6 ms·
Victor Hugo had the 19th-Century habit of putting too much into a book. He had plenty to say about the Battle of Waterloo, some I dare say correct, but he had
by cafard 11y ago
Victor Hugo had the 19th-Century habit of putting too much into a book. He had plenty to say about the Battle of Waterloo, some I dare say correct, but he had small excuse for putting it all into Les Miserables. (And then there's the long excursion on convents, which the Penguin edition displaces to an appendix, but that's an argument for another day.)
John Keegan gives it a very readable treatment in The Day of Battle.
- devindotcom 11y agoIf you ask me, modern authors have a habit of putting too little into a book! But of course your criticism has merit. Les Miserables is indeed very long, though I don't think any of it is waste.
- pi-err 11y ago19th century long form fiction is TV show for the time. Weekly episodes in mainstream newspapers. Hugo, Flaubert, Dumas, Zola used the format for decades. People will find Game of Thrones "too little into a show" soon enough, too.