Tagged: Les Mis 2018 Read-along
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...
Well, this is it, ten days left in the Les Misérables Chapter-a-Day Read-along! Are you still on track to finish? Have you already finished? I apologize again for not having many updates after I changed jobs and started back to school. Hopefully that didn’t derail your plans to read the book. For those of you in the Spokane area, I am hosting a Les Misérables Live Final Chapter Reading and Celebration at St. John Vianney Catholic School on December 31 from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm. I’ll read the final...
Welcome to the fifth and final Volume of Les Misérables: “Jean Valjean.” Incredibly, this is day 299 of the 365-day Les Misérables Chapter-a-Day Read-along. Even though my new job has prevented me from doing much blogging these days, I still plan on doing a wrap-up of the read-along, including some sort of live broadcast of the last chapter, or something similar. If you have an idea for that, leave it in the comments section below or on Twitter with the #lesmisreadalong hashtag. Thank you for keeping up with the...
Congratulations to everyone participating in the Les Misérables Chapter-a-Day Read-along! You’re halfway done! Yesterday marked chapter 183, just over halfway through the 365 chapters of Les Misérables. If you’re on schedule, then you’re in the middle of Volume 3, Book 5, Virtue in Adversity. This is one of my favorite books in the novel because of the way Marius learns from his poverty, and because I think it embodies the core of Hugo’s message. I think if Hugo were to subtitle the book, then Virtue in Adversity would make...
Today is day 127 of the Les Misérables Chapter-a-Day Read-along, which is about a third of the way through the book. For those who are participating, well done. It’s not easy to limit yourself to a few pages a day, especially when you have to leave characters behind for a week or more to read Hugo’s digressions. If you’re staying with the schedule, then right now you’re in the middle of reading the history of the Convent of the Petit Picpus. Like the chapters on Waterloo, this can be...
When I taught Les Misérables to eighth graders, one of my favorite assignments was a final project in which students were to choose contemporary songs to go along with the book. I always loved seeing the connections students made between the novel and popular culture. Inevitably, at least one student would choose Abba’s “Waterloo,” but there were also some very original choices as well. In the early years of the project, students turned their songs in on cassette tapes, but over time they switched to CDs. I wonder, If...
As we enter week 14 of the Les Misérables Chapter-a-Day Read-along, the story moves from the Battle of Waterloo back to the more personal stories of Jean Valjean and Cosette. One of the things I noticed as I read the chapters for this week was Hugo’s continued use of star imagery. Here’s what stood out to me as I was reading: The ship at the center of the action this week is named Orion, not only the hunter of Greek mythology, but also one of the brightest constellations in...
Yesterday, April 1, besides being Easter Sunday, was also the one quarter mark in our Les Misérables Chapter-a-Day Read-along, based on the number of chapters read. Congratulations for making it this far, and thanks for staying with the read-along to this point. Here’s what it means to have read the first twenty-five percent of Les Misérables together: Ninety-one chapters read, including: Fourteen chapters on the Bishop of Digne Nineteen chapters on the Battle of Waterloo Almost one hundred tweets with the #lesmisreadalong hashtag, including: Favorite quotes from each chapter Pictures...
Only four more days until we finish this section on the Battle of Waterloo. One of my favorite things about reading these chapters has been trying to find artwork to go along with the quotes I’ve posted on Twitter. For those who don’t use Twitter, or who might have missed them, here are some of the images I’ve posted:
The rest of the month of March may be the most challenging portion of the entire Les Misérables Chapter-a-Day Read-along. After the dramatic end to Volume I, not only does the narrative shift to a completely different scene, but that shift goes on for nineteen chapters. The characters that the reader has become so invested in are seemingly abandoned for a sixty page account of the Battle of Waterloo. And of course, reading only a chapter a day makes this section last even longer. All I can say...
If you have been reading one chapter a day in Les Misérables, then congratulations on reaching Volume II today. It’s been over two months since we started, and we have finally finished the first of the book’s five volumes. I hope you have been pleased by what you have read so far of Hugo’s magnum opus. Fantine is behind us, Cosette is before us. But before we get back to our little Lark, Hugo will take us on an extended tour of the battlefield of Waterloo. Prepare yourself to...
In light of the Academy Awards show last night, this week we take a different look at Les Misérables, comparing several different film versions. Les Misérables has been filmed dozens of times, and rather than give a full review or summary of the difference versions, I am going to simply give you the same scene from six different films and ask you what you think. I’ve chosen arguably the most famous scene in the book, the Bishop’s Candlesticks, and I’ve tried to find as many versions as are available online....
