my favorite book

I fell in love with the story of Les Misérables long before I read the actual novel by Victor Hugo. When I was about seven, my Aunt Bee gave me and my sister a cassette tape of the "Les Mis" Broadway musical. We listened to that tape incessantly and always sang along to every part. I think V and I both were convinced that we sounded exactly like Frances Ruffelle, the actress who played Eponine, when we sang. As I got older, though, I grew to love the story and plot, not just the music. I began to love the passion and courage of Fantine, the revolutionaries, and Jean Valjean. Today, I have to say that I think Javert is one of the most interesting characters. "Javert's Suicide" is one of my favorite songs in the musical.

One evening when I was little, I remember I wearing my green nightgown and doing a very lively jig to"Master of the House" in our living room. My mom came in and said that it was a "not nice" song, and fast-forwarded to the next track. I guess she didn't want me to be so enthusastic and excited about the terrible Thénardiers.

I loved that musical, and it definitely piqued my early interest in singing and musical theater. But I have to say, though, that Victor Hugo's Les Misérables is infinitely better than the musical. I read the unabridged version of this book for the first time in college, while I was on a study abroad in Europe. It was so amazing to be in Paris and visit all of the places discussed in the story - I even took a tour of the Paris sewers so I could better visualize where Jean Valjean carried Marius away from the barricade.

Hugo's writing is compelling; he cleverly forms sentences and phrases that catch readers by surprise. He also uses descriptions that seem ancillary and decorative, but then uses these same descriptions later to impact how the viewer reacts to the plot. For example, Hugo describes Fantine as having "gold and pearls [for her dowry]; but the gold was on her head and the pearls in her mouth."¹ This emphasis on gold and pearls becomes important later, when Fantine opts to sell her hair and two front teeth to raise money. I remember audibly gasping in dismay when I read that Fantine sold her teeth, and that "the corners of her mouth were stained with blood, and there was a black hole where her two front teeth had been."² I still shudder each time I read that paragraph.

There are few books which cause me to gasp audibly. When I gasped at such an early part in this story (when reading it for the first time), I knew that this book would have a great impact on me. And it did.

Have you ever gasped while reading a book? What's your favorite book? Do you have a favorite part in Les Misérables (the musical or the novel)?

1 Victor Hugo, Les Miserables (New York: Signet Classic, 1987), 122.

2 Ibid., 186.