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Deep Analysis of Les Misérables: Waterloo (Pt.2: Pages 279-325) (Patreon)

Published:
2021-10-17 14:51:56
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

Today's the day.

We're breaching Waterloo together. 

This section of Les Misérables, which opens Part Two: Cosette, is extraordinary.

Readers are frequently divided. 

Some fall in love with the detail, seeing Hugo as painter, musician, poet, and historian all rolled into one. Others see this section as an incredible indulgence, a section that should have been scrapped.

I hope that by the end of this lecture you will enjoy a renewed relish and appreciation for Victor Hugo's 'Waterloo', and find yourself inspired to explore how other great writers render war.

Video Timestamps:

  • 0:00 the infamy of Hugo's 'Waterloo'
  • 3:00 comparing three translations 
  • 3:20 Hougoumont 
  • 4:30 how/why Hugo wrote 'Waterloo'
  • 10:00 Tennyson's 'The Charge of the Light Brigade'
  • 13:30 Hugo and Fate
  • 15:30 figurative language for warfare 
  • 18:13 Christopher Logue's 'War Music'
  • 21:00 Wilfred Owen's 'Anthem for Doomed Youth'
  • 23:00 fact-checking Victor Hugo (bodies in the well)
  • 29:00 Napoleon and Milton's Satan
  • 35:35 Cambronne's 'Merde!'
  • 41:30 reading/thinking assignments for you
  • 52:00 is Hugo really a historian?
  • 57:00 how to read history
  • 58:00 historical descriptions of Napoleon
  • 1:00:00 the butterfly effect
  • 1:01:30 Jean Valjean 

Questions to Consider:

1) Does the 'Waterloo' section work as part of Les Misérables? How would it affect the novel if it were removed?

2) Is Hugo a good historian? Storyteller? Poet? What is the difference between these roles?

3) What happened in your community 50+ years ago? What's the history of your own backyard?

4) "Every historian peering into the melee can find what he looks for." (Victor Hugo) Can you read any other historical battles in a different way from how they're commonly reported? 

Happy reading, everybody!

Files

Previews only

Deep Analysis of Les Misérables: Waterloo (Pt.2: Pages 279-325)

0:00 the infamy of Hugo's 'Waterloo' 3:00 comparing three translations 3:20 Hougoumont 4:30 how/why Hugo wrote 'Waterloo' 10:00 Tennyson's 'The Charge of the Light Brigade' 13:30 Hugo and Fate 15:30 figurative language for warfare 18:13 Christopher Logue's 'War Music' 21:00 Wilfred Owen's 'Anthem for Doomed Youth' 23:00 fact-checking Victor Hugo (bodies in the well) 29:00 Napoleon and Milton's Satan 35:35 Cambronne's 'Merde!' 41:30 reading/thinking assignments for you 52:00 is Hugo really a historian? 57:00 how to read history 58:00 historical descriptions of Napoleon 1:00:00 the butterfly effect 1:01:30 Jean Valjean

Comments

Miri Kim

While I was reading Waterloo today, I couldn‘t help but compare it to the war scenes of our current big read „War and Peace“ the whole time. As Tolstoy is showing us the most private inner feelings of a lot of characters and make us emphasise deeply with them, I would naturally would have anticipated that Hugo‘s narrative with a view farer away than Tolstoy would be less gripping somehow. But on the contrary, Waterloo was really dense, the strategic movements more fast-paced and made me more excited! It is really true, I saw a detailed picture in my mind, the locations got a vivid life of their own, I heard the noises of the battle so near. Painter, orchestra, poet and story-telling at its best! I really wonder how Ben would compare Waterloo and War and Peace!! Comparing two genius artists.. Thank you, Ben, for the magnificent lecture, also the poems which I could listen to over and over again (so strange because I don‘t like war scenes in books and movies normally)

Jonathon Glover

My favourite passage from this section. If there is anything terrible, if there exists a reality which surpasses dreams, it is this: to live, to see the sun; to be in full possession of virile force; to possess health and joy; to laugh valiantly; to rush towards a glory which one sees dazzling in front of one; to feel in one’s breast lungs which breathe, a heart which beats, a will which reasons; to speak, think, hope, love; to have a mother, to have a wife, to have children; to have the light⁠—and all at once, in the space of a shout, in less than a minute, to sink into an abyss; to fall, to roll, to crush, to be crushed; to see ears of wheat, flowers, leaves, branches; not to be able to catch hold of anything; to feel one’s sword useless, men beneath one, horses on top of one; to struggle in vain, since one’s bones have been broken by some kick in the darkness; to feel a heel which makes one’s eyes start from their sockets; to bite horses’ shoes in one’s rage; to stifle, to yell, to writhe; to be beneath, and to say to one’s self, “But just a little while ago I was a living man!” The repetition of the “to” throughout works well and the co yeast of what we have, against what we can lose is a powerful reminder about perspective. Powerful stuff!!