'When the legion was reduced to a handful, when their banner was no more than shreds, when their muskets, out of ammunition, were nothing but clubs, when the pile of corpses was larger than the band of the living, a sort of sacred terror spread among the conquerors for these sublime martyrs, and the English artillery, stopping to catch their breath, fell silent.'
'The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves-say rather, loved in spite of ourselves.'
pickI tackled this 1400-page, 19th century tome as an audiobook and overall I quite enjoyed it. However, there were long sections of musings, ponderings and thought turmoil which seemed to take hours before the story eventually moved on and I found these parts to be really hard work. The essence of the story is good and because of that I watched the film version immediately after which I found much less arduous! A pick, but only just ⭐️⭐️⭐️
I struggled to come up with anything for #GratefulReads yesterday, but today this came to mind. In the book, and musical, Javert is a complex character that I couldn‘t dislike, but Crowe‘s dreadful performance made him a #CharacterYouLoveToHate. Meanwhile, in the book, the Thenadiers are pure evil, but in the musical they are offered up as light relief, #CharactersYouHateToLove
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @OriginalCyn620
NBR. Mom and I went to the Sunday Matinee performance of Les Mis at Ovens Auditorium today. Bailey is so upset with us for being gone five hours that she has claimed my lap. I‘m not allowed to read. 😆😭
#dogsoflitsy #pitbullsoflitsy #snugglebuddy #sundaysnuggles #penance
Starting the last book in Les Miserables. I'm reading a chapter a day and I'm slightly ahead for once.
#SoaringScores #Superfeats #Superman #JohnWilliams
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OyXCJrLkzFk
Jean Valjean performs a superfeat when lifting a broken carriage that had fallen on a man.
Superman can do anything! And because of him we hold our arms out and fly!
so-soThis was Very Long. I won‘t say I didn‘t enjoy it, but my main emotion was that it was just very long. Parts i adored, mainly Jean Valjean‘s philosophical and ethical thoughts, and anything involving Fantine, were just so beautifully written, other parts were... less like that. Some bits felt a bit melodramatic and silly which I wasn‘t really expecting - the Denardiers were boorish and Marius was just a drip. Glad I managed it but... long.
🎶Valjean, at last, we see each other plain; “Monsieur Le Mayor”, you‘ll wear a different chain🎶
I fell in love with the musical, Les Miserables, over 30 years ago, so #TheConfession can mean only one thing to me.
The image shows Colm Wilkinson as Valjean, and, I believe, Roger Allam as Javert, from the original cast back in 1985.
#SoaringScores @CrowCAH @Cinfhen
If I‘ve been quiet recently it‘s because Les Miserables is VERY long. My enjoyment of it is going up and down with the different subplots - I‘m here for long musings on the nature of redemption but less for blow by blow accounts of the battle of Waterloo. Evocative to listen to on the way home from work in a rainy city at night looking at the river... admittedly not Paris tho. Over half way through now!
Day 6 #7Covers7Days #CoverCrush
@ju.ca.no you up for joining in? Post a beautiful cover each day for a week, no explanation needed 🙌
#7Days7Covers #Day1 #CoverCrush
Thanks for the tag @Andrew65
@Mitch If you haven‘t already been tagged and would like to play, too - post covers you love for 7 days. No explanation needed and tag someone else each day. 🥳
#7Days7Covers #CoverCrush
Day 2
Has @Redwritinghood been tagged yet? Seven covers in seven days with no explanation and tag someone new everyday.
Day 1 #7days7covers #covercrush
Thanks for the tag @batsy !
I‘m continuing with The Penguin Classics Deluxe Editions covers.
I‘m tagging @TheSpineView . If you‘d like to post some of your favorite covers, join in.
Valjean raising Cosette must certainly be a #laboroflove... a later post, but I‘m also doing #soulseptember hosted by @Eggs !
For #LabourOfLove I wanted to do one related to childbirth. But then I thought, what about adoption? What higher act of love is there then to take a child to raise that isn‘t yours by blood? And of course, Valjean‘s sentence of however-many years of hard labor doesn‘t hurt either. 🙃
#SoulSeptember
@Eggs
#ValiantVirtue - behaviour showing high moral standards. Several of the leading characters in Victor Hugo‘s Les Miserable show such traits (though several others show the complete opposite, as counterpoints). The Bishop of Digne‘s act of mercy causes Valjean to change his life, to one of virtue, while Javert‘s moral code in upholding the law makes him unable to cope with Valjean‘s own act of mercy.
#AugustABC @Eggs
pick🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
1. Outdoor! I would always rather be outside with a book or a notebook.
2. Spindrift; Pu‘erh tea (thanks to a book)
3. Paris
4. Teal
5. Nope! 😂 Red. 🤷♀️
Our favourite time of the morning. Reading/cuddle time! #catsoflitsy
The #lesmiz365 project continues to limp along. Still very much enjoying the reread.
“They were separated by political opinions. Certainly I approve of political opinions, but there are people who do not know where to stop. Bless me!”
“If mankind is to advance there must be installed permanently at the head of its columns proud instances of courage....To venture, to defy, to persevere, to be true to one's self, to grapple with destiny, to dismay #calamity by not being afraid of it, to challenge now unrighteous powers and now victory run wild, to stand fast and hold firm - these are the examples that the peoples need, the spark that electrifies them.” #QuotsyAug19
pickActually my third attempt to get through this monster and despite the dullish bits (of which there are a few, he does go on a bit) this is a wonderful story with unforgettable characters. I was bawling by the end ;)
This is taking forever.
14th July is, of course, Bastille Day, commemorating the Storming of the Bastille in 1789, a pivotal moment in the French Revolution.
A minor skirmish in 1832, the June Rebellion, was totally unrelated to the French Revolution, but made a good background for part of Victor Hugo‘s epic tale, made famous by Alain Boublil & Claude-Michel Schoenberg, with a little help from Cameron Mackintosh.
#France #LetsTravelJuly
Zelda is very disappointed in me for neglecting the #lesmiz365 project.
Life got in the way and, according to my reading tracker, I‘m only 33% through Les Misérables, when I should be at roughly 50%.
I still hope to finish by December 31st. I guess it‘s two chapters a day from now on. ?
#catsoflitsy
This is a first...my Lyft driver was listening to an audiobook when I was picked up.
The #lostinfrance lyrics reminded me of A Heart Full Of Love from Les Miserables. #wanderingjune @Cinfhen @BarbaraBB
When you feel the need to support the local (independent) bookstore. 🤦🏼♀️
I found an old print record of La TBR when I cleaned out my closet. It stretched to 496 books, most of which I marked as read by highlighting them. Those I never highlighted are almost all books I ended up discarding unread. LES MISERABLES is the only exception on this two-page spread, though I did read big chunks of Burton‘s paragraph-free Arabian Nights translation and Jack Zipes‘s fairy tale textbook before I drifted away.
“How could it be? The chink in society‘s armor could be found by a magnanimous wretch! An honest servant of the law could find himself suddenly caught between two crimes, the crime of letting a man escape and the crime of arresting him! Everything was not certain in the order given by the state to the official! There might be blind alleys in duty!”
#StarTrekSummerMay | 7: #Ethics
📷: Made with Typorama
Cosette can be sure that her stalker (or lover, depending on your view of things), Marius, will be watching #EveryBreathYouTake while she walks through the gardens of Paris.
#AnglophileApril
I‘ll be watching the new Les Mis book adaptation on PBS tonight! We‘ll see if it will be a pretty close adaptation to the novel or not.
Still proceeding with my #lesmiz365 project, despite being behind.
This is the section where I‘ve previously bailed on rereads. I find the Napoleonic Wars fascinating and I even attended the 200th anniversary re-enactments of the final battle, but Hugo‘s Waterloo chapters are a hell of a slog.
Still love you Victor! I know Cosette is waiting on the other side. 📚❤️
Les Misrables | 
