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

[AgualusasL0ver]

Welcome to the first thread of the Les Miserables Read-a-long.

I'll be using the Christine Donougher translation for posting in the main, but it doesn't matter which translation you have, they seem to follow the same breakdown. I have not seen the film, the musical, and have very little knowledge about the book, but suspect I will be doing all of these Christmas 2026.

The only rules
The plan is to read ONE chapter a day and contribute/follow the thread as you see fit. There are c. 365 chapters, so we plan to take the year to read slowly and really get under the skin. Sometimes we have clustered chapters in past read-a-longs, and people do sometimes read ahead. All fine - but No spoilers until the relevant day.

Notes from previous read-a-longs

• How you manage one a day is entirely up to you, some people prefer to store them and read all the chapters for the week at once, some read each day.
• Sometimes these books can go off on a tangent all their own (looking at Mr Tolstoy), stick with it :-)
• All formats and translations welcome. Sometimes the translation discussions are some of the most interesting conversations.
• You WILL get behind at some point, but don't worry, just catch up when you can.
• Tangents, things you discovered down a rabbit hole, articles, pod casts, clips of epic scenes when we get to them all very welcome on the thread.

Spoiler free summary , courtesy of Chat GPT below. Schmoop has book summaries so I will post those at the relevant points.

**

Les Misérables is a classic novel by Victor Hugo that explores justice, compassion, and the struggle for dignity in 19th-century France.
At its core, the book follows the lives of several interconnected characters from different social classes as they navigate poverty, law, love, and moral choice. Rather than focusing on a single hero or plotline, the novel paints a wide picture of society—showing how personal decisions are shaped by systems like the legal system, economic inequality, and social expectations.
Key themes include:

• Justice vs. mercy — how laws affect people differently, and whether strict punishment leads to fairness
• Redemption and moral growth — the possibility of change, even after hardship
• Poverty and inequality — the daily realities of people living on the margins
• Love and sacrifice — care for others as a powerful force for good
• Social responsibility — how individual actions impact the wider community

The novel is known for:

• Deep character development
• Emotional intensity
• Philosophical reflections on society and humanity
• Detailed descriptions of history and everyday life

Overall, Les Misérables is less about a single storyline and more about asking big questions:
What does it mean to be a good person? How should society treat its most vulnerable? And can compassion change lives?

Yeah, today's chapter made for uncomfortable reading in places and rather nonsensical in others.

Although its good to see that some of the same playful things exist the same as outside their walls - the naming of the sections of the garden and those who hang out there and especially the confidence of that snarky back and forth on the French history.

They are going to lose their minds when Jean Valjean & Cosette are discovered as I am sure they must be!!

I liked today’s chapter more, especially the story of the mysterious Mme Albertine and her Auguste! And the obsessions of girls who are sheltered from the outside world, especially any interaction with boys - having gone to a girls’ school I recognise that feeling 😄 Good to see that the girls did break the rules sometimes!

I was so fascinated by « Auguste » I had to look him up - he was real! (Albertine wasn’t though as far as we know). Came from a family of Breton nobility, was a musketeer, peer of France after the Restoration, married but widowed young and decided not to remarry but took the cloth, quickly became a Bishop. Died at 44 in the cholera epidemic of the early 1830s near Besançon. (Wiki).

I love it when there’s a whole tiny story hidden in a couple of paragraphs!

« Louis François Auguste de Rohan Chabot » … how romantic!

Love that! Fascinating. So these are obviously real anecdotes told by the women Hugo spoke to.

Sorry, late to the nun-chat. Hugo does make the point that it is a very strict order and the details of their routine support that.

Some orders would have been less stringent and perhaps permitted some contact with the outside world. I am fairly sure that some convents used to have provision for travellers to lodge and/or provide care for the sick.

Monasteries were fairly regimented too - although maybe not quite as strict as Hugo's convent!

It's very cool that Auguste was a real person, a musketeer no less!

Today, there is only the doll.

I found this part of today's chapter unbearably sad... The idea that a whole religious order was just erased and that the only knowledge that they ever existed is in a little keepsake, dressed in replica clothing hidden away in a convent that no outside person will ever see 😟

It is sad. It's the only record that they existed, possibly. Also, the stragglers of different orders who survived the revolution and are living together in the convent as a community is moving.

That sounds interesting. My auntie was a nun who left although she was a missionary not in this type of order.
I visited Tyburn Convent in the 90s and met a nun who was telling us what her life was like in a largely silent order. They did have 45 minutes rec a day when they could chat and she was allowed to talk to visitors like us which she said she enjoyed. I would have been in late primary at the time but I remember those details stood out to me.

I think a normal nunnery is a nice place to be, there was a documentary about someone staying in one for a few days and it looked rather pleasant really.
I felt sad for the nuns who were refugees so to speak, when that is your whole life it must be very disorientating and distressing to move.

I'm in about the right place for once!

Also moved by the aging stragglers in the little convent. Lucky for them not to have to adopt the strict house rules though.

Madame de Genlis is ringing bells! Liaisons dangereuses?? I don't have the book anymore and not finding anything online.

I loved today’s anecdote about the 100-year-old lady, she sounds great, and the idea of jumping back from the 1820s (which is already the old days, for Hugo’s contemporary audience) into the previous century that she remembers is very cool.

Next week……and we’re with les religieuses for another week! We’re running close to the end of this thread, but I’m not sure the next week is going to inspire much chat! 😁 If it does I’ll try and start the next thread, but feel free to start the next one if you’re around and it needs to happen!

Book Seven
Parenthesis

Mon 11th May - Ch1 - The Convent as Abstract Idea (This book is a drama)
Tues 12th May - Ch2 - The Convent as Historical Fact (From the viewpoint of history)
Weds 13th May - Ch3 - On What Conditions We a an Respect the Past (For civilisation)
Thurs 14th May - Ch4 - The Convent from the Viewpoint of Principles (Men come together)
Fri 15th May - Ch5 - Prayer (They pray)
Sat 16th May - Ch6 - The Absolute Goodness of Prayer (As for the way to pray)
Sun 17th May - Ch7 - Take Care in Censuring (History and philosophy)

The idea of the convent slowly dying is really rather sad, but it’s such an extreme place it’s hardly surprising.

I was prematurely excited that we were going to be back with JVJ (as I can see that's where Book 8 starts) but it's not to be as this week's chapters are all in an Appendix at the end of my book!

I'm interested in finding out how JVJ and Cosette are managing in the convent garden, but we're going down a different path, it seems!

Thanks for the schedule, Pashazade!

Same @TimeforaGandT - I can see why it’s in an appendix, we’ve been waiting for the action to get started again for quite long enough! Oh well, a bit more nunning first…definitely preferable to the Waterloo chapters!

Thanks for the timetable @Pashazade !

Interesting that these upcoming chapters are in the appendices for some people! I reckon if you can’t face more nuns come back in a week, 😁 but be prepared for some heavy lifting from the 19th (that’s when we start Book 8)! The chapters seem to be getting much longer………

Yep, my tracker based on the number of pages done so far has a finish date of 02-Feb, which as we all know is over a month later than the actual finish date. So significantly longer chapters at least for a while. Although ironically enough I think today's chapter might be epically short from the glance I had yesterday...

It says in my notes that Hugo’s editor asked him to leave this bit out, and he said he would, but then when he delivered the manuscript he hadn’t taken out a word…

Ok, so I can see why the editor told Hugo to get rid of these chapters. Today’s is quite something, it feels more than a little obsessive on Hugo’s part, he seems to be getting himself awfully hot and bothered about the nuns too……maybe we’d have a more jaded view if we hadn’t lost most of our monasteries in the 16th century but still……he views them as a scourge and seems quite unhinged about the whole thing! 🤷🏻‍♀️

I’ve got through the whole of Book 7 and got it out of the way. It’s quite interesting in places (arguments on the existence of God… he really throws the kitchen sink in there!) but yes, I think he’s struggling with a society that kept these essentially medieval institutions past the French Revolution which should have swept them all away but somehow some of them hung on… they do feel like an anachronism. He urges respect but is also saying they are of the past, at the same time.

Roll on Book 8!

So far I have to say I agree with Hugo - the idea of shutting yourself away from the world to worship god seems a ridiculous waste (though I don’t like the hints of exoticism and prejudice against eastern cultures). It’s strange to think that Hugo is saying there is no place for this type of thing in the modern world, when we’re now looking back at Hugo’s time as pretty ancient and outdated. Interested to read the next chapters (I’ll probably get to them all on Sunday) in light of your comments @MotherOfCatBoy , as Hugo has made clear in previous chapters that he has a strong religious faith and it’s not Christianity he has a problem with, but the human-made establishments constructed in the name of Christianity.

I agree it could be seen as a waste, but a threat to society which is how he puts it seems a bit extreme.

I completely misunderstood the Appendix thing so have read Chs 1-4 of Book 8 🤦‍♀️ I'll start Book 7 now although sounds like more wanderings of Hugo's mind rather than lots of missed story action.. but it'll all come together at some point as I'm at least keeping up with the 'chapter a day' progress (did wonder why I was suddenly making no sense of your wonderful guide @Pashazade!)