Les Miserables read-a-long 2026 | Première Partie (1)

Great, I will listen to that, thanks for the link!

@MotherOfCatBoy It was more about Hugo and what happened to him, to make him leave it 12 years between starting and finishing the book! They look at the actual manuscript and pinpoint where he stopped/started again. Talk about his politics and Jersey/Guernsey.

Are there any spoilers in there @Neitherherenorthere ? I’m v keen to read around the historical period without spoiling my first read of the story!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06vz9nq

This Radio 3 ‘Literary Pursuits Les Misérables’ is interesting. Discussing the 12 year gap between Hugo starting and finishing the novel. Enjoyable if you have a spare 45 minutes anywhere for a podcast?

Thank you to @Onceuponatimethen for that link - ‘England was not a healthy, grown up sort of place’ 🤣

The last, long paragraph of today’s chapter is quite something! Depressing how much it resonates with the current political climate - a certain US president and his entourage in particular…

@AgualusasL0ver There are some funny quotes in here which he apparently may or may not have said: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2002/mar/02/artsandhumanities.highereducation www.theguardian.com/education/2002/mar/02/artsandhumanities.highereducation]]]]

Apparently Hugo wasn’t keen on England @AgualusasL0ver

I haven’t made a lot of comments here but am keeping up- it’s the only thing I was keeping up with for a few days this week when I was feeling slumpy. Really enjoying the read and the discourse.

Yes he had time to dwell on his fellow man but where would his understanding and experience have come from? Where would his motivation have been whilst pursuing love affairs and reading (he is clearly very well read).

Bienvenu might have thought « why don’t the poor just look for work? » « why don’t they just become servants if they want shelter and feeding » « why are they so lazy that they let themselves get into that state » or even « well they are unintelligent, they bear poverty because they aren’t capable of anything else » (Wince……)

Only empathy and conscience can begin to address deeper thought from Bienvenu, and he only has that from experience when his family fell into hard times?

@SanFranBear I think Bienvenu’s sensitive side would have been there if he was born a peasant. I don’t think it’s a product of being rich. I am enjoying your thoughts though 😊

The question is would Bienvenu’s sensitivity have led him to « good works » or engendered a burning hatred of the system and led him to become a « Gordon » (🤣) or worse???

Maybe the injustice of peasant life would have made him a murderer or something if the depth of his feelings was something he couldn’t cope with? And he felt it gave him a licence to commit crimes?

Isn’t that what Hugo thinks? Help me out here wise Mumsnetters 🤣 Isn’t this why Hugo values education?

@MotherOfCatBoy Yes, I agree! I just watched ‘The Leopard’ on Netflix, partly about the formation of Italy. Also I realised how relatively recently the states of Germany and Poland were formed as we know them now! (Yep! Never studied history in any depth!)

I think it was Maupassant who wrote about 1870 in Paris? Seem to remember a story?

The Revolution was incredibly complicated and protracted, and many would say the ideals of 1789-92 were trampled in the Terror of 93 which became a bloodbath as the a Revolution « ate its own children. » It was a decade really before Napoleon took it all by the scruff of the neck.

I read Mantel’s A Place of Greater Safety last year and it was highly educational, but many of G’s references went even further back to the Wars of Religion in the 17thC (which were brutal). I’m currently reading a history that goes from 1789 to 2015 and what’s surprised me is we hardly ever talk about 1870 - the siege of Paris and the Commune. It was so violent! There were revolutions in 1789, 1830, 1848 and 1870…

Sorry, new pet subject at the moment! It’s the kind of stuff you would know about your own country but is a revelation for understanding the country next door..

I agree with you, @Neitherherenorthere- I think 😁

I guess what I'm trying to say is that he was able to develop into the sensitive, empathetic person he is because his upbringing was so removed from the peasantry of that time - its almost impossible to think of others, especially favourably, when you don't know where your next meal is coming from, or your newborn baby is ill and you can't afford medication .. Italy obviously changed him - and sounds like much for the better - but even before that, he had time to dwell on his fellow man and their situation that those in poverty - and those Gordon represented - simply didn't have.

Ugh - probably not clear but yes, you're right!

Now I’m thinking about « Let them eat cake… knowing the cake she meant was a kind of bread….

@SanFranBear Yes Bienvenu was able to be a real old softie because of his privileged life but I was really thinking that even the rich can have sensitive, emotional personalities and be decent people at the same time as being unaware of how privileged they actually are?

There is a lot the rich would be amazed by in any century… For example how utterly exhausting and draining it is to have no money and the knock on effects of this. If you haven’t lived that you simply don’t even imagine it even exists. It’s like before you have a baby for example, and people try, but they can’t tell you the daily reality of the first few months… Some things are unimaginable when they are completely outside any of your lived experience.

I was reflecting on Bienvenu’s personality. The revolution didn’t have such a dramatic effect on his peers or even brothers (though I haven’t read chapter 11 yet). Whatever happened in Italy affected a very sensitive, emotional person and resonated at a very profound level that could only be processed by living a spiritual life.

@MotherOfCatBoy I wanted Hugo to be a better writer than having a plot device called Baptistine 😩🤣

@Purrpurrpurr yes I enjoyed learning about the Dragoons as well. I also agree on your point about how people debate nowadays.

I particularly enjoyed Chapter Ten, it shows a human, doubting side to the Bishop which is in contrast to his almost saintly persona established in the previous chapters.

Here is a man who comforted a condemned prisoner and saw him through his execution, who braved the mountains controlled by the notorious criminal Cravatte - but who can’t bring himself to visit a local man rather wonderfully described as a sheep with scab! When it comes to extending the hand of friendship (or at least faith) to a man considered to be a political outcast, the Bishop hesitates. He tries to make himself visit, but turns back. The only path leading to G’s house is overgrown as nobody will have anything to do with him, including the Bishop. He only visits when G is reported to be on his deathbed. Perhaps one of the hardest things in the world is to engage with someone we really disagree with at a fundamental level.

I really liked the part of their discussion where G basically says ‘well, you are rich, what do you know?’ And the bishop does not rush to defend himself and say ‘but I’m humble and I live like this’. G then goes on to take back his personal attack as being unfair to their discussion. I was reading this thinking we could do with a bit more of this when people with very different political views have a debate!

I will be re-reading this a lot and looking up all the people and incidents mentioned in their arguments, I did not know Huguenot families had to host the military and pay for their keep, there is so much interesting information here to delve into.

I really enjoyed chapter 10 too. A meeting of minds of 2 thoroughly decent people recognising that in each other despite their different sides. Alongside the regret of not having visited earlier.

I agree that Ch10 was a cracker - I enjoyed hearing the old revolutionary (iI gave him the name Gordon!) talk and expound his ideals... probably the first time he's done that for many a year but it was clear and certainly opened the Bishops (and my) eyes! As mentioned above, I certainly lean more towards the 'beasts' viewpoints on many things so was good to see the Bishop considering his opinions so fully.

I also agree it was definitely a 'school day' as I thought that the revolution was a sort of 'once and done' type affair - the storming of the Bastille, Napoleon bunged in charge, loose ends tied up including the killing of the monarchy. Obviously, obviously, it wasn't as smooth or quick as that - they completely changed their country - but it certainly comes across like that in most modern references.

I was also fascinated that he has also has two brothers.. love that this often happens in older novels, random family members crop up all the time.

He must have been a real old softie even in his privileged life before the revolution.
See, on this point @Neitherherenorthere, i think its because of his privileged life that he could afford to be a softie.. sounds like regular life was brutal for the plebs!

We also see he’s relatively neutral in politics, perhaps.. he doesn’t seem ardent about Napoleon but is magnanimous enough to employ a loyal Bonapartiste ex soldier when he is sacked by the Mairie..

I think she may be just a plot device.. sometimes it’s convenient for the author to place a sister/ helper to give another point of view? We want to flesh her out because we care about a female character but to Hugo maybe she just serves a plot or narrative purpose.. 🙄

In today’s chapter we learn that M Bienvenu has two brothers! One a General, one a retired Prefect who lives in Paris. Which, if we go back to Baptistine, makes us wonder why she is staying with Bienvenu rather than one of them - did she have a choice or did she just end up as the unmarried sister being taken on by the most « selfless » sibling? (Who might have wanted a hand around the house…)

Perhaps she isn’t even his sister in reality? Perhaps she too has a “past” like Bienvenu??? Just a thought?

@EmbroideredGardener- I agree it’s curious why Baptistine hasn’t married. I did wonder if this was due to the family losing its fortunes in the Revolution, but have just looked back at the first chapter and worked out that she would have been 39 in 1789 so it can’t be that. I’m also wondering why she didn’t enter a convent.

Bienvenu, however, is also older than I thought. If he is 75 in 1815, then he must have been 49 in 1788, which means that the première partie de sa vie avait été donnée au monde et aux galanteries lasted a lot longer than I initially imagined! It also makes his trip to the remote area where he met the bandit Cravatte more impressive given his age!