Les Misérables Read Along 2018

I was so very excited to come across the Les Misérables Chapter-a-Day Read-Along hosted by Nick at OneCatholicLife a few weeks ago. 

I had found Nick's Nonficiton November post pairing Les Misérables with The Novel of the Century (no prizes for guessing what Santa might bring me for Christmas), and Nick mentioned that he was thinking of hosting a 2018 read along of Les Mis. Cue excitement. 

I was astonished to realise that Les Mis has 365 chapters (this can't be a coincidence), making it absolutely perfect for a chapter a day year long read along- thank goodness 2018 is not a leap year! 

I have come relatively late to the Les Mis party. But I've fallen quite hard since I saw the musical movie version in 2012, which sadly I call the Russell Crow movie version. I saw it two or three times at the cinema. I've since seen the stage show four times in three cities (Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane), including two consecutive nights in Melbourne. I've been to an amazing exhibition also in Melbourne in 2014, Les Misérables From Page to Stage that included Volume 1 of Victor Hugo's manuscript- which had flown to Australia on it's own business class seat. And I've listened to the incredible BBC Radio 4 Radio Play, but thought that would be my lasting taste of the book for quite some time.

It's not that I'm not prepared to read Les Mis, I have a copy of Les Mis in the house. I bought the beautiful cloth bound Penguin edition (the 1976 Denny translation) a few years ago , and figured that I would get to read it when I retire. But A Chapter A Day? Even I can do that. The chapters are often only a few pages long. 

But the big question is will reading it in English be enough for me, or will I be stupid enough to try to read it en français too? I think we all know the answer to that one. I've read the first line online, and that wasn't too horrendous... 

En 1815, M. Charles-François-Bienvenu Myriel était évêque de Digne. C'était un vieillard d'environ soixante-quinze ans; il occupait le siège de Digne depuis 1806.

Surely the next 1200ish pages can't be all that bad? 

Although given I struggle with 21st century French I have no idea how I'd go with 19th century French. Well, actually, I do have some idea of how I'd go with 19th century French, and it isn't pretty. But I'm going to give it a crack. I'll read it in English first and then pair the English and French text. I'll understand some of it, and I'm sure it'll be fascinating, and I'll practice my French and undoubtedly learn some things along the way. And if I progress beyond chapter 1 that'll be fantastic. 

Allons-y!

Dreaming of France is a wonderful Monday meme
from Paulita at An Accidental Blog