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A review by zbmorgan
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
4.0
This is absolutely one of the most under-rated classics of all time. The writing isn't as smooth at times as Dickens, although that could be the translation, but there is so much more here than any musical or film version can capture. While Fantine and Marius and Cosette usually are the focus of the viewer, the reader spends the most time with Jean Valjean, one of the greatest literary heroes of all time. His struggles with how difficult it is to make the right choice - and how impossible it is to make the wrong one - are the epitome of heroism.
Hugo was also light years ahead of his time in the way he talks about crime and equality. During one of the trials, he makes fun of the lawyers who vilify a poor man for stealing bread, because they cannot see the cycle of poverty. We've spent years continuing to not see the cycle of poverty in America and are just beginning to talk about what we can do as a society, not just the occasional individual, so perhaps if more people read and discussed this book, we'd have a different outlook.
Hugo was also light years ahead of his time in the way he talks about crime and equality. During one of the trials, he makes fun of the lawyers who vilify a poor man for stealing bread, because they cannot see the cycle of poverty. We've spent years continuing to not see the cycle of poverty in America and are just beginning to talk about what we can do as a society, not just the occasional individual, so perhaps if more people read and discussed this book, we'd have a different outlook.