Gonna try and read "Les Miserables"...

[Brandon's Impotent Rage]

So, after having put it off for god only knows how long, I've decided that I'm going to attempt to read Victor Hugo's famous masterpiece, Les Miserables.

Now, I'm more or less familiar with the plot, having seen the films and portions of the show.

But I also know that it is a loooooong book, with many characters and many plot lines to follow. I also have heard that Hugo occasionally digresses from the story in various spots order to go on essay-length tangents on several different subjects.

So....to those of you who've actually read the book before....any advice?

[La Comédie Noire]

Don't get discouraged if it takes you awhile to read it. It took me six months of off and on reading. Also the book is over the top and melodramatic. The ending is not where any of the TV or movie adaptations end either. It keeps going, for awhile, a really long while. The character of Marius gets way more attention and development while Jean Valjean fades into the background for the middle portion of the novel.

The digressions are... typically 19th century with a lot of similes to Greek and Roman myths;they do get tiring after awhile. I'd say just have a few books going on around this one and try to stick with it all the way till the end no matter how long it takes.