I am currently reading Les Miserables and finding it epic in the right sense of the word. Some epic books are just long-winded piffle that bore me the reader and pummel me into submission, but not this one. It is human in scale but epic in its vision; in comparison to War and Peace that tries -and succeeds by and large- to tell a vast and gripping story with a large cast of characters, I like that this focuses on a small number of characters, that are fully fleshed out and believable, even if at times archetypal. I loved the musical and I am glad the original book is equally great.