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Carissa M’s last login was Sunday, July 10, 2011.
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Les Mis is Hugo's masterpiece (in my opinion, and most others). The broadway play has been enormously popular but when I saw it I realized that if I'd never read the book I wouldn't have understood the play. If you don't mind reading 1300 pages, I'd start with Les Mis. Hugo has a lesser-known novel entitled "Toiler's of the Sea" which is only abut 500 pages, and it has many of the same elements as Les Mis. If you've ever read Ayn Rand and have any respect for her, Rand's favorite Hugo was his last novel before his death entitled "Ninety-Three", which was about the French Revolution. Hunchback of Notre Dame is also a masterpiece, but it starts so slowly (on about page 200 it became interesting, but when I'd finished I hugged the book). About guitars, I have been playing guitar for 40 years (I am 52) and if I am not reading I am playing my guitar. I don't even have a TV. I am a bit of a relic, choosing to live in a classier world than what modern America has become. Which, of course, makes me the weirdo among my peers at school, but then ,they love to hear me play guitar!!
Yes, Les Miserables is a chore to read. However, it is also my very favorite novel. Hugo had a tendency to ramble off the subject for as many as 70 or 80 pages before returning to the storyline (he does that six times in Les Miserables). The book could easily be abridged to about 750 pages without losing anything at all, provided the editors cut out the right parts! I've never read an abridged Les Miz so I cannot recommend any particular edition. Then again, so many say they love wading through all Hugo's rambllings. It is during these "ramblings" that he had more of a tendency to get overly-poetic and verbose (literary tendencies I can do without). Hugo is that way in all his books. So why is he my favorite? Because his stories rip my heart out, either with happiness or sadness or both at the same time. He is a man's writer, in much the same way that Jane Austen is the favorite of many women. I don't know if you'd like his novels or not, but to me they are at the pennacle of the art (Don't check my spelling of Pennacle! :)
I love that you are holding a coffee(tea?) cup in your hand in your profile pic and I am holding a martini ;-)
Thanks Carissa. I think I'll go with Owen Meany. I've heard a few other comments that it's one we shouldn't miss. Are you a Victor Hugo fan by chance?
Clarissa, I have just finsihed Cider House Rules, and as I was checking the shelfari comments about that novel I noticed your site. I checked your bookshelf and noticed that you've read many books by John Irving! I'd like to read another, and I was wondering, which of his novels is your favorite; the one you'd most highly recommend? The one that makes you say, "If you never read another John Irving, you must read________?"
Nice varied collection :)
If you like The curious Incident book I can recommend similar books.
