Les Miserables

Started by Traditionallyruralmom, December 30, 2018, 08:21:40 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Traditionallyruralmom

Banned book and now a literary classic.  What are your thoughts on this work?
Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat.

Michael Wilson

Quote from: Traditionallyruralmom on December 30, 2018, 08:21:40 AM
Banned book and now a literary classic.  What are your thoughts on this work?
Not to the point, but it was a favorite among Southern Soldiers during the Civil War; so much so that the men of the Army of Northern Virginia began referring to themselves as "Lee's Miserables".
"The World Must Conform to Our Lord and not He to it." Rev. Dennis Fahey CSSP

"My brothers, all of you, if you are condemned to see the triumph of evil, never applaud it. Never say to evil: you are good; to decadence: you are progess; to death: you are life. Sanctify yourselves in the times wherein God has placed you; bewail the evils and the disorders which God tolerates; oppose them with the energy of your works and your efforts, your life uncontaminated by error, free from being led astray, in such a way that having lived here below, united with the Spirit of the Lord, you will be admitted to be made but one with Him forever and ever: But he who is joined to the Lord is one in spirit." Cardinal Pie of Potiers

Bernadette

I love it. My dad loved the musical, so I grew up listening to that and by the time I read the book I was already familiar with the story. I have it for Kindle and as an audiobook. I love redemption stories, and this one definitely fits the bill.
My Lord and my God.

Gardener

What was the reason for its being on the Index?

I've never seen the play, movie, or read the book.
"If anyone does not wish to have Mary Immaculate for his Mother, he will not have Christ for his Brother." - St. Maximilian Kolbe

Lynne

Quote from: Gardener on December 30, 2018, 11:45:22 AM
What was the reason for its being on the Index?

I've never seen the play, movie, or read the book.

I think that the works, in general, of Victor Hugo were placed on the Index. The movie version, I thought, reflected Catholicism well but perhaps the book did not.
In conclusion, I can leave you with no better advice than that given after every sermon by Msgr Vincent Giammarino, who was pastor of St Michael's Church in Atlantic City in the 1950s:

    "My dear good people: Do what you have to do, When you're supposed to do it, The best way you can do it,   For the Love of God. Amen"

Heinrich

Quote from: Michael Wilson on December 30, 2018, 09:20:00 AM
Quote from: Traditionallyruralmom on December 30, 2018, 08:21:40 AM
Banned book and now a literary classic.  What are your thoughts on this work?
Not to the point, but it was a favorite among Southern Soldiers during the Civil War; so much so that the men of the Army of Northern Virginia began referring to themselves as "Lee's Miserables".

I never knew that. And I was a quarter master first sargent for General Lee in the ANV: 7th irregular Kentucky sharpshooter cavalry company.
Schaff Recht mir Gott und führe meine Sache gegen ein unheiliges Volk . . .   .                          
Lex Orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi.
"Die Welt sucht nach Ehre, Ansehen, Reichtum, Vergnügen; die Heiligen aber suchen Demütigung, Verachtung, Armut, Abtötung und Buße." --Ausschnitt von der Geschichte des Lebens St. Bennos.

Gardener

"If anyone does not wish to have Mary Immaculate for his Mother, he will not have Christ for his Brother." - St. Maximilian Kolbe

Heinrich

No. Complete enactment.

In regards to the OP, is this work one of necessity for cultural literacy?
Schaff Recht mir Gott und führe meine Sache gegen ein unheiliges Volk . . .   .                          
Lex Orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi.
"Die Welt sucht nach Ehre, Ansehen, Reichtum, Vergnügen; die Heiligen aber suchen Demütigung, Verachtung, Armut, Abtötung und Buße." --Ausschnitt von der Geschichte des Lebens St. Bennos.

Josephine87

I've only seen the Wishbone version  ;D

It seems like a good story full of virtuous people.  But that's me remembering from age 11, ha.

My assumption is that Victor Hugo was likely your typical post-Revolution Frenchman who did not care for the Church and that might come through in his writing.  But I could be very well be wrong!
"Begin again." -St. Teresa of Avila

"My present trial seems to me a somewhat painful one, and I have the humiliation of knowing how badly I bore it at first. I now want to accept and to carry this little cross joyfully, to carry it silently, with a smile in my heart and on my lips, in union with the Cross of Christ. My God, blessed be Thou; accept from me each day the embarrassment, inconvenience, and pain this misery causes me. May it become a prayer and an act of reparation." -Elisabeth Leseur

Traditionallyruralmom

Quote from: Josephine87 on December 31, 2018, 02:29:39 PM

My assumption is that Victor Hugo was likely your typical post-Revolution Frenchman who did not care for the Church and that might come through in his writing.  But I could be very well be wrong!

My daughter has seen a film version of it and read the original.  She said the film comes across very differently than the book.  He rants against the Church in the book.
Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat.

Traditionallyruralmom

Quote from: Heinrich on December 30, 2018, 07:19:39 PM

In regards to the OP, is this work one of necessity for cultural literacy?
I am not sure what you mean
Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat.

Michael Wilson

Quote from: Traditionallyruralmom on December 31, 2018, 08:21:04 PM
Quote from: Heinrich on December 30, 2018, 07:19:39 PM

In regards to the OP, is this work one of necessity for cultural literacy?
I am not sure what you mean
I think "big H" means that with the little time that we have to read and the many good and even necessary books that we need to read to keep our faith and sanity in this world, is this book one of those "we really need to read this" work?
"The World Must Conform to Our Lord and not He to it." Rev. Dennis Fahey CSSP

"My brothers, all of you, if you are condemned to see the triumph of evil, never applaud it. Never say to evil: you are good; to decadence: you are progess; to death: you are life. Sanctify yourselves in the times wherein God has placed you; bewail the evils and the disorders which God tolerates; oppose them with the energy of your works and your efforts, your life uncontaminated by error, free from being led astray, in such a way that having lived here below, united with the Spirit of the Lord, you will be admitted to be made but one with Him forever and ever: But he who is joined to the Lord is one in spirit." Cardinal Pie of Potiers

Heinrich

Schaff Recht mir Gott und führe meine Sache gegen ein unheiliges Volk . . .   .                          
Lex Orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi.
"Die Welt sucht nach Ehre, Ansehen, Reichtum, Vergnügen; die Heiligen aber suchen Demütigung, Verachtung, Armut, Abtötung und Buße." --Ausschnitt von der Geschichte des Lebens St. Bennos.

Kreuzritter

Read it long before my conversion, so I can't say.

I believe Dumas's Three Musketeers was on the Index for its  - morally accurate - portrayal of Cardinal Richelieu. So there's that. Something like Jules Michelet's pseudo-histories I can understand, though a great loss from the perspective of belles lettres, as was the ban on Gibbon's tendentious Decline and Fall. Balzac got the chop too, despite his favourable portrayal of the royalist counter-revolutionaries of the Vendee in Les Chouans, as did Flaubert. At least they left Baudelaire alone, going by the Wikipedia list, though why is beyond me.

Elizabeth

Quote from: Heinrich on December 30, 2018, 04:50:48 PM
Quote from: Michael Wilson on December 30, 2018, 09:20:00 AM
Quote from: Traditionallyruralmom on December 30, 2018, 08:21:40 AM
Banned book and now a literary classic.  What are your thoughts on this work?
Not to the point, but it was a favorite among Southern Soldiers during the Civil War; so much so that the men of the Army of Northern Virginia began referring to themselves as "Lee's Miserables".

I never knew that. And I was a quarter master first sargent for General Lee in the ANV: 7th irregular Kentucky sharpshooter cavalry company.
Thank you for your service, Sir. ;D ;D ;D