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?

I’m starting to feel Hugo is rather labouring the point for someone who presumably only features at the beginning of the novel! But I haven’t read that much 19th century literature so don’t know if this kind of massive exposition of minor characters is common.

Monday 5 January: Chapter 5, Monseigneur Bienvenu Made His Cassocks Last Far Too Long (c. 2.5 pages)

I read today’s chapter and enjoyed the “The mind is a garden” reference. (L’esprit est un jardin) Interesting what @Benvenuto commented about Voltaire.

I then fell down a rabbit hole!

Hugo says the Bishop’s notes in his books bore no relation to the book itself…. I took this as something the author was pretending not to understand? Surely someone as educated as the Bishop clearly is, would not be so random and haphazard? Surely it means something to write about ‘mercy’ in this book?

So, the book is ‘Correspondence of Lord Germain and Clinton’ (paraphrasing) dealing with a war and military correspondence.

A bit of internet and wiki reveals that Clinton gave one of the other military leaders called Cumberland many “second chances” and even covered up some of his failures.

Clinton wrote to Germain (head honcho!) whilst covering for and working nobly to get on with Cumberland, even though they had fallen out prior to having to work together…

So I think what this all means is that Clinton was a good egg who was very Christian in his approach to everything.

BUT the war was the American War of Independence and the military failures resulted in Great Britain losing control of the United States of America!!!!!!!

I haven’t had chance to reflect on this anymore at the moment.

It could be that Hugo was right… that the Bishop really did write randomly in any book available.

Or there may be some significance in second chances, mercy, forgiveness, loyalty…

Any American War of Independence experts around??🤣 I may just have wasted an hour reading about Germaine and Clinton! They were on the opposite side of the war to France btw.

Germaine was blamed for losing the US and disgraced, and then…. Worked in politics and was made a Lord by George III! Some things never change!

So I’m thinking about all of this… and will be back! 🤣

@Neitherherenorthere I don’t know anything about American history but my guess is that Hugo meant us to understand that the writing in the margins did have relevance to the book.

I also spotted that Hugo mentions the works of one of his ancestors in the books the Bishop is reading @Benvenuto my version has a footnote saying that the historic Hugo is not actually one of Victor’s ancestors after all! (Incidentally, love how appropriate your username is given the character we’re discussing 😄)

Monseigneur Bienvenu must have been bloody hot in the summer with his padded coat, even if average temperatures are higher these days! Though on a day like today, it sounds nice and cosy 😊

I’m so happy to read this thread! I started this before Christmas and forgot about it - now I have an incentive to keep going!

I actually copied this quote too to mention on here that I loved it and feel it really sums up the Bishop’s approach. If it turns out he is a wrong ‘un in any way I’m going to be gutted!

I found myself wondering whether his diet was balanced enough! But I think it probably is (depending on what veg he ate) - just very boring.

I loved the quote about visiting the poor when he was rich and the rich when he was poor. I also loved “Children and old folks came out on the doorstep for the bishop as if for the sun.” It just painted such a lovely picture of how much people liked him.

I feel Hugo knows a lot about human behaviour and reactions, and he is mirroring that in Bienvenu somewhat. His storytelling I saw as teaching his parishioners in a way we would children. Tell them directly how to act differently and they'll dig their heels in, but show them another way and they might be more likely to change/open up their perspective a little. His lifestyle smacks of some sort of self inflicted penance.

Self inflicted penance? @EmbroideredGardener

Yes that’s a thought… That would involve a lot of guilt about something? Hoping for a merciful God as he nears the end of his life? Because he has done/caused something he hopes to be forgiven for when he meets his maker?

All very interesting…

Either penance or a very Lutheran stance on life/religion. Or both!

I read today’s chapter.

I wonder what items are being described here:
“Close to the bed, behind a curtain, the toilet articles that still betrayed the old stylish ways of the man of the world.”

I should imagine a clothes brush and possibly some cologne and perhaps a mirror and comb.
Annoyed that the women were forced to have an unbolted house, I know they were given the option of a bolt for their rooms but still the pressure to “trust in the goodness of others” is quite coercive, very male thinking.

That annoyed me too, Pashazade.
The women should feel secure in their own home. I agree that it sounded coercive.

I am trying to imagine this was in some ways a surrender unto the will of the Lord viewpoint.

As a feminist I’m trying to pretend I do not know Victor Hugo was a massive womaniser!

From chapter 6: "But this would have cost five hundred francs at least, and seeing that she had been able to save up only forty-two francs and ten sous in five years, she eventually gave up the idea. Anyway, who ever attains their ideal?" A bit of foreshadowing here perhaps. But I also like seeing a more real side to Mme here

@FuzzyCaoraDhubh @Onceuponatimethen, I think this is sometimes the difficulty in reading an historical text, I think you’re right, contemporary readers would probably have seen it as submission to the will of God, belief/faith in no harm coming to them. As modern women our response is very much bugger off, why do I not have the right to feel safe in my own home. I spent a lot of time pausing and explaining inappropriate historical attitudes to my son when reading “5 children and It” 🤣, so reckon this might not be the last time we struggle with modern eyes on an older text!

I did find it assuming that the well to do people kept raising money for an altar which the Bishop then just donates to the poor. I hadn’t thought about the unbolted door and this essentially being imposed on the women, but that’s a good point. Men never seem to fully understand the dangers women face and the exhaustion that comes from constantly vigilance.

@MamaNewtNewt- I liked the bit about the altars too - and his excuse:

Le plus beau des autels, disait-il, c’est l’âme d’un malheureux consolé qui remercir Dieu.

[The most beautiful altar, he said, is the soul of an unfortunate who is consoled and who thanks God.]

I did feel sorry for his sister that she wasn’t able to achieve her ambition of buying un meuble de salon en velours d’Utrecht jaune à rosaces et en acajou à cou de cyne avec canapé.

I think that translates as a piece of salon [lounge] furniture in Utrecht yellow and pink and in swans neck mahogany with a sofa. (although I’m not sure if the furniture is a sofa or comes with a sofa - in any event it sounds fantastic).

It does seem a bit unfair that the Bishop keeps his silver to dine on but his sister can’t have her meuble - but as he says je renoncerais difficilement à manger dans de argenterie.

I also was amused that his only luxury was cleanliness as cela ne prend rien aux pauvres [that takes nothing from the poor].

This continues the very sympathetic portrait of the Bishop, but it’s also quite amusing.

AT LAST! THE SILVER! Something he hasn’t sold for the poor…. 🤣 One concession to being human! 🤣

And growing some flowers instead of veg 🤣

Did anyone else think that Mademoiselle Baptistine had brought her previously gilt bergère with her from their previous aristocratic because it had had to be lifted through the window of her bedroom? And if so, Bienvenu must have allowed her this???

*previously aristocratic life

That’s very well put! 😊

Aw, I like the idea of the Bishop growing his flowers without the foggiest idea of what he's doing but enjoying pottering and bringing beauty to their extremely austere home.

And I completely agree with his sentiment that beauty is just as important as usefulness and sometimes even more so - the world would be an awful place without 'art', whatever form that takes...

I imagine Baptistine’s chair as a scruffy version of this 😄

Lol at his sitting out in the cow shed to keep warm in the winter, to save spending money on wood.

At this point he seems adorable but slightly ridiculous. I'm finding those slightly luxurious toilet items to be a saving grace keeping him from being a complete sap.