Vive la France!

Beau Cheveaux inspired us with her love of Les Miserables this month. We all agreed that she deserved college credit for her thorough and extensive research.

She even had silver candlesticks

and the valise that Jean Valjean carried them in.

We learned that it definitely makes a difference which version you choose.

Beau Cheveaux read the new Julie Rose translation this time around and she loved it!

Here is an comparison of three of the major translations:

I've read the Charles Wilbour translation and parts of the Julie Rose translation and they each have different strengths. Rose's version has more detail and modern language and phrasing, which provided clearer meaning at times. However, her use of modern slang was jarring. All in all, I think I preferred the Wilbour translation because the language gave me a greater sense of time and place.

We were served some luscious crepes.

We watched a few songs from Les Miserables in Concert.


We could've discussed this book all night. It was so rich in themes, in characters, and in history that we barely scratched the surface.

"Be Like the bird who,

halting in his flight,

on a limb too slight,

Feels it give way

beneath him, yet sings,

knowing he hat wings!"

Victor Hugo