Waterloo

"The battle of Waterloo is an enigma. It is as obscure to those who won it as to those who lost it. For Napoleon if was a panic; Blücher sees nothing in it but fire; Wellington understands nothing in regard to it. Look at the reports. The bulletins are confused, the commentaries involved. Some stammer, others lisp."

I survived the battle of Waterloo. Well, Victor Hugo's telling of it at least. If ever there's something to put someone off reading Les Mis it has to be this long and involved description of this particular battle. I'm sure the 50 pages were a sensible inclusion at the time, but I cannot see how. We meet Thenadier on the last page, and discover his history with Pontmercy, but I'm never quite sure the lead up to those two pages is really required.

But I'm a grown-up Les Mis reader now. I was allowed to skip the boring bits the first time I read it, now I must read them. But there are definitely worse ways to get through them and back to the good story than lying out in the sun with a icy pole.