Les Misérables
Victor Hugo
Historical/Political/Inspirational Fiction
9.9/10
Les Misérables is a beautiful and gritty testament to life in poverty in 19th century France. It follows the story of the convict Jean Valjean, who after being released from prison endeavours to make for himself a new life - a life without hatred, sin, or wrong - and follows God with all he has in him.
This book gives us in modern times a glimpse past the historical and political bias of the 1800s. It shows us that not all revolutionaries are murderers, that thieves can change, and that compassion is paramount for living life as God wanted it.
I took off .1 of a point for this book because of unneeded descriptions. However, that is barely a problem if you can sit through them. Negative elements: prostitution, suicide, drinking and drunkenness (two fairly mild instances with the latter), social injustice, child slavery, a few very lovable young men die violent deaths (including stabbed in the chest with a bayonet, shot eight times, and a bullet through the head.), a child is shot, a fifteen-year-old girl is shot, and there is one very gross sewer scene, but these elements should not surprise a reader that is coming into a book that is named "The Miserable Ones."
I think that a reader of at least 13 years old should be able to handle this book, even with the negative elements, as they are not described graphically. The only problem would be the immense length of the story and the type of verbiage with which it is written.
Foul language includes h--l, d--n, and a couple instances of ba----d and wh--e. These are mainly used by the criminal classes and are not used by any of the characters that one would point to as good role models.
Positive elements: loyalty in the face of death, mercy, drunkenness is highly scorned by more than one character, and all of the other negative elements are vilified as well. One main character does not succumb to pressure on the subject of his chastity.
So, yeah. I probably went too in-depth on that, but I wanted to include everything.
I absolutely adore this book, by the way, and you've probably already picked up on that. :D
Vive l'France, sweeties!
~ Amber Shipp
Victor Hugo
Historical/Political/Inspirational Fiction
9.9/10
Les Misérables is a beautiful and gritty testament to life in poverty in 19th century France. It follows the story of the convict Jean Valjean, who after being released from prison endeavours to make for himself a new life - a life without hatred, sin, or wrong - and follows God with all he has in him.
This book gives us in modern times a glimpse past the historical and political bias of the 1800s. It shows us that not all revolutionaries are murderers, that thieves can change, and that compassion is paramount for living life as God wanted it.
I took off .1 of a point for this book because of unneeded descriptions. However, that is barely a problem if you can sit through them. Negative elements: prostitution, suicide, drinking and drunkenness (two fairly mild instances with the latter), social injustice, child slavery, a few very lovable young men die violent deaths (including stabbed in the chest with a bayonet, shot eight times, and a bullet through the head.), a child is shot, a fifteen-year-old girl is shot, and there is one very gross sewer scene, but these elements should not surprise a reader that is coming into a book that is named "The Miserable Ones."
I think that a reader of at least 13 years old should be able to handle this book, even with the negative elements, as they are not described graphically. The only problem would be the immense length of the story and the type of verbiage with which it is written.
Foul language includes h--l, d--n, and a couple instances of ba----d and wh--e. These are mainly used by the criminal classes and are not used by any of the characters that one would point to as good role models.
Positive elements: loyalty in the face of death, mercy, drunkenness is highly scorned by more than one character, and all of the other negative elements are vilified as well. One main character does not succumb to pressure on the subject of his chastity.
So, yeah. I probably went too in-depth on that, but I wanted to include everything.
I absolutely adore this book, by the way, and you've probably already picked up on that. :D
Vive l'France, sweeties!
~ Amber Shipp
No comments:
Post a Comment