Do you know the feeling when you wake up on a Saturday morning and you don't have to read the book that you have been reading for the past month. No, you have never gone through that you say. Dear friends let me tell you from personal experience that it is one of the most awesome feelings ever. One fine Saturday morning I woke up and I did not have to read Les Miserables (by Victor Hugo). For those of you who wonder I am indeed talking about the unabridged version of the classic by Hugo, the e-book of which can be obtained here. This book, the main story of it at least, is 1202 pages long and by far the biggest book I have read to date (at least as far as I know the biggest book I have read thus far had been Rama Returned by Arthur C Clarke)
In 2010 I had read the other classic by Hugo, The Hunchback of Notre-dame, which was long, but shorter compared to this.
Let me get the reason of reading this book out of the way in this post so that I may concentrate on actually what I want to say about the book and its characters. I found out that the movie version of the book is coming out sometime in November this year and consists of a stellar cast in the form of Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway and Helena Bonham-Carter. Here is the trailer. Also, this book is in my "Books to read before I die" list in my Goodreads library. For people who don't know what goodreads is, please check this out.
Now before I start writing about the book let me say that the rest of the post is for only those who at least know the story by either having read an abridged version, having watched previous versions of the movie, or having watched the musicals. If you have a dim recollection of the outline of the story and don't plan to read the unabridged version then go ahead and stay with me. If you want to actually read the the long form of the book then now is the time to quit this post.
Les Miserables is the time tested classic. The basic outlines of the story still stand relevant. Even the author mentions it. As long as there are children affected by poverty, women who take to prostitution because of poverty and men who take to crime because of poverty this book will make sense. The technology might have changed from that of 19th century France, a nation agitated and in the cusp of popular revolution, to that of today, a world described as being a global village (which is true, as cliched as it may sound). The hues of the characters might not be the same but stereotypes still exist. Hugo is a master of social and spiritual commentary. The book is dotted with Hugo's own bias about the society, about the undermining of the religious values which he felt needed to be upheld, his own partisan belief that revolution and agitation caused sadness and placed an unwarranted stranglehold on the already weakened pulses of the society. All this make this book more of a humanities book than a work of fiction.
The story can be stated in two lines. It is the story of a man persecuted justly or unjustly (depending on whichever side of the fence you sit on) who beats all odds to do good to the society by overcoming all demons present within and outside of him.
The story starts with a very good Bishop, who is so kind to the point of absurd naivete. But the Bishop chooses to be naive. Let me explain with an instance. Once the Bishop before he became the Bishop is said to have come across Napoleon Bonaparte and seeing the Bishop the Emperor asked him who he was. To this the Bishop says "Sire, you are looking at a good man and I at a great one". Now this kind of presence of mind requires intelligence. Yet, the Bishop continued to keep his parish door open at all times, citing that a place of worship should never be closed. In walks a paroled convict, who had been imprisoned for 19 years of his life, from the age of 19, for, get this, stealing a loaf bread (this by the way proves that the French and especially Parisians are a little iffy). So anyway he is reformed by the Bishop and his kindness and renews his faith in the Supreme Being and goes along. He goes to another part of France, sets up a glass and beads factory and becomes a model citizen. Now enters into this story a woman of no means, destitute and with a child whom she has handed over to a really dank family in a sublime fit of singular stupidity. Subsequently she succumbs to an uptight (oh my God, French and uptight, that must be a first) police Inspector's treatment of her. But before this she extracts a promise from the reformed convict that he will rescue and look after her daughter. In the mean time the malevolent police Inspector begins to suspect that the man the town looks up to (the reformed man is held as a Messiah of the region, having provided jobs to the people of the vicinity) is indeed the ex-convict who is said to have committed an additional crime. Now after the promise is given to the destitute woman the reformed man is arrested by the police inspector and this also leads me to observe that this is becoming an exceptionally long post.
So to cut a long story short, the reformed man, let's call him Jean Valjean, actually keeps his promise and takes care of the destitute woman's daughter (let's call the daughter Cosette) brings her up as his own kid, loves her to bits and when it comes to the clutch, sacrifices everything to unite her with the guy whom she loves and who loves her in return.
Th social commentary woven as the cross-strands in the story is that human depravity takes a myriad of forms, and fortitude opposite that depravity is provided with courage, goodwill and steely awareness. We are shown the good side of humanity by characters such as Gavroche, Enjloras and even Eponine. The bad side are portrayed by Mr and Mrs Thenardiers. The indifferent ones in the society are portrayed by Inspector Javert, who weighs every decision with his head and sees everything in black and white. Finally, when he does feel some stirrings in heart and lets Jean go, he is overcome by the conflict raging in his head that he takes his own life. Metaphorically, it is a testament to the fact that indifference to the issues deadens you. Feel passionately and one will find a reason to live.
In finality, all I would like to say is that, please read the book or at least watch the movie.
P.S: I am so sorry that the post is so long.
No comments:
Post a Comment