We’re wrapping up 2022 with a discussion of Jean Valjean’s burial and resurrection at the end of “Cosette.” Stay tuned for our 2023 reading schedule, coming soon!
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It appears that Victor Hugo has some fairly strong opinions about the nuns. In this episode, the HEE crew wrestle through the layers of his argument about God, convent life, and the nineteenth century.
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In this episode, the HEE team tries to keep up with Hugo as he leads us on a detailed chase through the neighborhoods of Paris.
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Ian, Emily, and Megan discuss Chapters 2 and 3 of “Cosette,” in which Shawshank Redemption and the Cinderella story meet villains straight out of the work of Charles Dickens.
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In this episode, the HEE team unpacks the significance of Hugo’s digression on the Battle of Waterloo and tries to connect it back to the developing themes we have already recognized in the novel. ABBA reference included.
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Ian, Emily, and Megan follow Jean Valjean down the twisty-turny corridors of his subconscious and try not to get lost along the way.
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The story of Fantine continues. Meanwhile, we meet both M. Madeleine and Javert: one suspiciously familiar, the other a compelling but unambiguous symbol.
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In this episode, the HEE team walks through Fantine’s tragic backstory and tries to process that firehose of a chapter on “The Year 1817.”
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This week we are at last introduced to Jean Valjean! The HEE team members discuss “The Fall” and try to pinpoint the conflict which will carry our protagonist throughout the rest of the novel.
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Our journey begins! Ian, Emily, and Megan discuss “An Upright Man.” They unpack Monseigneur Bienvenu’s character and try to determine why Hugo began his novel from such an indirect angle.
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How to Eat an Elephant is back! Ian, Emily, and Megan kick off their discussion of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables with an introductory overview of the historical context of the novel and author.
Download a timeline of relevant French history.
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Victor Hugo: A Biography by Graham Robb
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The end is finally here! We celebrated War and Peace with a live recording which covers Tolstoy’s Appendix to the novel, a host roast, and a series of Q&As. Thank you to all who have followed us on this journey!
The HEE team will be taking a couple of weeks off to rest and recover before we embark on our next elephant, Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, in late summer 2022.
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In this episode, the team discusses the last official words of Tolstoy’s War and Peace. We wrestle with his final thoughts on history and free will, and–believe it or not–defend our conclusion that the last sentences of the novel are not only perfectly appropriate, but beautiful.
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We’re nearing the end of War and Peace, but Tolstoy will have his say one last time! In this episode, the team takes up his question of history once again…
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The HEE team reveals what we’ll be reading after we finish War and Peace! They acknowledge Facebook group voting concerns and their plans for other much desired titles, and briefly expound on reasons to join us on our upcoming crusade…
The time has come to give a reluctant and heartfelt goodbye to our favorite characters. In this episode, the War and Peace crew discuss the “backwards progress” of Pierre and Nikolai and Natasha, and attempt to articulate the thematic import of these final, intimate scenes.
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Marriage is what brings us together today! As War and Peace winds to a close, we revel in the beautiful home life of the Rostovs and Bezukhovs…and Sonya.
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It’s the beginning of the end! In this episode, we kick off our discussion of the epilogue to War and Peace with a tour of Tolstoy’s ideas concerning “genius” and “chance,” and then check in with our good friends the Rostovs.
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We’ve come a long way in Volume 4 of War and Peace! The team looks back and considers Tolstoy’s climactic thoughts on death and resurrection, love, and history, and makes conjectures about what we’ll find in the Epilogue.
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The War and Peace crew find themselves interrupted by travel season. As a peace offering, we give you a class by Adam and Missy Andrews on one of Tolstoy’s other great classics…
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