Les Misérables, Part I: Fantine

My re-read of Les Misérables (the unabridged Fahnestock and MacAfee translation published by Signet classics) is going a lot faster and has certainly been far more enjoyable than my first read of the book. Since I know where the plot was heading, I've been paying more attention to minor details and trying to absorb Victor Hugo's ideas about politics and society. Where I had once been impatient with his sometimes lengthy and tedious digressions, I now find myself fascinated by his thoughts.

The novel follows the story of Jean Valjean, a man who initially went to jail for stealing bread to feed his family and, after several attempts to escape, ended up with a prison sentence of 19 years total. Valjean, after leaving prison a changed man (and not necessarily for the better), steals again which prompts Police Inspector Javert to track him down to bring him to justice.


SPOILERS FOR PART I

---- What do you think of Bishop Myriel? He’s definitely described as being truly saintly; I’m wondering if there’s any pessimistic reader out there?

It's funny that Hugo glosses over just how Monsieur Myriel went from being a young man "devoted to worldly pleasures" (p.1) to such a saintly person. It's implied that the horrors of the French Revolution had something to do with it, but no details are supplied. I'm the type of person who wants to know what motivates people to behave the way they do, and I think here, to believe that M. Myriel is as good of a person as the story tells us is akin to an act of faith.

But ultimately, I think it matters less whether or not I believe there can be such saintly people like M. Myriel. M. Myriel is supposed to be Hugo's moral ideal-- genuine kindness, altruism, doing good deeds for their own sake and not for self-serving reasons, believing in the good in others (that incident with the criminals returning stolen goods shows that he believes people who commit crimes are not truly evil, just that there must be some reason for doing so). It's a morality that doesn't come from any specific religious doctrine or secular law, but from love of his fellow human beings. It might seem excessive, but the 90 or so pages spent on M. Myriel that opens the novel sets the foundation for rest of the book.

---- What do you think of the contrast between Javert & Valjean?

I may be cheating a little here, since I've read the book once before, but the basis of Les Misérables is the contrast between morality and the law. Valjean represents morality whereas Javert represents the secular justice system that governs society. After meeting the bishop, Valjean lives life by his own code of ethics, which includes having compassion for fellow humans, acts of charity for the less fortunate, sacrificing himself for others, and always doing good things as M. Myriel had done. Javert, on the other hand, follows no moral code but strictly adheres to the laws laid down by man, which maintain order in society. A typical ISTJ, he only wants to uphold his duties as a police officer whereas Valjean is willing to break laws in order to do what he believes is the right thing.

It's obvious where Hugo's opinions lie. In recounting Valjean's history, he questions society's treatment of criminals and the justice system that governs over them. I get the sense that he doesn't think of criminals as evil people but as human beings who did evil due to of specific circumstances, being products of the society they live in. He describes Valjean's punishment as something that turned him from a man to a beast, that his time in prison was more detrimental rather than reforming. I found his comment about the role of society (victim) and criminal being flipped interesting-- the idea that human laws can be perverted by humans' idea of "justice".

Not that Javert is somehow wrong or bad-- I think that would be too simple (and lazy) of an explanation. He is also a product of the society he lives in, and I really like Hugo's description that he embodies "all the evil of good" (p.291). Reading this book a second time, I feel a lot more sympathy for him.

---- On the portrayal of the "miserables"

I really like the book's sympathetic portrayal of people who are generally looked down upon in society-- the poor, criminals, prostitutes, etc. Particularly striking to me was his portrayal of Fantine. I feel like prostitution often gets portrayed in one of two ways: either glorified or glamourized (with often a tragic end) or as something abhorrent. Fantine's story was tragic but rather than focusing on her prostitution, the novel emphasizes how she made so many sacrifices for her child. I think it's also a comment on the nature of relationships at the time-- the callous way Fantine's lover left her to deal with the consequences of their liaison reveals just how unequal things were for men and women. Sadly, I still see the same things happening today.

I think, ultimately, Hugo doesn't believe in inherent evil (I am undecided if he believes in inherent good). Aside from the bishop, all of the (major) characters that have shown up so far are presented as products of the social/economic/political environment they live in, regardless of their social class, of whether they are criminals, prostitutes, or police officers. He sees people for what they are-- human beings, who just happen to live within a certain set of (sometimes unfortunate) circumstances.


You can go here to Tien's post to read other people's thoughts on this same section.

Currently in my reading life...

Currently Reading, or rather Listening to

I came across this a couple days ago: A fan-made audiobook version of The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. But it's not just a mere audiobook. LOTR fan Phil Dragash not only reads the book text but has also included music and various sound effects to make it a richer experience. As he explains in his introductory video of the project, he's trying to make a "hybrid of an audio drama and an audiobook" that includes the sounds that you'd hear as if you were in the situations described in the book.

In a scene that takes place in the woods, the sound of rustling leaves and birds twittering can be heard in the background; when a rider on horseback comes up the road, the rhythmic clopping of hooves accompanies the narration. There are also pieces of music, some of which you might recognize from the LOTR movie soundtracks, to set the mood of the scenes.



It's quite an ambitious endeavour but it's very well done. I'm only three chapters into The Fellowship of the Ring but so far the production quality has been great, the sound effects and music very fitting, and Dragash's narration is full of nuance and emotion. I should mention that he's also got an incredible talent for voice acting, breathing life into the characters and bringing out their personalities. Overall, what I've listened to so far has a very professional feel to it (albeit with a few minor, but not distracting, errors).

If you're interested, here's a link to Phil Dragash's channel on Youtube, where you can listen to the first two books in the series (the third one is forthcoming, I believe) online or download the mp3s.


An Upcoming Read-along

Tien's Blurb will be hosting a Read-along of Les Misérables by Victor Hugo, which will start September 15 and last until December, so we'll all be ready to watch the movie when it comes out around Christmas. It's the classic French tale of love and redemption, of justice and mercy, with a full cast of colourful and complex characters, set against the backdrop of the revolutionary Paris of the 1800s.

I've already read this one (just last year, in fact) but it is such a massive book (my copy being over 1400 pages long!) that my goal the first time was just to get through the darn thing. I'm sure I missed a lot of the nuances of the story and I know much of the details of the revolution went over my head, so this time I'm hoping to read a little more carefully and absorb more of the story.

Head over to Tien's post about it if you'd like to join us in tackling this brick of a book!

[BOOK REVIEW] Blacker Than Black by Rhi Etzweiler

Blacker Than Black
By Rhi Etzweiler
Published by Riptide Publishing; January 23, 2012
ebook, 360 pages

Apparently, my twin and I are two of York’s most notorious criminals. We’ve been Nightwalkers in the blue-light district since the vamps took over the world. Don’t know how many years it’s been. Long enough that a stream of fellow ’walkers have come and gone. Most don’t last long selling their chi. End up face-down in the gutter, or worse.

For us, one night and one sale change everything.

Monsieur Garthelle is the first john to hunt me down. He calls me a chi thief in one breath and offers absolution—servitude—in the next. Maybe I’m a sucker, but I like living and breathing. Strange that such a powerful vamp would show leniency to a mere human. And something’s not right with the chi I took from him. It won’t go away.

Neither will he, and he’s forcing us to spy on his peers. Then a vamp turns up dead, and we go from playing eyes and ears to investigating a murder. This isn’t what I signed up for. All I ever wanted was to sell a little chi, maybe steal some in return. I should’ve kept my damn hands to myself.

This is my story. Look through my eyes. (from Goodreads)

Review:

Here's an unusual vampire story: Blacker Than Black features vampires, called lyche, that feed on the energy ("chi") of living things. Black and Jhez are twins who work as Nightwalkers in the Blue Light District, selling their chi to the lyche that prowl the city they live in. One night while with a client, Black steals a bit of the vampire's own chi and the two are accidentally bonded together. Even worse, the vampire turns out to be Monsieur Garthelle, the lyche mayor of the city, who uses the bond to force Black and Jhez into working for him.

One of the first things I noticed about Blacker Than Black was its intricate, meditative writing style which tells the story in present tense, first person perspective. Normally first person present POV is meant to pull you right into the character's head and offers an immediacy to the story, but Black's narration had the effect of distancing the reader, making it difficult to get into the story. The writing is strangely very fluid at times but then the flow is abruptly stopped by sentence fragments littered through out. It's also very dense-- there is a ton of detailed and sensual description which helps to set the mood and atmosphere of the book, yet it also caused me a lot of frustration as it was often extremely overwrought. I really struggled to keep my attention focused while reading because the writing style had the effect of shutting me out of the story. Not to say that it is bad; there's no doubt that the author can write-- Etzweiler uses some truly beautiful turns of phrase-- but much of it felt needlessly extravagant. Considering that Black and Jhez are orphans who have been living on the streets since they were children, it also seems strange that the narration from Black's point of view would employ such complex language.

The story opens in an alley at night in the Blue Light District, setting the dark atmosphere of the book. There is little explanation for how the world came to be the way it is, with vampires in positions of power after revealing their existence to humans some time ago. Instead, the worldbuilding focuses on developing the intricate political and social relationships of the lyche. The structure of lyche society is complex and layered, with many rules and social customs, and it is clear that the author has put a lot of effort into fleshing it out. It's a big part of the story but the explanations were confusing and difficult to follow, and the writing style certainly didn't help things. I already had trouble connecting to the characters so I couldn't really get invested in the vampire politics of the story.

In terms of the actual plot, there is a mystery that the main characters are trying to solve, but it isn't a mystery that readers can actually participate in. Since the entire book is told from Black's perspective, we are only given the very limited knowledge that he has, and as the book goes on, it becomes clear that a lot of information is deliberately hidden from him. The plot seems to move forward only when previously hidden information comes to light. Conversations are sometimes repetitive and often move very slowly-- one character says something, then a paragraph of dense description about his tone of voice, the light bouncing off his face, the ambiance of the room they're in, wondering about this or that; then the character spoken to replies and there is another paragraph of similar descriptions and inner dialogue. All this gives the book a meandering tone, and gave me the impression that Etzweiler was just writing in circles sometimes.

All in all, there are some interesting things in Blacker Than Black but between the molasses-slow plot and the distractingly overwrought writing style, I found it a difficult and often boring book to read. I know it isn't meant to be a light read but I can't help but think Etzweiler overcomplicated many things unnecessarily. On the other hand, the lyche worldbuilding is a unique departure from traditional vampire lore, and I like that the relationship between Black and Garthelle moves slowly, with the author trying to establish a believable emotional connection between them before taking it any further. I just wish it was written differently.

2 stars out of 5

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via Netgallery.com in exchange for an honest review.