Elisabeth’s Reviews > Les Misérables > Status Update

p. 115. This is slow. We just left the scene where the bishop's kindness seems to has allowed Jean Valjean to recover a nugget of his faith in the human race. Though there are many more pages to go, the amount of verve Hugo sets on this scene seems to point to how expressive this scene is of his political/philosophical views. My view of this may be colored by an unfavorable article re Hugo that I recently read which describes him as a prolific writer, but a superficial thinker. Probably why I get a little impatient of the politics, but nevertheless Hugo does tell a good story, and so far the character of the Bishop is magnificent both in his goodness, but also his twinkling little rebellions against his housekeeper, and his more deliberate rebellions against the social pomp of the church and state. He's an unforgeatable character. Now let's see for the rest--