Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

“If the soul is left in darkness, sins will be committed. The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but the one who causes the darkness. " - [Monseigneur Bienvenue] Les Misérables.

Les Misérables by Victor Hugo is the story, set in the 19th Century, of the intertwining lives of Jean Valjean, Fantine, The Theodores, Javert, Cosette and Marius Pontmercy. Jean Valjean was a convict, released after 19 years in prison. He goes from a distraught, dark and even malicious man to a "saint". He grows to become very successful and a respected man in his new town. That is, until Javert (a police agent) discovers the truth and Jean Valjean must escape. The others are characters that he meets later on that affect his actions and attitudes. 

This book was amazing!!! Don't get me wrong,I struggled a lot at the start and it took me months to read the book, but it was all worth it! Because the stories all intertwine at the end, it is only at the end of each chapter and especially at the end of the book that the story seems to be making complete sense and it is at such moments that the book becomes so gripping. Victor Hugo did a fantastic job exploring the darkest parts of society and while it seemed dry at some parts, it all joined up to create a very well written and intriguing book. It is one of those times that you have to step away to see the whole picture. I have to admit, the language was quite hard at times and I did not understand everything and I'm sure I missed important ideas Hugo wrote. I will definitely revisit this book in a few years to get even more from it...

Persuasion by Jane Austen

“How quick come the reasons for approving what we like.”  - Jane Austen,

Persuasion by Jane Austen is the story of Anne Elliot; a witty, independent and intelligent woman of the upper class in the 19^th Century. Eight years before the start of the novel, Anne was still a young woman when she fell in love with Officer Frederick Wentworth. However, she was persuaded against this love. Now, in the present she is already 27 and much wiser. She meets again with now, Captain Frederick. This is not only their love story but also the satire of society’s vanity and social class.

At the start I found the book quite hard, I thought that I would actually be writing this review differently and saying that I didn't think this was a book for my level and age, mid-teens. The words were quite hard, like any other classic and the names sometimes got me confused, especially the two Charles and it didn't help they were cousins. However, once the story started taking shape the whole thing became easier to read and follow. 

I quite enjoyed this book, but I do have one comment that to me seems to correlate with Jane Austen’s literary work; I find that Austen writes books that if they were written nowadays they would have been considered ‘teen fiction’ with a bit of romance. It may be because I am used to the thrill of fantasy novels but I found that Persuasion didn’t have a very strong plot. As I said, I enjoyed reading the novel however, as I go over the story I don’t know how the story took over so many pages. It was basically the day to day life of Anne Elliot and her seeing Captain Wentworth again. There were little complications, like there would be in real life but nothing major. I read in the trusty J sparknotes that the climax was when Wentworth gave Anne the letter announcing that he still loved her.  However, this scene was one of the last in the books, were all the other 150 or 200 pages just the introduction and a very small build-up?