Les Misérables (1862)

"Certainly they appeared utterly depraved, corrupt, vile and odious; but it is rare for those who have sunk so low not to be degraded in the process, and there comes a point, moreover, where the unfortunate and the infamous are grouped together, merged in a single, fateful word. They are les misérables - the outcasts, the underdogs."

Victor Hugo's Les Misérables is at once an intimate story centering on a small cast of characters and more than a few coincidences, and a sprawling epic that takes as its subject the whole of France and the complexities of revolution. It focuses primarily on Jean Valjean, a convict turned hero several times over who spends the novel changing identities and eluding capture by the relentless Inspector Javert. The story also involves Cosette, the girl Valjean raises as a daughter, and Marius, a young idealist with whom Cosette falls in love. Long before they meet Cosette and Marius have a connection, though neither knows it: a man named Thénardier is believed to have rescued Marius' father after the Battle of Waterloo - a debt the elder Pontmercy is never able to repay and thus bequeaths to his son - and is the same man who abused young Cosette before she was rescued by Valjean. Like Valjean, Thénardier and his family change their identities whenever the walls are closing in, but unlike Valjean they live lives of disrepute, stealing and taking advantage of others. In the streets of Paris and beyond, these characters weave in and out of each others lives.

The story unfolds over a seventeen year period and against the backdrop of the events leading up to the June Revolution of 1832, in which both Marius and Valjean participate (though for very different reasons). The story is staggeringly ambitious and Hugo is meticulous when it comes to the details, no matter how small. This is somewhat problematic in that the minor tangents Hugo follows slows the flow of the story and presents unwanted distractions from the main thrust of the narrative. The characters are so well drawn and their struggles are so compelling that to be brought so deep into their experiences only to suddenly be confronted with, say, several chapters devoted to the history of the Paris sewers, is really disruptive. It isn't a big enough flaw to detract from the ultimate greatness of the novel, but it's a flaw nevertheless.

What really works in favour of Les Misérables is how thoroughly Hugo brings his characters to life. Valjean, in particular, and the moral struggles that he endures as he tries to live a good life and atone for past sins, is a character so totally fleshed out that he may very well walk off the page and into reality. Here, the details serve Hugo well, because without characters the reader comes to care about so much, the story would simply be a collection of historical facts strung together. It's much more than that, however, which is why the story is still so widely celebrated and continues to live on through countless adaptations on stage and screen. This is the kind of novel the word "classic" was made for.

Far From The Madding Crowd (1874)

"It appears that ordinary men take wives because possession is not possible without marriage, and that ordinary women accept husbands because marriage is not possible without possession; with totally differing aims the method is the same on both sides."

Far from the Madding Crowd was Thomas Hardy's fourth novel and is a story of country life, romance and tragedy. It centers on Gabriel Oak and Bathsheba Everdene, the former a steadfast suitor who, even after losing what little opportunity he may have had at making Bathsheba his wife, remains loyal to her. The latter is a fiercely independent woman determined never to be under the thumb of a man - husband or otherwise - and who has the misfortune of falling in love with Francis Troy, a handsome rogue whose lack of character she discovers much too late. The story also includes a third man - the farmer William Boldwood - whose indifference to Bathsheba is transformed to love after she plays a reckless joke on him and whose obsession with her sets up the novel's climax.

Hardy is a terrific writer of characters, particularly female characters. Bathsheba is spirited and complex and through her romantic entanglements Hardy explores the delicate balance that must be reached in order to achieve a successful union. Troy sparks her passion but his ultimate lack of consideration for her could lead to her ruin; Boldwood is a solid man who could provide her a comfortable life but because she feels nothing for him, a marriage to him would be emotionally unfulfilling. Oak is (perhaps) the midway point between the two extremes, but for much of their acquaintance she simply cannot bring herself to consider him. In the hands of a lesser storyteller all of this might be mere soap opera, but Hardy makes it incredibly compelling. The only real problem with the novel is that Oak is a little too saintly, lacking in the weaknesses that plague many of Hardy's other characters, and so he seems less human.

Tragedy and Hardy seem to go hand in hand, but Far from the Madding Crowd is different from his other novels like Jude the Obscure or Tess of the D'Urbervilles in that it has a (somewhat) happy ending. There is a great deal of darkness in the story but it is not an unrelentingly grim tale and Hardy's prose, as always, is beautiful and the narrative flows easily, drawing the reader not only into the lives and minds of its main characters, but also into the community that surrounds them. It's a terrific novel from one of the masters of English literature.

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings (1969)

"If growing up is painful for the Southern Black girl, being aware of her displacement is the rust on the razor that threatens the throat. It is an unnecessary insult."

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, the first volume of Maya Angelou's six-part autobiography, charts the writer's life from childhood to parenthood. The book explores many very big themes, including racism and sexuality, as Angelou begins to develop a sense of identity, finding at several points that her conception of herself is at odds with the way that others see her and often dependent on where she is and with whom (through the course of the story she lives in Arkansas with her grandmother, St. Louis and later San Fransisco with her mother, and spends a brief period in southern California with her father).

At the age of eight she is raped by her mother's boyfriend, an event which shades the rest of the story. Aside from the obvious physical trauma, the violation also has continuing psychological effects which hinder her ability to relate to the world around her. After her rapist is murdered, Angelou is convinced that his death is a result of a lie she told during his trial (that the rape was the first sexual contact she'd had with him), that her words have the power to kill, and takes a vow of silence which lasts for several years. Importantly, her muteness is broken in part by her engagement with literature, by the encouragement she receives to read aloud. Literature specifically, and Angelou's love of learning generally, play a large role throughout the story as her identity shifts and is shaped as she grows from a girl to a woman.

Angelou writes with intense frankness and the images she creates are vivid. Her style is very engaging and though there is much pain throughout the story, there are also moments of humor and it ends on such a hopeful note that it cannot be considered a work of despair.

As a slight aside, it's interesting to read this book so soon after having read Jamie Ford's Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, as part of Angelou's story deals with the World War II period in San Fransisco, including touching briefly on the Japanese internment. It makes for an interesting contrast of impressions of a city (and country) in the midst of sweeping changes.