/lit/ - Literature

Eh, I prefer the musical.

I <3 Les Miserables.

I grew up with the Disney version, so naturally I raged like a motherfucker.

Why are they less miserable? They be smokin that green?

I like it.

Also, you can skip huge sections.

Also also, Grantaire is extremely gay.

>>868111
The whole of the ABC society are annoying, pretentious bastards and Marius fucks Cosette, the end.

inb4 Jean Valjean

>>868116

Ah, but that's why they're amusing! Marius is a tard.

Les Miserable is one of the greatest examples of French literature ever written. The Hunchback of Notre Dame is also very good but not on the same level.
If you can read French his poetry is also very accomplished.

Oh and check out Dumas if you haven't, he's cool too.

>>868119
I was explaining the plotline :D

Marius is a bit bawwish and faggy with the whole "i'll die if I don't see her again"

Basically, marius = derp

As far as 19th century classics goes it's France>Russia>Britain>rest of the world.jpg
French really had their shit together for a bit.

As far as 19th century classics goes it's France>Russia>Britain>rest of the world.jpg
French really had their shit together for a bit.

>>868123
Welcome to Romanticism.
Also, apart from his whining when it comes to Cosette (and her lack of personality), Marius doesn't lack character - he's the kind of guy who refuses an easy life with his grandfather's money and instead suffers chronical poverty, using the experience to become a better, independent man.

>>868136
lol, I know.

The plain-ness and straight acceptance of their love irritates me.

>>868125
I'm somewhat inexperienced when it comes to 19th century French literature. I did read Les Miserables, but what other works are there that you'd consider superior to the likes of Dostoyevski and Tolstoy etc.?

>>868136

In a book named after the people who don't have monied grandfathers.

>>868151
Not every character of importance is one of les misérables.

>>868150
Dumas and Hugo are the heavy hitters but there are a few others.

Dumas -The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After, The Vicomte de Bragelonne

Hugo - The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Les Miserables

Benjamin Constant - Adolphe

Gustave Flaubert - Madame Bovary

Oh and don't forget Jules Verne

>>868148
Thank god their love is actually part of a much larger, intricate and actually existing plot that's able to draw you in. Otherwise the book should've been renamend into Le Twilight.

>>868163
Kthx

>>868166
hahaha,

Le Twilight.

Vote for new /lit/ meme :D

>>868166
Word.

>>868172
"Twilight is poorly written" is not a meme. It is some sort of fact.

>>868182
But Le Twilight sounds funny.

>>868182

But Le Twilight!

We make the characters the same but with slightly French style and with some complicated plot about Edouard and the French Revolution

>>868225

A /lit/ project grander than the ZWG. Huzzah!

One day more till revolution,
We will nip it in the bud!
We'll be ready for these vampires,
We won't let them drink our blood!

I propose to call the vapid and ditzy heroine Belle Escargot.

I read Les Miserables in French, and thought it was okay, if a little tedious. Then I had to read it again, in English this time, for a class, and I fucking hated it.

I love books, but this brick just drags on and on endlessly. This is the one situation where I would suggest you just watch the movie instead.

>>868240
Belle Escargot and Edouard le Poofé

I really loved the play when I saw it in London, but could never finish the book.

Frenchfag here.

Why isn't the title of Les Misérables translated in English versions? That doesn't mean anything in English and makes it seem like your a pretentious asshole for using a French title in an English conversation.

"The Unfortunates", "The Pitiful", "The Low-lives"... anything would be better than an untranslated title.

In short, who started the fashion of keeping the French title only for this very work and why didn't anyone tell this guy he's a faggot and made a better translation?

>>870634
It's always better to use the original title, in it's original language, when discussing a work of art.

I've read both... unabridged. Makes me feel like I won a gold medal or something. Hugo is good at setting up something epic, and giving you some characters who are very interesting (and some that are annoyingly naive). The problem with Hugo is that he wants to write a lot about social and political issues in his books. He doesn't try to make it work with the story, but instead takes long chapters and discusses these issues in the midst of the story. Sometimes the subjectmatter is interesting, often it isn't (no, I don't care about the goddamn Parisian sewers). I have a love-hate thing for him. He obviously was passionate and knowledgeable of history, but often I find he just putters around when he hits important climaxes of his stories. Still one of the best in France.

Also, hate to say it, but the Les Mis musical is my favorite representation of the story. I think it did a good job of focusing on the best aspects of the story and making it a real passionate piece. I could sing the entire soundtrack word for word. It's full of delicious Javert and Enjolras goodness. Only thing it lacks is enough Gavroche. There's never enough Gavroche, that cute scamp.

>>870656

When you are sure everyone involved in the discussion speaks the language in question, sure it is, but otherwise it's more convivial to accomodate for others

Do you have an idea how many hours of argument were wasted in history over the pronounciation of Van Gogh while neither side had the right one? Maybe that influenced me, but the fact is that translations are okay too.

>>870687
Translation alone seems like a poor way of accommodating those who don't speak a given language. Providing cultural context and etymological insight on the subject is preferable in my opinion and manageable, I think, for at least the title of a work if not the work in its entirety.

>>870659
I feel the same way.
I raeged so hard when I was reading the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Immediately after a really intense scene where the beggars and thieves are climbing the castle as molten oil lights up the square, we cut to the king doing his taxes.

A monk in Notre-Dame goes to visit the famed bell ringer.
He sees the hunchback pull a rope, tipping the bell back, then letting go and smashing the bell into his ugly face, causing it to chime loudly across town.
The monk asks to have a go, and the hunchback obliges. He pulls the rope, lets go, and the huge bell swings into the monks face, sending him flying out of the tower, even failing to chime.
Later the hunchback walks up to police who are looking at a dead monk with a mangled face.
"Do you recognise this man?" the police ask him
The hunchback replies "His face doesn't ring a bell"

Who cried when he died?
Lip-wibbling counts. Manly eye-wiping counts.
Admit it, /lit/.