Also, high-class people sing with a "genteel British" accent even though are French, and poor people sing with a Cockney accent, even though they, too, are French.

(I love it.)

I probably won't see The Hobbit OR Les Miz in the theater, but I might work it out. Holidays mean family means babysitters, so here's hoping.

I really need to finally read the whole book.

Fascinating fact: The barricade in the film was built when the cast were given 10 minutes to construct one from the furniture in the set houses. They were surprised to realize the next day it would be their actual set.

Yeah, we are totally counting on the grandparents to let us get out to at least one movie, which if I get my choice will be The Hobbit for sure.

Huh. I've never seen or heard Les Miz. I guess I should fix that some day.

I really need to finally read the whole book.

The movie made me want to reread it. Maybe this time I'll actually read the Waterloo bit without skipping. (Convent digression? Yes. Paris sewer digression? Hell yes! Waterloo....ugh. It's like Moby Dick's catalog of whales only WITHOUT THE INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT WHALES.)

Waterloo was my Waterloo.

Hugo is already a difficult author because of his ginormous vocabulary, the Waterloo chapter was simply the straw that broke the camel's back. (Or rather "the drop of water that made the vase overflow" as they say in French.)

We were supposed to read it in French in my senior year French class in high school. I think I got through two pages.

My French, at its best, was just barely good enough to be an obviously American tourist in Paris for a week. I read Les Miz in English.

Either way, it's just so long.

Now I find myself wondering if it's usually abridged in English like Count of Monte Cristo.

We were supposed to read it in French in my senior year French class in high school. I think I got through two pages.

My senior year French teacher was much less ambitious- we read La Petit Prince!

Now I am earwormed with ABBA's Waterloo!