Les Misérables by Victor Hugo - Part 1: Fantine

Hello and welcome to Part 1 of my Les Misérables Review. I've already given a fair introduction to this series of reviews so let's go right ahead.

If you can't see in the What I'm Reading section, The edition I'm reviewing is by Vintage Classics with a translation by Julie Rose. And by God do they want you to know about how authentically historical they are. This edition includes not only a translator's preface, not only another introduction by someone else, not only a timeline of the June Rebellion where the majority of the story takes place but an ENTIRE ESSAY by Victor Hugo. This all adds up to about fifty pages which I think is a little excessive. I know that they do this to give you some context and to make the whole edition true to the source material but still an entire essay is a bit much. But that's enough of that. Let's talk story. (Warning: SPOILERS)

We start the story from the perspective of the Bishop of Digne and the good he does for his town once he becomes bishop and is known across the land for his kindness to all. So when one day an ex-convict named Jean Valjean enters town and finds it impossible to find lodgings, the bishop is there to help. During the night Jean Valjean sneaks out, steals the silver and leaps the garden wall. He is promptly caught but in a twist the bishop lets him off and even gives him the silver candlesticks he missed. However, on one condition: He uses his newfound wealth to reform his criminal life. Jean Valjean takes the message to heart and breaks parole to go and change his life for the better. We then have a change of scene three years later and we meet a group of eight - one of which is Fantine. They go out and do your typical lovers prancing through the meadow and go out for a meal. The men are preparing a surprise for their ladies and when it finally comes around: They left to go back home to their families, leaving each of their girlfriends outside the restaurant with a short note saying that dinner was paid for. The girls all go their separate ways and everything seems to go on but then we find out that Fantine has a child from her lover that he doesn't know about and now she is left to take care of her. She needs job so decides to head back to her hometown which has been reformed by a mysterious Monsieur Madeleine. She works at a factory and sends what she can of her earnings to her daughter Cozette who she had to leave with some innkeepers called the Thérnardiers. Eventually people find out and she is fired. But the Thénardiers keep asking for money. So Fantine resorts to selling her hair, teeth and even her body to keep the payments up. Valjean saves her from Javert after trouble with a dandy. But Javert reports him to be Jean Valjean. But at the same time what they believe to be Jean Valjean had just been arrested under the name Champmathieu. Javert tells Madeleine about this who then goes the next day to save the poor man as he is the real Jean Valjean. He reveals himself to the court and heads back to Fantine. The book ends with Fantine dying of shock when she finds that he did not bring Cozette and that he is really the ex-convict Jean Valjean.

How delightfully depressing. This is really quite an intense story with a very character driven plot. It's also unnecessarily long. We spend the whole of the first bit with a character with one part to play in the plot. I'm of course talking about The Bishop of Digne. There is way too much time devoted to this guy. He does one thing and then leaves. The next time he is mentioned in the plot is when he dies so he doesn't contribute much. There are actually a few characters like this like Fantine's lover Félix Tholomyès. He has a big rant in one part that takes up a whole chapter and it serves no purpose other than to build his character whom we never see again after the "surprise". Granted both these characters play a big part in the two protagonist's backstories but there was still way too much time for them. Good parts of the story, however are with Monsieur Madeleine. Or more specifically the mystery. Now, as a reader reading at this time I've seen the musical so the twist where Monsieur Madeleine is really Jean Valjean isn't very surprising. But Hugo doesn't treat the reader like an idiot. When it comes to a matter of importance Hugo simply says: "No doubt the reader has figured out that our Monsieur Madeleine is really Jean Valjean" It's very respectful and doesn't gloat at what a good mystery it was. But if you look at it objectively without knowledge of the musical and it does build it up well. There are small hints dropped here and there to lead you to figure it out. For example: a man gets trapped under a cart and before Madeleine saves him Javert mentions that the only person strong enough was a convict from Toulon. He has the silver candlesticks, he mourns when Monsieur Myriel is declared to be dead and he goes pale every time Javert mentions Jean Valjean. If you read it when it came out you would figure it out but it wouldn't be a half bad mystery.

Like I said before this book is far too long with far too many lengthy passages that don't need to be there. Victor Hugo, like many 19th Century French writers as I understand, loves to fully explore how these characters fit into the world and into the real history that he grew up in. He explains what events were happening during the significant events of our characters instead of just letting the story and already serious tension play out. This, obviously, causes pacing problems - especially in the first half. Because the plot hasn't really got rolling yet Hugo has all the space he wants for his relentless historical filler. It takes us over fifty pages before we even get a word about Jean Valjean. As I said in the introduction post each part is split into books. Feel free to completely skip Book 1: A Just Man. It doesn't matter at all. As soon as you get to the next book the first sentence you think to yourself: Oh, here's the plot! I'm not kidding. It is that clear cut. It is important to know that each book was released as a sort of episodic serial but I'm surprised anyone continued to read after the first one. The job of the exposition of your story is to not only introduce themes, characters and set up future conflicts but to draw in your readers and to invest them in your story. It really feels like every other chapter is just pointless. I'm hoping that, as even more characters are introduced and more plot threads are started with the revolution, Victor Hugo will have less time for his tangents and will have to focus on moving the plot forward.

But let's talk characters and seeing how there aren't any real side characters, other than a few nuns and the bishop, let's talk about our mains: Jean Valjean and Fantine. Both of these characters are incredibly interesting to follow Jean Valjean's inner struggle after the bishop lets him off is amazing if short. There is a moment when, after his encounter with Myriel, he steals from young savoyard named Petit-Gervais he steals a coin and after the boy runs off Valjean panics and tries to repent and find Gervais. He fails and collapses to the ground and decides to change his life. It is quite moving. To see this turn so clearly described and the terrible emotional effect it has on this man who has been completely emotionally detached for almost twenty years. I would say that these mental decisions are Hugo's highpoint but then you have Jean Valjean on the Champathieu affair. This decision kind of makes Valjean look like a selfish idiot. After all the good he did. He has to decide whether to save Champmathieu and leave his past behind by ironically revealing himself. That's fine and it's even quite clever but then he makes several good arguments against it. He says to himself that if he stays he can continue to do good for the town and help the poor. I would be fine with that as he does speak very compellingly but then he brings up Fantine. She is currently horribly sick with disease and he's already arranged a horse and cart to go collect Cozette. If he doesn't bring them together Fantine will most probably never recover. So he can help a woman whom he is partly responsible for her illness and continue to do good with one speck on his track record or he can simply save his own immortal soul and most likely be sentenced to death. So this is so frustrating as I know he's going to save Champmathieu and that Fantine will die and moreover I know that Victor Hugo is not a skilled enough author to reconvince me to the other side. It made me very annoyed and even though the following court scene is great in how it's set up and delivered there is still that bug in the back of my mind that knows Fanzine thinks he will bring back her daughter and he won't and she will die. I felt powerless. And I know that the source of conflict is tragedy and obstacles but these decisions are so wrong and out of character. It doesn't help that Champmathieu could be guilty of other crimes (which Valjean says himself) but he just assumes he is innocent. So, to recap, he is abandoning his whole town and a dying mother who's loss and illness is his responsibility for his own immortal soul and a man who might be innocent. This is our hero. I would say, like in my NeverEnding Story review that the rest makes up for it but no, it doesn't. I am seriously angry at this guy now. I appreciate his struggle and how he feels he needs to face his past life head on to defeat it but his actions to help the whole economy of this town and his attempt to redeem himself in the eyes of this woman who thought ruined her life and how he is relentlessly generous with all the money he's made. But now all that has to go down the drain to finally leave his past in the past. But I've rambled long enough. Let's talk antagonists.

The only real antagonist in this is Javert. He comes in just before Madeleine saves the man from under his cart. And, to his credit, he is quite intimidating. He maintains a stoic persona but isn't afraid to show emotion. But every emotion he does show is scary. He looks like a tiger when he laughs. Even the most joyous emotions is made into ferocious roar. When he gets to arrest Madeleine after he reveals himself as Jean Valjean his reaction is priceless. He just stands in the doorway standing tall over both Valjean and Fantine looking proud and menacing. To those who know him well, it says, it would have been terrifying just because of a fault in his buttoning on his coat. He was exciting and you know he was revelling in the righteous power bestowed to him. He is a very good antagonist as he is never evil except when he forces Valjean to reveal that he did not bring Cozette in front of Fantine causing her to fall back in shock and die. I suppose the Thénardiers are suitably despicable but from what I understand they don't play much of a role until the next part so there is plenty more to go.

There are a lot of intense philosophical and psychological discussions and themes. It can be quite tiring. However in Book 1, although it is pointless, has a great discussion in Chapter X: The Bishop Before An Unknown Light between the bishop and a dying Conventionist - a people of proto-anarchist and anti-monarchic beliefs. The Bishop of course initially despises him and his whole collection of people; in spite of his good nature. But as they get further and further into their discussion of beliefs and why this man is the way he is and so by the time the man dies the bishop has learned to see others' beliefs in a new light. It goes to show that two so different can still become friends and come to accept each other for who they are. It's an honest-to-god masterpiece that sets the tone and theme for the book beautifully. If there is something to read in Book 1 then this is definitely it.

And that was Part 1 of my Les Miserables review and it was . . . okay. There is a lot that drags and a lot that is incredible and gripping. There is a lot that is really quite interesting as a case study of the times but there is plenty that drags it down. I'm thinking of those unnecessary backstories and that ending. If you are in the right mindset for your morals to be challenged and pushed further than you knew then this has some of the highest highs. But if you're looking for an epic battle between the poor and upper classes in revolution then you're going to have to be patient for quite a while. Take from that what you will and I will see you for the next part.