Les Misérables Chapter-a-Day Read-along: The Wrap-Up

The Bishop and the Candlesticks

Fredric March and Cedric Hardwicke in Les Misérables (1935)

Congratulations on reading one of the great works of world literature! Whether you finished Les Misérables early, on time, or not yet, thank you for participating. I hope the read-along was as enriching for you as it was for me. (If you liked the experience of reading classic literature in one chapter a day, please consider joining the 2019 Chapter-a-Day Read-along.)

You now know some of the most memorable characters in literature: Jean Valjean. Fantine. Cosette. Javert. The Thenardiers. Eponine. Gavroche. Marius. The Friends of the ABC.

My hope is that your reading of Les Misérables will make a positive difference in your life. At the beginning of the novel we looked at Hugo’s own purpose for writing Les Misérables. Here it is again, and you can judge for yourself if he succeeded:

I want to destroy human inevitability. I condemn slavery, I chase out poverty, I instruct ignorance, I treat illness, I light up the night, I hate hatred. That is what I am and that is why I have written The Wretched. As I see it, The Wretched is nothing other than a book having fraternity as its foundation and progress as its summit.

Please feel free to use the comments section below to leave your thoughts about the book and/or about reading it in one chapter a day.

As for me, after spending a little time each of the last 365 days with Victor Hugo’s grand novel, the last line of the book perfectly expresses how the read-along ended:

It came about simply, of itself,
As night follows when the day is ended.

Deacon Nick

Nick Senger is a husband, a father of four, a Roman Catholic deacon and a Catholic school principal. He taught junior high literature and writing for over 25 years, and has been a Catholic school educator since 1990. In 2001 he was named a Distinguished Teacher of the Year by the National Catholic Education Association.

4 Responses

  1. Literary Feline says:

    Thank you so much for hosting this chapter a day read-along, Nick. I had been wanting to finish Les Miserables for years now and doing it this way made it seem less daunting. It was hard not to race through it faster than the schedule, but I managed to mostly hold back–even if not always. Les Miserables turned out to be one of my favorite books of the year. I also read War and Peace this past year, in a year long format, and couldn’t help but make comparisons as I went. Thank you for your great posts throughout the year. I hope you have a wonderful 2019. Happy Reading!

  2. Brona says:

    My final Les Mis post – http://bronasbooks.blogspot.com/2019/01/les-miserables-by-victor-hugo.html

    Thanks again Nick for hosting such a wonderful reading experience – I really loved seeing you read the final chapter on twitter 🙂

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