Victor Hugo Part Three

So i failed at reading Notre Dame De Paris, but I'm not done yet! Here's part three of my journey through the works of Victor Hugo, "The Last Day Of A Condemned Man and Claude Gueux" These are two short stories in one book and i read the outlines on Wikipedia and they sounded really good, this was the only copy of Claude Gueux i could find in English by the way so I'm glad i got it. I swear i will read them this weekend.

I'm not sure how to pronounce the name of that second story by the way, right now I'm just calling it "Claude Guh"

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Remember that review of the Les Miserables musical i saw that made me want to read the book? This one!

Well there are other reviewers on that site as well and this weekend one of them has decided to review the disney version of The Hunchback Of Notre Dame.

This reviewers a bit different to the Nostalgia Chick but you should still give him a go if you're into musical movies. I'm mentioning it here because i pretty much agree with everything he says about the film, i cant stand americanised bastardised versions of great literature!

Yeah ok i'll admit i dont intend on finishing Notre-Dame de Paris, and i dont intend on ever watching this film, but i know enough about both of them to know that the film has seriously fucked over the original source matierial!!

I really hate Disney movies, why would anyone ever think that they could take a novel like Notre Dame and make it kid friendly?

More book talk

You know when i started this blog i neglected to say which version of the book i was using to form the blog, i probably should have actually because i was going by page numbers instead of chapters so if anyone wanted to read along i should have said which version of the book i was using, (Sorry about that!)

Anyway, this is the copy i used, it's the penguin classics version first published in 1982.

I'm pointing this out because when i recently bought a copy of Notre-Dame de Paris i also picked up a new translation of Les Miserables whilst i was at it, for no real reason it's the exact same book just with a few different changes in the text. it's kind of like buying a new DVD just for a directors cut of a film.

Anyway this was the new copy i bought, the vintage classics version published in 2009.

I haven't re-read the entire book by the way, Christ I'm not going through that again! I just wanted to read my favourite parts in a different translation. There's nothing really that different between the two books but i did prefer the Penguin version i read. I really thought that the Vintage classic was more simplified, when i was reading the Penguin version it felt like a proper grown up book, when i was reading i sometimes had to figure out what was going on in my own mind and i really had to think about what was going on, i liked that, i liked that it made me think really hard about what was happening, in the second version i really didn't have to think that much because it all felt too simple.

Not that there's anything wrong with simplicity, all I'm saying is that i thought the penguin classics version was a better version of the book, that's the one i would recommend to people if i was gonna tell them to read the book.

Also that version doesn't use Cosette's picture on the cover! See there are actually other characters in the book!