Girls, I Am Telling You, Fantine Was A Saint!!!!! You Damn Well Better Believe It!!!!!!!!!!!

                               Well, loves, after 25 years, I completed my second reading of "Les Miserables."  Now, I am all prepared to see the film version of the musical, come December.

                                  Which is funny, because 25 years before, in 1987, I read it for the first time, to prepare for the musical coming to Broadway.  At that time, I was 32, it was 1987, and I could not envision 2012, let alone being 57, twenty five years later. Which means that, if patterns hold up, and I am still here, my next reading will be in 2037, when I would be 82!!!!!!!!!  Which I cannot even begin to picture!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                      Oh, my God, darlings, how I wept on the subway going home last night, as I finished this epic work. When the dying Jean Valjean finally tells Cosette that her mother was Fantine, I sobbed, for I knew of all Fantine had gone through in enabling Cosette to have the life she is now having.  No matter if you are talking about Florence Eldridge, Sylvia Sidney, Uma Thruman, Patti Lu Pone, Randy Graff, Melba Moore, or Anne Hathaway, there is no getting around that Fantine was a saint for what she endured for the love of her daughter!!!!!!    I wept for the death of Jean Valjean, himself a saint.  I heaved a sigh of contented relief at reaching the end of a massive masterwork, one that still holds up, let alone holds me in its emotional throes.  Monsieur could not wait for me to finish this one; he says my reading it was like living with me if I were preparing to play the role of Fantine!!!!!!!!  Heaven help me, if that were the case, much as I would love to do that role, in the musical!!!!!!!!!

                                        And, dolls, if you think all "Les Miserables" is is the musical, then you had better sit down and read it right away.  Yes, the musical covers all the key incidents--with some incidental changes along the way--but the novel is a panoramic narrative that combines Hugo's personal philosophy and insights into French history.  One might say "Les Miserables," is, by its epic and historic nature, the French "War And Peace."  It is also one of the most spiritual novels I have ever read, which should surprise none, being written by a man raised in the Catholic faith, in a predominantly Catholic country.  But with a more expansive and broader viewpoint than most of his day, Which is one of the points of the book.

                                            Painful as it was, I found my second reading of "Les Miserables" extremely rewarding.  I may not be quick to return to it so soon, if at all, but I am glad I did for a second visit.  And now, come December, I am all set for the film!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                                And Anne Hathaway is going to be a FABULOUS Fantine!!!!!!!!!