As I may have mentioned previously, Jacqueline and I are coming into the home stretch on Les Misérables. And my oh my, if the ending of the musical version brought tears to your eyes (as it did to mine on more than one occasion), then the ending of the novel will just make your heart throb with desolation. No spoilers here, but let's just say that while this Cosette has not even the smallest evil bone in her body, she causes Jean Valjean more agony than a lifetime of imprisonment could ever have wreaked.
"Soon he no longer came as far as the Rue Saint-Louis. He got as far as the Rue Pavee, shook his head and turned back; then he went no further than the Rue des Trois-Pavillons; then he did not overstep the Blancs-Manteaux. One would have said that he was a pendulum which was no longer wound up, and whose oscillations were growing shorter before ceasing altogether."
Even without the proper context, that is just an amazingly sad passage, isn't it?
I can't even tell you how much I'm going to miss this novel when we do finish it off. Fortunately we're going to Notre-Dame de Paris next, and even more fortunately I will probably live long enough to have another go at Les Misérables before I shuffle off. It's definitely worth doing.
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