Read Along: Les Misérables -Volume 4: Saint-Denis

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**SPOILERS ALERT**     **SPOILERS ALERT**     **SPOILERS ALERT**

Confession time: I’ve not finish this volume yet!  I’m 20 pages shy but am too tired to read (or to even write this post) but I should’ve done this so much earlier.  What can I say… quite a bit actually!  I have to apologise first though as this post may turn out to be a rant!

I was really disappointed with Cosette!  She SWOONED!  *AUGH!*

As it also happened I started reading Mansfield Park too the other week and erm, know I remember why I didn’t finish it – Fanny Price swooned!! *gagging noises*

So Cosette & Fanny swooned for different reasons and I have fainted before (sickness and too much sun) so I’m not dissing the fact that you can faint due to some real illness etc but Gah! I can’t stand my heroines to be weak & swoony!  I ilke them strong and totally kick-ass!  Like…

Eponine!  What a gutsy chick!  I had to take a point off of her for falling for Marius though. She followed him, she manouvered some moves to make him hers and as she died…

with that tragic joy of jealous heart that drag the being they love into death with them, saying, “Nobody shall have him.”

All right, if you’re only reading this then she doesn’t sound so impressive but what she did that caused her death is one of the most touching bit of this book!  Gutsy, indeed!

I was ranting to a friend yesterday who agreed with dislike at Cosette and Marius yet she loves this book for the values being put forth throughout this book, primarily through Valjean but also some via Javert and some others.  I wonder if Cosette and Marius are omitted from the whole novel, whether it’ll make much of a difference?  Well, it will probably not make such a popular musical / movie etc however, we’ll have to consider this further at the end of the novel (in 2 weeks’t time).

Oh, shall I mentioned also that my friend and I actually like Marius’ grandfather?  I’m not at all sure if we’re supposed to like him,  He definitely doesn’t sound like someone I’d like in real life but he’s sooo broken!

Father Mabeuf also touched my heart this week… especially that one time when he was looking for a book to carry under his arm only to realise that he has none left -he’s sold them all! I think if that ever happened to me, it certainly is time to leave this world, as Father Mabeuf did in style!

I’ve definitely enjoyed this volume most to date.  That’s mostly because all these characters are coming together for me and there are a lot of stuff happening in this volume.  I can’t wait for the end though!

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2 thoughts on “Read Along: Les Misérables -Volume 4: Saint-Denis”

  1. Lisa Sachs

    Yes, Tien, this section had more of the human interest in it and so, it was more readable. Now that all the characters have intersected, the rest of the story should be easier to follow. I found the relationship between Marius and Cosette impossible to take but it was a different time and place and that probably was a factor in their being hard to relate to. I saw the movie “Amelie” about 10 or more years ago. Although that movie took place in modern Paris, the beginning of its relationship with her boyfriend had much of the same tone as that of Cosette’s and Marius’. Now we will begin to see a French revolution through the prism of Cosette, Marius, and Jean Valjean. Something must resolve Javert’s pursuit of Jean Valjean. I look forward to reading the end to see how Victor Hugo decided to have it play out.

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  2. Pingback: Read Along: Les Misérables -Volume 5: Jean Valjean | Tien's Blurb

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