Reading the Chunksters discussion

This was a tense book, and the action is written brilliantly, I thought.

Yes, I was going to comment on the amount of coincidence that Hugo relies on here. I have to say, though, that whereas I get very snarky about coincidence being used to hold a plot together in modern 'commercial' novels, I'm more forgiving here. Perhaps it's because there's a sense of fatedness that Hugo conjures up which moves it beyond mere coincidence as narrative convenience?

What did everyone else think about Eponine? I'd forgotten how much the show smooths out her character - Hugo is far more nuanced here.

wow this book was amazing! so many plot twists and turns, with Marius peeping at the Thenardier family, thinking them the most wicked of villains, and then realizing that the father was the same person he had been seeking for years - the man who had saved his beloved father! And then, and then! on top of it all, he realizes that his beloved is in danger! But wait, that is not all, then we see that Javert is on the case! Just as JV is tied to a chair after he was hoodwinked into helping the Thenardier family! Of course, he escapes at the last minutes, leaving Javert wondering who 'the real prize' was that fled.

Roman Clodia wrote: "This was a tense book, and the action is written brilliantly, I thought.

Yes, I was going to comment on the amount of coincidence that Hugo relies on here. I have to say, though, that whereas I ge..."

That's a good view, that because of an underlying theme of Fate, that we ignore the way these characters keep getting thrown together?

But that does happen "in real life" as well... how many times do we say "what a small world!" when something happens that makes us realize an odd connection with someone that we wouldn't have expected?

I’m enjoying this section but ‘Jondrettes’ actions are making me so angry! They have not learnt from their deserved fall from grace. They took advantage of Fantine and her misfortune and then became poor themselves but all they go is scam people.

The daughters have only learnt to lie and the result of this is Cosette now has happiness and they have nothing

I’m about half way through and I’m thinking that JV must recognise them but I’m not sure how the story will pan out.

In response to the comment re fate, I think fate is an important part of the book and Hugo probably wrote it to be a bit too much of a coincidence. It emphasises the ‘what goes around, comes around’ aspect of the novel by having the characters interact in so many ways

Lorna wrote: "I think the Mother is a character not really talked about, do you think she is so apathetic to her son because her husband is such a weasel? She stands by her husband and helps him yet does not lik..."

I think she's a deeply unpleasant character. She stands by her husband because he has provided her with money (until the bankruptcy) and without him she and her daughters would be even more destitute. I think they are both as bad as each other