Remora
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Post by Remora on Nov 5, 2008 20:07:53 GMT -5
THANK YOU! I've been trying to figure out who Enjolras reminded me of ever since I read the book, and now I just realized it was Edward! (What's really funny is that the guy who played Enjolras in the version of the musical I saw looks almost exactly like this guy I know who looks like Robert Pattinson as Edward. And also, the guy who plays Marius looks like my friend who's the Marius of a love triangle as well.)
My favorite characters in the book are Valjean and Marius, and I, like Schmergo, love to hate Thenardier. I also rather like Cosette and Eponine. (Just because she's hilarious and acts so much like I did last year it's almost frightening.) In the musical, I like Eponine, Valjean and Marius the best. I don't really like musical!Cosette, because she and Marius have, like, zero chemistry. But I loved the two of them in the book.
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mousemaylikecheese
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And by the way, Monsieur Marius, I think that I was a little bit in love with you.
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Post by mousemaylikecheese on Dec 30, 2008 9:18:51 GMT -5
I finished it Saturday night..
I cracked up over the dilapidated elephant (which I've know about for a while).
(avoiding spoilers...) I cried at the scenes when Marius kisses Eponine...
And a few pages later after Gavroche sang at the soldiers...
Then I was like "A book full of sewers!? This isn't exactly expected. I mean, argot was somewhat interesting, but sewers..."
Enjolras, you are drastically wrong, sirrah! While a few of the things you mention are no longer general practice, the twentieth century brought us two world wars, two wars against Communist take-overs in the Pacific, and the Cold war
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Schmergo
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Post by Schmergo on Dec 30, 2008 10:14:14 GMT -5
I DISLIKE ENJOLRAS!
For me, the saddest part of the book was when they described how the Barricade boys died in such quick succession (Joly was killed, Courfeyrac was killed, Bossuet was killed...) I was definitely not expecting that.
My favourite bits were when Montparnasse jumped Valjean and got a talking-to, and when Marius and Cosette first talked.
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mousemaylikecheese
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And by the way, Monsieur Marius, I think that I was a little bit in love with you.
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Post by mousemaylikecheese on Dec 30, 2008 10:52:48 GMT -5
I didn't cry over the Societe ABC's deaths... at least, not specifically (How many more must die?). They were revolutionaries, knowing they would die. Plus, due to my confusion of Combeyferre and Courfeyrac, Enjolras and Grantaire were the only very distinct personalities to me.
I don't quite understand your Enjolras-->Frollo thing if I read that correctly (elsewhere(furthermore, I am not really familiar with Hunchback of Notre Dame)), but I must say that he reminds me of Javert in a way, who in turn reminds me a bit of Mustrum Ridcully, but I like the Archchancellor. (Part of that could be Ridcully's nondedication to an abstract issue).
I like the redemption bit between Monsigneur Bienvenue and Jean Valjean, the bit between Valjean and Montparnasse, and, uh, the part where Eponine enters Marius's apartment.
I don't particularly like Enjolras, either.
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Schmergo
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Post by Schmergo on Dec 30, 2008 19:19:14 GMT -5
Oh, I didn't cry at any point, but I meant that I thought it was so sad how easily they were killed off all in succession.
The Enjolras-Frollo thing was about how, like Enjolras, Frollo was always so pure and dedicated and completely uninterested in anything sexual. Frollo is only nineteen when we first meet him. My theory is that had Enjolras lived, he wouldn't remain that pure-- he would have gotten 'corrupted' like Frollo, and the feeling of being impure would drive him to insanity, which would drive him to evil. The parallel between Enjolras and Frollo in that respect is NOT with Disney Frollo, but with canon Frollo (though both are pretty cool).
Oh yeah, I also loved the part where Eponine came to Marius' house, and I also loved the suspense in the scene where Valjean was over in Thenardier's place. And how Marius and Gillenormand were reconciled!
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mousemaylikecheese
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And by the way, Monsieur Marius, I think that I was a little bit in love with you.
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Post by mousemaylikecheese on Dec 31, 2008 8:17:34 GMT -5
(You didn't cry for any deaths at all?)
Oh! That was either not clear in the wiki for Frollo or I didn't think of it. The other thing that I can see happening to Enjolras (and he is compared to Robespierre...) had he survived would be turning into one of those evil paranoid dictator guys, dispensing "justice" for the cause of the revolution, and really just going around killing people left and right.
This reminds me of Riddle, although his "impurity" had little to do with sexual stuff (at least, not his own issues)
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Schmergo
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Post by Schmergo on Dec 31, 2008 9:27:27 GMT -5
Yeah, the 'drives him to evil' thing made me think of Robespierre, too! I was thinking if Enjolras WON the Revolution, he wouldn't be so 'righteous' for so long. I think a combination of power and... awakening sexuality... would drive him bonkers.
I'm not really a crier... well, actually, I am. I cry all the time in real life. But I almost never cry at movies or books-- though I did cry when WRITING part of "The Past," and I did cry when reading "Jane Eyre" and several other books-- including, weirdly, at least one Discworld book, though I can't really remember which or why.
You absolutely must read "Hunchback," although I have to warn you that it is really slow at the beginning. But it's really nothing like the Disney film, and I love both. (I read the book before I saw the film!) I was afraid of reading "Les Miserables," because it's such a big book, but I loved Hunchback so much that I decided to go ahead and read it. Hunchback is much shorter-- although the language is a bit more old-fashioned than Les Miserables, I seem to remember.
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mousemaylikecheese
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And by the way, Monsieur Marius, I think that I was a little bit in love with you.
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Post by mousemaylikecheese on Dec 31, 2008 12:20:52 GMT -5
I started reading Hunchback but didn't get very far and found (as you noted) the beginning kind of slow (I didn't really get at all what was happening--except that there were urchins in a theater?)
I noticed something when I was looking through the Project Gutenberg English text of Les Mis: I have a more recent translation and the translator notes that he is trying to be true to the spirit of the work and keep the poetry in it...without hampering the work by translating every single word literally. The two I remembered the difference:
Eponine to Marius in the PG translation: And by the way, Monsieur Marius, I believe I was a little bit in love with you.
Eponine to Marius in my translation: You know, Monsieur Marius, I think I was a little bit in love with you. (which could be up to choice of words, but I like this latter better)
And I think it was in a scene between Javert and Valjean, the usage of the actual French ("tu" I think it is, or something) in the more recent translation rather than references to thou, which feels archaic.
Oh, and the chalked poem was not so poetic.
Speaking of Jane Eyre, it took me a long time to actually get a version I would read (the Scholastic Classics version) because I hated the illustrations of this one version. I can be finicky... I can't tell you whether I cried the first time I read it, I don't remember.
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Schmergo
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Post by Schmergo on Dec 31, 2008 13:41:15 GMT -5
The main differences I remember between the Wilbour and McAfee-Fahnestock translations are calling Courfeyrac a "knight errant" vs. a "paladin" and saying Enjolras was "capable of being terrible" and "capable of being intimidating." Oh, and in the Julie Rose translation, they called Montparnasse the "Fop of the house of death".
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mousemaylikecheese
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And by the way, Monsieur Marius, I think that I was a little bit in love with you.
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Post by mousemaylikecheese on Jan 6, 2009 16:26:33 GMT -5
I'm comparing the Hapgood and Denny translations! So many translations!
The first part of Proverbs 6 today in Bible class today reminded me of Valjean's speech to Montparnesse.
I thought I thought of someone that Enjolras reminds me of, but I don't remember it now.
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