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?

Thank you @AgualusasL0ver . I was going to ask if it would help for someone (generally whoever is posting early that day) to give the name of the chapter as I am sure we will start to fall out of sync as we move through the year (as you said in your op, it's pretty much inevitable that most people will fall behind at some point and then catch back up).

I also wondered after today's chapter what Hugo's personal experience was of witnessing executions, and if he had campaigned against the death penalty. Thanks @Neitherherenorthere for that link.

I also loved that comeback! It is actually very engaging so far.

Before we move on can I ask you all what you think of Chapter 3?

The last line of the chapter…. Are we saying his “inventing parables” is harmless, justified fibbing? The end justifies the means? Is this the first (only?) hint that Mgr Bienvenu is not perfect?

I can’t find any real life basis for the parables except that the travelling teachers with feathers in their hats in this region had indeed raised literacy levels among the general population to the point that they rivalled the levels in many northern French cities.

Thanks all for the background on Hugo’s views on the guillotine. How grim it must have been to have public executions 😔

@Neitherherenorthere I think the parables were probably told in a way that it was clear they were stories - just a way of telling people how they should act, rather than lying about things. Perhaps I’ve interpreted it wrong though!

Ah ok @DuPainDuVinDuFromage that would make sense! Thank you 🙏

I just meant he had a pre-revolution reputation as a bit of a rogue, charming and silver-tongued so now, despite his devout charity and alms for the poor, he's not above using that charm to spin a tale/embellish the truth/tell an out and out lie to his flock to get what he wants (a new reputation as a pure and benevolent Bishop!)

It just smells of manipulation with him as the starring role and whilst the outcome is a more charitable congregation, or kinder minds or turning people into 'better folk', doesn't quite seem like the right thing.

That said, if he was quoting scripture I wouldn't mind as much and not sure it's any more true than his stories!!

I thought chapter four was excellent, particularly the Bishop's vigil with the prisoner and his abhorrence of the guillotine.

I didn't read his preaching as being manipulative. I thought he was clever, illustrating by example rather than quoting scripture. So far, I like the sound of him and I want to think he's a good man, doing his best to help the poor.

I liked the joke about not being able to reach the high shelf ('My Highness falls short of that shelf.')

I like him - he’s witty and clever. I think his past life means that he understands the world and the corruption in it and sees it clearly. It makes him different from other holy men and means he stands out against the corruption associated with the church. I see him as genuine - he isn’t just preaching, his behaviour supports his words.

I also enjoyed Chapter 4 & noticed in there is a gradual movement from light-hearted anecdotes about the Bishop to the very sobering writing about the guillotine.

My favourite quote from the first part is when he says that the least sin possible is the law of man. No sin at all is the dream of an angel.

Le moins de péché possible, c’est la loi de l’homme. Pas de péché du tout est le rêve de l’ange.

He does use his powers of conversation very effectively, but I don’t find that a negative trait because Hugo makes it clear that he is indulgent towards those oppressed - I liked how it is clear that he blames husbands (who have the power) rather than their wives. Hugo also makes it clear that he is a highly conscientious bishop - probably more than anyone expected him to be.

I thought the guillotine section was very effective because at the beginning, the Bishop doesn’t blame the priest who refused to go but says that it’s his job. It’s clear that the Bishop has comforted the condemned man, so I wasn’t expecting the Bishop himself to suffer (although it’s not surprising that he did after seeing the guillotine at close quarters). It also feels very realistic that Hugo says that his feelings lessened, but he still avoided the place of the guillotine.

Thanks to @Neitherherenortherefor the additional information about Victor Hugo - really interesting. I don’t know much about Hugo & definitely need to find out more.

Ooh, place marking to consider this - LOVE the stage show & film. I’ve committed to a lot of reading so would be fits & starts but lovely to check in periodically!

That passage was excellent.

Hmmmm, not sure I agree.

Whatever happened in Italy made the Bishop humble.

There is too much evidence and the anecdotes regarding his good deeds are too plentiful for him just to be motivated purely by the creation of a new reputation. He could achieve that with far less effort!

I know what you mean though, if you read this with your Jane Austin head on you end up not believing a word!

I think he was somehow brought to a very low point after the revolution (apparently not all Italians were welcoming to French emigres ?)

He must have experienced some kindness and/or charity that has made him humble and given him empathy?

I am increasingly wondering what happens to a man to make him this humble - given that Hugo has explained that the Bishop is not a religious fanatic.

The jokes about his highness and his palace show insight to me.

May I join please?! Les Mis is my favourite musical and I've been meaning to read the book forever, so I've bought my copy and am locked in!

I am a Bishop fan. I didn't read him as trying to manipulate, I like that he is working the system to advantage those who need it while acknowledging there will always be more in need than those to give the help (or something like that - the exact turn of phrase was far more eloquent!)

@NeitherherenorthereI think the Revolution would have been enough to humble someone (although not everyone) - it would have challenged any views that he held re his rights an aristocrat and it was horrific. The Revolution also happened at the end of a century of French Enlightenment philosophy & was deeply influenced by this, so the bishop would have been able to draw on this to make sense of what had happened to him.

This is a nice take on his actions, @rOck- he is working the system to advantage those who need it. And I think I agree with you - still wily and yes, I do think manipulative, but for more noble reasons than I gave him credit for.

My sense is that the Bishop is a genuinely good man and his behaviour and preaching is about supporting and caring for anyone who is oppressed or, to use a modern phrase, ‘othered’. I thought the passages about the guillotine were really thought provoking- one may have a view about the death penalty in an objective sense but being confronted with the reality is very different. Made me think about my grandfather who, as a prison chaplain in the 1920/30s had to minister to those sentenced to death. He would never talk about it (according to my mum) but was not in support of this penalty subsequently (don’t know if he had been before to be fair) but the experience of being alongside those prisoners had clearly had an impact.
I did not expect to be as hooked into this as I am. Thank you @AgualusasL0ver for the plan for the week.

I've now read Ch4 and I feel I have judged the poor Bishop very harshly.. he seems to care very much about his parishioners - I was genuinely moved, reading about him sitting with the man who'd lost his wife or the mother who'd lost her child.

I also have sympathy about his feelings on the guillotine.. it has always stuck me as very barbaric and I remember being dumbstruck when I learned the last use in France was as late as 1977..!

@SanFranBear I think he’s a bit of a Robin Hood type. He has to get money to give it to the poor. A sort of radical conservative.

@Neitherherenorthere i wondered if the parables are like when teachers say to children things like “there was a boy would did…So don’t run with scissors” They don’t explicitly say it’s fiction but the story is just a teaching device, not a lie.

I am about to read the fifth chapter, thank you @AgualusasL0verfor the week’s list.

I agree with the posters who feel that the Bishop is genuinely doing his best in a hard world with what he’s got, he gets on with people and he can use his access to money to help others. My worry is what will happen when there is a new Bishop one day - should help for the vulnerable be so reliant on the kindness of an individual? In his preaching to the poor he encourages them to cooperate with each other, to get inventive and that kindness can be a source of collective strength - the words match his own actions which are perhaps a kind of revolution of the self!

The guillotine discussion has been very interesting and I must say Victor Hugo seems like a good bloke.

I’d taken the use of parables that the locals could relate to as being part of an attempt to portray the Bishop as Christ-like. It goes hand in hand with the riding on a donkey (which he had a great answer for the criticism of). Jesus used parables to preach in the same way which I think was unusual for a rabbi at the time (I’d need to go back and look this up). Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the back of a humble donkey. M. Myriel travels in the same way.

The Church belief was that as a priest M Myriel was Christ’s representative on Earth so his perhaps his behaviour should have been usual for all priests. Hugo seems to be leading us to believe he was the exception rather than the rule though.

@RafaistheKingofClay I agree with this - Christ-like.

I’ve now been hooked having been doubtful I could manage this in a year and I’m reading ahead a bit more (AKA addicted).

I downloaded the French version to try and do both, but it turns out my French is not nearly good enough!

I think you're right, @Onceuponatimethen - in today's chapter it says something like 'when he was rich, he visited the poor and when he was poor, he visited the rich' which I absolutely love!

Must say, dining on vegetables and fried bread every night other than when 'entertaining' would get very old, very quick! His sister is as much a saint as he seems to be, to put up with that

@HarryVanderspeigle have you tried the following. Read the whole chapter in English first. Then go back to the French edition and just look back at say three sentences that struck you to see how those are in the French. Gives you a flavour of the French but much less daunting and you can flick back to the translation for any tricky words.

I liked that quote too:

Il visitait les pauvres tant qu’il avait de l’argent; quand il n’en avait plus, il visitait les riches.

As well as the Christian references to his conduct, I wondered if there were references to Voltaire’s Candide when we are told that the Bishop likes to garden (jardiner). At the end of Candide, the hero - after a fairly disastrous career in the world - retreats to his garden to work hard (as Voltaire famously puts it Il faut cultiver notre jardin). That’s a fair description of what the Bishop is doing in his bishopric as well as his garden (although I should say that Voltaire wasn’t flattering when he wrote about priests).

I also spotted that Hugo mentions the works of one of his ancestors in the books the Bishop is reading.

Like others, I’m hooked - and this is Hugo just writing about the daily like of an elderly bishop!