped that I cannot stand Dickens. He's the kind of author that comes up with fantastic plots and converts them to page very poorly. Hugo, fortunately, comes up with fantastic plots and converts them to page very successfully.
Dickens > Hugo anyday. |
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| ilovebway |
^I have to agree a bit. While I think Dickens is pretty good, there are some books that I just cannot digest. I remember getting a headache after reading the first three pages of Oliver! last year. | ||||
| Mademoiselle Lanoire |
Sadly, that's the impression you'd get from the average bookstore. |
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| jackrussell |
Don't ask me to develop the point, but I'd have thought it easier to find similarities than differences between Hugo and Dickens. I like both but the latter's early stuff is unimpressive, and I too was very disappointed by Oliver Twist. | ||||
| Bramblefox |
I read three different abridged versions before I found my unabridged copy a year ago. THe reason why I kept reading abridged is because at the time I didn't know how big the Brick was, so first I read a 400-page version, then an 800-page version, then one that was 1000 pages. THEN I finally found the unabridged and read it in about two weeks...it kind of helped that I had read the abridged first, but I would never go back to those measly copies. One of the things I had noticed about the 1000-page version is on Javert's suicide chapter it cuts out his note--it goes directly from his sitting down to write to signing it, and that bugged me. So yeah...I've read the unabridged twice, I think, and I go back every so often to re-read certain bits here and there. My book isn't very marked--just a few underlines and thoughts in the miniscule margins--but the cover is beginning to look rather dog-eared.
^About Dickens...I always disliked Dickens. When I was 13 or so Mom decided that I should start getting into the classics more (see what she unleashed?), and I grabbed 'Great Expectations'. I spent more time in that book sleeping than actually reading it. The beginning I liked, but after page 50 or so I started losing interest. I've read 'Oliver Twist' and 'Nicholas Nickleby', and I'm still surprised that I got through OT. The only reason I read Nickleby is because I saw an excellent stage presentation of the book and wanted to see their source. The stage version was better. Much, much better. |
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| Jagienka |
Cuts... out... the note?!
Gahh. I love his super precise letter. It makes me want to see Gisquet's face when he gets it. Thank God in my language there are no abridged versions. |
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| MariekeLovesEnjolras |
I got my copy signed by Hans Peter Janssens. Apart from that it's all perfect ... still .... | ||||
| MlleTholomy�s |
Pff. I pwnz you allz. My brick's cover is torn, splashed constantly from my leaking waterbottle, scrapped from the dirty floor, it has pen marks from this annoying girl in my Science class, aaaaand there's bookmarks on every page. | ||||
| Bramblefox |
^^ I know!! I love Javert's letter, and I knew that there should have been SOMETHING there, but they had the unmitigated gall to cut it out! Gah!
(On a side note, except for the abridgement I kind of liked that copy because it had illustrations and the pages had been type-set, not printed, so they felt AWESOME.) ^ How long have you had your copy, Mlle.Tholomyes? |
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| MlleTholomy�s |
Since December. Sooo, three months. I'M A TERRIBLE MOTHER, GUISE. | ||||
| Katie-chan |
I started my Brick this morning, and I'm at page 41 (where M. Myriel talks to the conventionist G---)
This is probably completely OT, but Katie doesn't get it. What's so great about that line? |
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| Katie-chan |
I started my Brick this morning, and I'm on page 41 (where M. Myriel talks to the conventionist G---) now
This is probably completely OT, but Katie doesn't get it. What's so great about that line? |
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| bigR |
Don't worry. You'll get it in about 700 pages
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| lesmisloony |
I'm excited on your behalf.
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| Bramblefox |
Yay, another Brick-reader! *applauds*
The reason why the 'hat' line is so great is because of the context...it's totally random and off the wall.
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| Katie-chan |
Thank you *bows* Currently: Page 139. If I continue reading that fast, I'll be done within a month And Spring Break starts next week, so I'll have even more time to read (but I'll probably just hang around at MdN...)! 
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| Lara |
I read the unabridged version when I was twelve and I really want to reread it now that I have a better knowledge of France and the time. I also skimmed some stuff that I want to go back and read now.
If only I had the same homework load as I did when I was twelve! |
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| Katie-chan |
I hate you 
Currently: Page 221 (something like that). Now I've reached the part I really don't like (had to force my way through it last time); it's this "Who Am I" part, where he's like, Should I go and tell them I'm actually Jean Valjean, or not? It's like 500 pages But it belongs to the story, and I intend to read everything that belongs to the story - I can skip things like "The Year 1817" and the Waterloo part, but not that.
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| MlleTholomy�s |
I read it when I was twelve; I was such a naive kid, that, I didn't even guess that they abridged it. It took me a year to figure that one out . . . |