Les Miserables read-a-long 2026 | Deuxième Partie (2)

Today's chapter made me sad. Poor M Mabeuf with no book to tuck under his arm.

Funny how popular culture and especially perhaps the musical have set expectations for people (read: me at least!) who have never read this.

I was expecting barricades, flags, students, rifles, "Do you hear the People Sing?" then triumphant finish.

And here we are, almost in October, and the barricades are only now becoming audible, albeit still off-stage.

[ETA: not a criticism btw. Poverty, convents, criminality, family, religion, law, Paris - it's all good stuff lol]

Oh no, Monsieur Mabeuf! Why couldn’t he have kept the purse?! Aargh so annoying! So sad that he’s left with absolutely nothing. Maybe something good will happen on 5th June…

I had a train journey today so I have finally caught up after weeks of being behind! Yesterday's chapter was upsetting - I did think they would make it up before Marius left

On reflection it’s actually quite funny that Hugo is pulling the “subtitles” joke that we see in films so often - what the person says, what they really mean, and the gap between them. But so sad in the outcome.

I was also glad that Marius stood up for Cosette and won’t treat her like that bastard treated Fantine!

I've caught up. I didn't expect it work out either, but I felt sorry for both of them. Agree with everyone's comments.

Thank you for the weekly schedule, Pashazade! It does help to keep us on track.

I found today's chapter deeply affecting. Families are such strange things :/

[ETA: thanks as always @Pashazade for the weekly schedules, helps me keep somewhat in the right place!]

Marius defending Cosette though! Bravo!

Oh no, everything went so wrong in today’s chapter! So much misunderstanding 😞 I suppose it was never going to be the happy family reunion, that would have been too good to be true. Frustrating though!

Urgh, somehow have got ahead of myself, so no chapter to read now until Saturday, never quite sure how this happens!

I am still enmired in the slang chapters. Thanks as always to everyone who's shared their thoughts and expertise.

I also wondered about the Elephant and Castle (my grandma always used to tell me it was named for the Infanta of Castille but apparently this is a south London urban myth). Also thought about Parisians and verlan, although I didn't know the name for it.

I can’t help wondering if authors / readers enjoyed characters pining after each other

I feel like this is still the case, especially in TV writing where a slow burn relationship can be stretched out for multiple seasons. You can't have girl meets boy unless there is an impediment, however contrived, to keep them apart so the audience can enjoy the yearning!

Ugh - not a fan of the slang chapters and for the first time in this read through just wanted him to get on with it.. and actually skimmed the last three (really only needed one, it just went on and on!

Anyway, delighted to be back on track from tomorrow 😁

I’m generally not a fan of abridging books - but I do wonder if I ever reread Les Mis whether I would skip any chapters.

Commenting a bit late on the stalking question, I think that you have to take into account how restricted the access was between young men & women in the 19th century (at least for “respectable” ones) & the impact that inevitably had on relationships.

I’m not an expert on 19th century literature, but I can’t help wondering if authors / readers enjoyed characters pining after each other (similar to how the 18th century readers enjoyed the theme of persecuted innocence in books like Clarissa or Les Liaisons Dangereuses).

I was trying to think if there are other 19th century books with stalkerish behaviour- Cyrano de Bergerac & A la recherche du temps Perry (the narrator - Albertine story but possibly Swann & Odette too) were the 2 that I thought of but happy to be corrected on this by people who know these texts better.

I then wondered which 19th century novels actually feature healthy relationships & that’s also problematic. Jane Austen yes - but then all of the women are in the unhealthy situation of basically trying to catch a man. I like the romance in Agnes Grey & in North & South - but can’t think of many more mid-century works (Dickens doesn’t count due to his insipid heroine problem). Balzac probably has a few (Illusions Perdues I think has a supportive married couple but they ruin themselves supporting a useless BIL) & Zola has Au Bonheur des Dames - but both have far more doomed relationships. I suspect Hardy is the same, but I haven’t read him recently enough to identify the positive ones.

Black Beauty & Anne of Green Gables (although that’s early 20th century) do better on this - but strikingly both were relegated to children’s literature.

I was bored too Piggy, glad we’ll be back to the story tomorrow!

Oh dear. I was v bored by them...

Probably not concentrating.

Thank you, Pashazade!

I really liked* *the chapters on slang. It never occurred to me to think of it as a moral failing or as a representation of the underworld or the evils of society. Interesting idea! I would see slang as an opposition to the standard form and as a kind of codified language for certain groups. Hugo takes it further into the moral realm of right and wrong and good and evil.

I liked his own descriptive language too; it was so vivid. Also, the detail in the examples of slang were astonishing. These chapters were a fun diversion (for once!)

I’m just catching up, I’m three days behind, but have just read the slang chapter (with the English translation on hand which is at times pretty useless and leaves some of it in French!).

You’re right about his delineation between “evil” slang and everything else he describes which is what we would call jargon I suppose, because it’s often specific to a profession. It is so interesting. Even though his description of pulling the slang out from the depths is dramatic and repulsive (and self serving - look what a horrible job I the Author am doing for you!) he takes the time to say how a historian should pay attention to the feelings and worries of the masses as well as the great events - that was probably (?) quite new? And chimes with Tolstoy’s deconstruction of the Great Man view of history. I was reading that paragraph thinking it basically describes 20th C social studies and humanities!

Then you have the political aspect of the unifying of the French language - Napoleon did a lot to make sure it was taught the same way in schools everywhere and it suppressed local languages and dialect (langue d’Oc, Breton), and the line between that and slang can be a thin one .. you can see how society was in a period of “standardisation good, local variation bad and threatening to the social order.”

It’s so interesting now when you think about verlan and how basically everyone uses some of it.

And one last thing - like you said @Pashazade “merry” English (such a Tudor word 🤣) just adopted all the slang anyway, much of it from Shakespeare, so we’ve never really had as sharp a line … (although plenty of snobbery about regional accents).

Yes, I know what you mean!

I think Hardy got a bit of a snooty reception for his use of dialect?