What brave new world is this that has such treasures in it?

"Have no fear of robbers or murderers. They are external dangers, petty dangers. We should fear ourselves. Prejudices are the real robbers; vices the real murderers. The great dangers are within us. Why worry about what threatens our heads or our purses? Let us think instead of what threatens our souls."

- Charles Myriel a.k.a. Monseigneur Bienvenu, The Bishop of Digne (I.1.vii)

Day Count: 4

Page Count: 32

Beginning anew is a task that is always as fraught with peril as it is filled with excitement. One year ago, I was wading into War & Peace and feeling quite good about it. This year, I'm beginning my read-through of Victor Hugo's immortal classic Les Misérables and feel just as good about it. While my schedule doesn't allow me quite the brisk pace I was enjoying at this time last year (I was not in a play last January, nor did the break end so abruptly last year), I am still getting a great deal of enjoyment from the text.

Hugo is starting slow. After taking a brief stock of the first volume, I recognize that Valjean - the book's main character - doesn't appear until about 60 pages into the book and Fantine - the title character of the first volume - doesn't appear until page 120. Clearly, he is taking his time and allowing the drama to unfold organically, not rushing exposition. I'm looking forward to going wherever he has to take me!

For my journey this year, I've decided to go with the Signet Classics paperback version of Les Mis, which offers a 1987 English translation by Lee Fahnestock and Norman MacAfee. This translation is actually based on what is considered the 'classic' translation by Charles Wilbour with some updated language and a bit closer attention to certain details Wilbour had managed to ignore. I chose this translation for a few reasons:

1. Proximity of Translation to Today - I've heard it said (and pointed it out previously) that a good translation is one that makes the text accessible to its reader in a language that (s)he understands. While the Fahnestock/MacAfee translation isn't the most recent, it is - based on the reports I've read - the most reliable of the recent translations. It was released around the same time as the musical version of Les Mis (of which I am a fan), so it's got that going for it as well.
2. The Ease of Portability - Generally speaking, I do not like mass market paperbacks at all! They are generally very cheaply made, tend to fall apart, and don't look nearly as nice on a bookshelf as I feel books ought to. However, this translation (read: the one I wanted) was only available in mass market, which does offer one very nice perk: portability. While the book is a good two inches thick, it is a lot smaller than my copies of War & Peace or Anna Karenina, so toting it around from place to place (as I am wont to do) will be much less of a burden. So there's that...
3. In a Word... Unabridged! - Since announcing my Year of Hugo on Facebook (again) a scant two hours ago, I've had at least two friends advise against reading the unabridged version of Les Mis this year. I must admit that this is tempting and I would probably give in to said temptation... had I not already read War & Peace. Reading that book changed my perception of literature such that I have absolutely no fear of tackling even the epic task of a book which exceeds my other great reading exercise by about 250 pages.

 I'm looking forward to another great year of reading another of the greatest novels ever written! Here's to a great 2012!

Coming in January: Hurdling Hugo

I've been remiss in updating this blog and, for that, I apologize. Indeed, since my life has picked up with the busy-ness of late, it's been difficult not only to find the time to update, but also to continue reading Tolstoy. While my neglect and my schedule HAVE diminished any possibility of getting through a fourth Tolstoy text before the year is over, I still hold out hope that I will be able to finish the book of his short stories that I began a couple months back. I've finished "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" and moved onto "The Kreutzer Sonata," which is a downright interesting story with echoes of Plato's Symposium and hints toward Capote's In Cold Blood. Sometime soon, I will have to review them for the blog here.

However, in the meantime, I have an announcement to make. It was a little over a year ago that I announced my intention to read Tolstoy's classic War and Peace. From that simple announcement, a journey of two novels, several short stories, and a literary awakening sprang forth. I came to a realization before I had even finished War and Peace that there were a great many fantastic works of fiction in this world and so few that I had ever actually bothered to read. I resolved myself then and there to change that for myself. I wanted to read those books, to better myself in the process, and discover why these classics are considered 'classics' in the first place.

After I had dedicated a year or my life to the work of Tolstoy, I challenged myself to dedicate each and every new year of my life (for as long as I'm able at least) to reading one classic author and their best-known and best-loved work. There came to be so many great authors that began to vie for their place on my bookshelf and in my hands: Joyce, Dumas, Dostoyevsky, Cervantes, the Brontes, Dickens, and many, many others. It was difficult to decide where to go next.

However, after giving it a goodly amount of thought, I found myself coming back to one author (and, indeed, one text) over and over again. For most of my young life (since my junior year of high school if I'm quite honest), one story has followed me. I first experienced it as a film starring Liam Neeson, Geoffrey Rush, and Uma Thurman, then as a musical written by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil. About the only way I have NOT experienced the story of Les Misérables was the way it was originally intended to be experienced - by reading the original novel.

So, my main story was set and, with it, my author for 2012: Victor Hugo. Reading massive novels did not really fill me with feelings of dread and apprehension like they did before I started reading War and Peace. As such, tackling a novel even bigger than that epic tome is not as daunting as it once might have been. In fact, I find the prospect rather exciting. So exciting, in fact, that I'm not ending the fun and excitement there! I've decided that, when I finish Les Mis, I'll take to reading Hugo's original masterpiece, The Hunchback of Notre Dame a.k.a. Notre Dame de Paris (provided, of course, that I can find a good translation of it).

While I am still excited about the prospect of finishing Tolstoy, I am anxiously anticipating beginning this new chapter in my literary journey! I would welcome any and all of you who have not read Les Mis (or even those of you who HAVE) to read it with me! I would love to discuss it with you as I go!