I'm a huge fan of the musical Les Miserables. I love the music, the story, the characters, and because the movie version is coming out soon, I decided to read the book. I wish I hadn't. When he's writing events that are part of the plot-line, it's interesting, exciting and I'm enjoying it. But he goes on these massive rants about stuff that is both very irrelevant and uninteresting.
He spends fourteen chapters on the bishop (in my mind, seven would have been quite enough), he spends fifty pages describing the battle of Waterloo (this is especially irritating because he suddenly throws it in when up until then the reader has no reason whatsoever to believe its connected and really wants nothing more than to go on with the story. Although its not at the climax, its very anti-climactic. He does this in other places too), and spends a long while explaining the history of French nun organizations when really I don't care at all. I could go on, but I know a lot of you have already read the book and know what I'm talking about. I have simply run out of patience with him. If a hundred pages were cut out of the book, I would would say its great, but otherwise, I'm faced with my only option: saying the book isn't great. In fact, I don't think the book is great at all.
Please understand, I'm not trying to start an argument, but really I'm doing two things. 1) Is it really worth reading Les Miserables? Should I force myself to endure the off-topic rants that render me so impatient? 2) How would you react if I suggested that Victor Hugo is not a good author? Is it fair to say someone's not a good author just because they go on off-topic rants? Is it fair for someone like me to say that that man--that man who is so respected in the literature world--is overrated?