Bought for the secret santa.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Hope you enjoy this and the little something extra in the parcel.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

I'm such a naughty girl - can't possibly wait until Christmas to open this. Thank you so much for sending this, plus the Christmas coins - chocolate always goes down well!

I was so surprised about how much I enjoyed this book. It doesn't start off to well, with pages and pages of what feels like background story, but all of a sudden, it all makes sense and the story is well underway. To be honest, it does do this in other places, wanders off on a tangent that somehow gets you back to the tale eventually. And while this was slightly annoying, they were still worth reading as they illuminated the characters, the time and the author himself.

It is mainly about Jean Valjean, a poor man, caught stealing bread and sent to the galleys. He escapes and, critical of the world around him, sets out to a life of dishonesty and crime. But a chance meeting with a godly, charitable Bishop turns his life around, but his old enemies are not that ready to let him go. There our other brilliantly written characters - the young, naive prostitute, Fantine, and her abandoned daughter, Cosette, the sly policeman Javert and the convert, Marius. They all truly leapt off the page.

There are some amazing quotes in this book that really will stay with me...

"They confound the radiance of the stars of heaven with the radiations which a duck's foot leaves in the mud."

"He sought to counsel and to calm the despairing man by pointing out to him the man of resignation, and to transform the grief which looks down into the grave by showing it the grief which looks up to the stars."

"And then, when, after a day of meditation, he returned at night along the boulevards, and saw through the branches of the trees the fathomless space, the nameless lights, the depths, the darkness, the mystery, all that which is only human seemed to him very pretty."

So thank you so much for sending this to me - I have bought the second volume and all ready to start it next. They will soon be travelling off to find a new owner.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Sent in a box of books as a major RABCK - hope you enjoy them all!

Arrived safe and sound xx

26 Oct 12 - I've been putting this book off for a while, firstly because its quite big and comes in two volumes and secondly the font size is pretty small. And like the show in London, every time we visit we have a chat about going to see this and end up watching something else. But the time had come to pick it up and to stop putting it off.

It starts off well, I enjoyed the first part of the story. It then skips to new characters and I was a bit confused as to what was going on and then all of a sudden everything clicks into place and all becomes clear. It carries on like this throughout the book, but after the first deviation, I was prepared and knew there was a reason for the deviation.

Overall I did enjoy this, but the descriptions can be long and I sometimes felt you get a lot of background on a character for them to only be in it for 5 mins!! The ending felt a bit strange to me too but I wonder if that is because there is another volume to read. I look forward to finding out what happens in the rest of the story and will now be going to see the show (especially as I have had a few recommendations from people who have seen what I was reading) although I'm not sure how they will portray it on stage.

Sending to JPix as a surprise RABCK to grant a wish.

I have got the second volume too, but have a couple of book rays to read, I will send you this one also once I have read it.

Thanks so much kingfan30 for this surprise book from my wishlist. Volume 2 as well?! You are really spoiling me! This is one of the BBC Big Read top 200 that I am slowly reading my way through.

This was a great story and I loved all the parts involving the characters, but I found the long diversions into history and politics quite boring. Still a great book overall though.

Sent as a RABCK to wal-89, enjoy!

Received in the post yesterday with many thanks! :) I haven't really heard much about the story of this book and didn't watch the film because I wanted to read the book first. Looking forward to reading it.

It took me ages but I finally read this book! I really enjoyed the story, even though there were lots of parts of the book which seemed to drag! Overall, it's a good read with lots to keep you interested. Would recommend but only to those who have the time to commit. Wild released somewhere last year =)