Les Misérables by Victor Hugo - Part 2: Cozette

Welcome back to the Les Mis . . . you've read the title you know what I'm doing, let's just get into this. I have nothing more to introduce so on with the show. (Warning: SPOILERS)

We "start" the "story" in Toulon where a ship of the line called The Orion is being docked. Unfortunately, probably due to the severe damage on the ship, something goes awry and the crew becomes endangered. Jean Valjean saves them but climbing on and helping them down but falls into the water in-between two big ships and is presumed dead. Yeah, seeing how the last part is named after this guy I'm sure he's gone for good. We then go to Montfermeil where we see the young Cozette in the care of the Thénardiers where she is being forced into doing laborious tasks for them. Madame Thénardier sends Cozette out to get water from the river but once she's gotten it she finds she isn't strong enough to carry it back. Then a man arrives and helps her carry it back and is shocked to find out who she is. After he gets a room he helps Cozette from getting beaten and doing chores whenever he can. He even gets her a doll she wanted. The next morning he confers with Master Thénardier to take the girl and pays 1500 francs for her. Master Thénardier realises that he could've gotten even more from him and runs after them. Jean Valjean refuses on terms that he has permission from the mother and Master Thénardier returns, scolding himself for not bringing his gun. We of course find out that the man is Jean Valjean and they travel cross country to a place called the Old Gorbeau Slum. Everything seems okay as they settle into their new home but tragedy strikes as Javert has found out Valjean's location and new identity and runs out to get him. On the chase Valjean meets the man he saved from being crushed in the first part who lets them take refuge in the local convent parading as brothers who work as gardeners. Does that story sound shorter to you than the previous reviews? If it didn't it did for me. And that isn't actually due to this being the shortest part - oh no, sir. It's because NOTHING HAPPENS! Nothing at all. What I just told you takes up about 40 percent of this part. The rest is completely pointless and boring and stupid and, most of all, completely self-indulgent. The whole first 50 pages, like in Part 1, is devoted to something that is completely superfluous to the plot. Even to Part 1's credit it did explore and build this character of the Bishop and how a man like this could change someone's perspective on life. This talks about Napoleon and the Battle of Waterloo which took place - oh wait let me think - OVER 10 YEARS BEFORE THE MAIN STORY. Napoleon, by the time of our story is rotting away on the remote island of St. Helena. It does give some building for Thénardier as we see him looting bodies on the battlefield but 1.) There is plenty more building for him later on. And 2.) It only lasts about 2 or 3 pages so it's not exactly substantial. It brought to light a problem with the first part swell which was the overall historical references. Historical references are fine to ground your story in reality but they have to be relevant to the story or themes and have to come in when the story itself comes across it. Hugo grasps the latter, sometimes, but seems to forget about the arguably much more important first rule. It also needs to be concise and not dwelled upo- HA HA HA HA! I'm sorry, I couldn't finish that sentence. If you've seen Les Mis you know that "concise" is not a way to describe it in any way, shape or form. Except maybe to describe my patience with Victor Hugo. Apparently it was originally released episodically but I don't know why anyone would keep on reading. As soon as this fifty page biography of Napoleon ends, just like in Part 1, the story immediately begins with Jean Valjean in Toulon prison and Hugo says:

I won't go into boring details of what happened between his arrest and now

If memory serves correct I believe that I audibly swore at that point. Hugo is fine pouring hundreds of paragraphs into this ineffectual side story but doesn't want to bore us with the frivolous details of exploring our main character's inner turmoils or building character. No, it is much more important to take about Master Thénardier looting corpses and just generally being an arsehole . . . again, OVER TEN YEARS BEFORE! But I digress . . . just like Victor Hugo because I'm not done. He then uses the entirety of books 6 and 7 to divulge and explore the entire history of this one convent that Valjean hides out in with Cozette. But seriously I digress.

I cannot stress enough how disappointing this part was for me. It is the shortest which in my mind would mean less historical gibbering and more pure story but in Hugo's mind means no character development in any way and twice the historical jabbering. It's infuriating. We finally see more from Cozette's perspective but that's still disappointing in the end as I know the next time we see her she'll be all grown up. That's disappointing because it could've been great to see her struggling to deal with this new environment of being with a loving parent at last but also constantly being on the run and in hiding. Instead we just get a small mention here and there saying: "she felt happy". Or even more exciting: "she missed her doll". Can't you just feel the intense conflict oozing through every paragraph. Hell, I know more about the random gardner Valjean saved as Monsieur Madeleine and his inner struggle. I could write an entire essay of my own dissecting everything wrong with this God damn book and I suspect that essay is only going to grow and grow. There is no point talking about the characters or any of that because I don't know anything or care at this point. I've lost my patience with this at this point. THIS EARLY. Thanks for keeping tuned so far because I am rapidly losing faith in this. I know it was another short one but there is nothing more that can be said without repeating myself. Hopefully I'll have something fresh and interesting for you next time that's more than a thousand words long.