cahn | Les Miserables, book 2 "Cosette"

skygiants' post is here and has all kinds of delightful things about Socially Awkward St. Valjean!

I don't have nearly as funny things to say as skygiants, but here are my reactions:

-Waterloo was not nearly as bad as I was expecting it to be! I think because it was similar in length to the Bishop of Digne section, and I was steeled against it being much longer. However, I can't say that I read it super carefully. I also had this feeling like I needed visuals to really figure out what the heck he was saying for most of it.

-I keep worrying about Cosette having long-standing emotional issues because of her emotional (and physical) abuse by the Thenardiers! I guess, you know, she married Marius, which maybe is the answer to that. (Though I have always had a soft spot for stiff overly-idealistic socially-awkward Marius! No one else seems to, but I do! (Not that I'd want to marry him or anything, eek, but I just want to pat him on the head like a little puppydog, sort of the way Enjolras does in the musical.) We'll see what I think on this readthrough.)

-The convent section was a hard slog, even though I thought it was more interesting than either Waterloo or the Bishop. I think because I'd been steeled against Waterloo, and then to find out there was another long digression... Also, I had never read the bit about Madame Albertine before! Mme. Albertine is a mysterious nun who never speaks -- except one day when the young Duc de Rohan (peer, Prince, and eventually Archbishop) comes to preach, and she cries, "Ah, Auguste!" And that's all! Albertine never speaks again, and Hugo goes on to natter about something else. I NEED TO KNOW THE REST OF THIS STORY! I'm okay with never knowing what happens to Valjean's family, or the kids in the elephant, perhaps because I've known there was no resolution to those stories since I was a kid. But ALBERTINE! WHAT WAS HER DEAL?

-M. Fauchlevent is the best! There's this hilarious bit where the nuns are questioning Valjean to see if he would fit in the convent, and Fauchlevent answers all their questions, and Valjean doesn't say anything at all, and the nuns are all, "Valjean, what a great conversationalist!"

-I really enjoyed the bit where Hugo compares convents to prisons (...they're both damp impoverished places where people's freedom is extremely restricted, except the motivations and therefore results are totally different), which I found really interesting.

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Oh man I forgot to talk about Madame Albertine! I TOO really want to know the rest of this story. I assume that she and Auguste had a TRAGIC LOVE of some sort and then something very dramatic happened, BUT WHAT?

I am also really worried about baby Cosette's psychological health. Like, I love Jean Valjean, and he does his best to be a good dad, but, uh, he is not really prepping her well for a ton of socialization . . .

(Although also how hilarious is the part where he's like "thank God, she's going to be ugly, I don't have to worry about anybody trying to marry her!" LITTLE DID YOU KNOW, JEAN VALJEAN.)

RIGHT, WHAT HAPPENED? And what was Auguste's take on it? NOT FAIR, VICTOR HUGO! I need to know!

Maybe it's good that the guy Cosette marries is the only person in the entire book who is more socially awkward than Valjean? Let's hope their kids have a social babysitter, or something, because man -- it just occurred to me that all of Marius' friends are dead, and Cosette doesn't have any, so these poor hypothetical kids don't have anything even resembling a social circle!

Ahahahaha, yeah, I love "She's going to grow up ugly!" as the running theme -- first Valjean, then the nuns! It's good Cosette managed to make it to adolescence without body issues, that's all I'm saying!

To be fair, Marius only really thinks of himself as having had two friends anyway . . . if I remember right, all the rest of those revolutionaries were basically just "Courfeyrac's friends who Marius hangs out with sometimes when he is bored or in a suicidal despair."

And I don't think his old botanist priest buddy dies! SO MAYBE COSETTE AND MARIUS WILL HAVE ONE FRIEND to be a social circle to their child. (But probably not.)

ahahahaha, true! (Oh, Marius!) But we might have hoped that Marius would have unbent a bit...

OH HEY Botanist priest buddy lives?? there's one guy whose life does not end in total existential despair, or nearly? Victor Hugo, are you getting soft?

I THINK he lives! I mean, I don't remember him dying?

That said, now of course I'm going to turn a page and he'll be dead in the next chapter. Sorry I've just doomed you, botanist priest buddy!

I'm just nearing the end of the convent digression now (at least, I THINK I'm nearing the end :P) and really enjoyed it! I'm loving all the digressions -- they're just such fascinating pictures of ways of life in a time and place that I can never visit. And yes, you are so right that Albertine is interesting. I'd love to know what her deal was too!

Re: Cosette, I feel like Hugo has this...overly romanticized idea of childhood, from the way he keeps on talking about kids, and views them as these perfect angels of innocence, so I think he's failing to grasp what some of the actual effects of that kind of long-term physical and emotional abuse might be on a child.

(and socially-awkward Marius ftw! His obvious awkwardness in the new movie version of the musical made me actually kind of like him. The soundtrack that I grew up on has a Marius who sounds way too confident and self-posessed)

YES EXACTLY with the romanticized childhood, especially of girls -- I thought, actually, that Marius' lonesome childhood explained pretty well how Marius came to be :) -- I know Cosette does not actually turn out to have severe emotional problems, but I keep sort of expecting her to...

Awwwwww! I have not seen the movie yet (I WILL JANUARY 24TH I HAVE IT MARKED IN SPARKLY COLORS) and I am so excited to, since I understand the people who made it had actually read the book and are putting things in from the book, like awkward!Marius!

Did you grow up with Michael Ball like me? I know what you're saying, but I adore Michael Ball like whoa :) (He does do the painfully earnest part really well, especially in "Heart Full of Love," which has the most awkward lyrics ever!)

I am reading the ABC / Marius section now and it is SO FULL OF WIN *bounce bounce*

I haven't gotten to Marius' lonesome childhood yet, so since that's not really emphasised in the musical I didn't know it was a thing! Actually I feel like I have a very poor handle on Marius in general since the musical is really only interested in him for the romance angle. I'll be interested to seem ore of him! Also yes Cosette should have LOTS of severe emotional problems, GOSH. Although she's probably helped by the fact that her earliest formative years WERE full of love and good parenting from Fantine, because that makes a difference.

YES THE PEOPLE WHO MADE IT CLEARLY READ AND LOVED THE BOOK, it is the best! The further I get into the book the more I'm like OH SO THAT'S WHERE THE MOVIE PEOPLE GOT XYZ FROM!

And yes, I have discovered that I did indeed grow up with Michael Ball. (I had to do some sleuthing to figure out, because my recording was a Definitely Not Bootlegged From My Best Friend set of burned dics.) Idk, I think I'd have to go back and relisten to Heart Full of Love. It's possible I'm a little hard on him; he does do quite a lot pretty well. He just doesn't make me particularly like him at all.

I CAN'T WAIT TO GET TO THAT SECTION!

Well -- I am told a lot of people find book!Marius kind of unlikeable too. I really really like him and just want to give him a pat on the head and a hug, but judging from the comments on skygiants' posts I am in the great minority here!

ETA: I think "Heart full of Love" is a terrible song as a song, and I spent most of my childhood loathing it -- but on this reread I'm totally impressed by how much it actually... does... capture the complete awkwardness of Marius/Cosette :)

Edited 2013-01-09 02:10 (UTC)

Well I shall be interested to discover my opinions on book!Marius then!

And yeah, Heart Full of Love (and most of the Cosette/Marius romance) was 100% the most uninteresting part of the musical for me, growing up. I've grown more fond of it, though, since seeing the new movie! I think you will appreciate the way they do Heart Full of Love. :)

I find stage musical!Marius rather dull and feel sure there ought to be more to him than that. I saw (and have the recording of) the Original London Cast, which is indeed Michael Ball now I look him up. On the plus side that means Roger Allam is my Javert. Seeing it live in my late teens (*feels old*) I was all about Eponine and Javert (by which I don't mean Eponine/Javert).

Oh, just wait until my next Les Mis post! I have ALL THE FEELS about book!Marius.

Now that I think about it, I believe Michael Ball was Marius on all the recordings made for a very long time, including the 10th anniversary one where he was middle-aged and not really like character!Marius at all!

Hmm, I know very little about Roger Allam, though I imprinted hard on Terrence Mann. *wanders off to go check spotify*

I got to it a little younger -- I was in, let's see, seventh grade when the mother of the girl I was carpooling with was playing it nonstop in the car, and I was all "Wait a second, ARE THEY TALKING ABOUT VALJEAN AND JAVERT I AM IN LOVE"... I was all about Javert, but I think I was a little young to take Eponine seriously.

Les Miserables, book 2 "Cosette"

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