Les Misérables

A story of a few angels among a few demons and many miserables

A great storyline and cast of characters who take us through an interesting period of 19th century France. All of them suffering, surviving and in some cases, deeply contemplating their situations and the decisions they face. As an avid student of human behaviour and psychology, my favorite parts were the explorations into the characters, their experiences and the monologues they have with themselves. I believe the book to be a masterpiece in allowing the reader to live through the thoughts and feelings of the characters as they experience different life situations. What I did not like, was the long parentheses given to descriptions of things I am personally less interested in, like the details of the battle of Waterloo, or the multi-chapter description of the sewers of Paris. I found Hugo’s narrations on some things too long for my liking. It felt like Hugo needed to go into grave detail about everything; showing that he had most likely had a richness of life experience when he wrote this book combined with extensive research in many domains.