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 |
Cosette |
List Price: $25.00
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Reviews |
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Rating:  Summary: "Cosette" is the quintesential novel Review: "Cosette" by Laura Kalpakian is by far the best novel I have read in years. Ms. Kalpakina does a spectacular job of illustrating what happened to the waif-orphan Coosette from Victor Hugo's "Les Miserables", beginning at the barricade battle and going far beyond where Monsuier Hugo left off. Ms. Kalpakian beautifully tells cosett's tale, interweaving actual historical figures with her own brand of unique fiction. I laughed, I cried (okay, majorly cliche, but so what?). I felt Cosette's pain, joy, sadness, and tears with every heartwrnching word written. In reading "Les Miserables" I found Cosette not entirely interesting, although she is the centerpeice of the novel, next to Jean Valjean that is. However, after reading "Cosette", she has become my most beloved character. Kudos to Laura!
Rating:  Summary: Down with Cosette, up with *Les Miserables*!!! Review: Cosette is a book which is *Thankfully* out of print. When I found this book in my library and IMMEDIATLY checked it out, (I'm a huge Les Mis freak) I was shocked and horrified by what I read. Before getting on with the story of Cosette's life after her "father's" death, the author recounts the original story in her own way, and it is a horrifyingly mangled version on the beautiful story Les Miserables is. Along with butchering details, Kalpakian also includes her version of Cosette and Marius' wedding night. She changes Enjolras' death to a gruesome image of blood, and she makes many other changes that I am convinced have Victor Hugo rolling in his grave at the Pantheon in Paris. I might also add that many people agree that Cosette was a mistake on the part of the publishers, and if you need to see for yourself, you are welcome to join us in the cafe. Personally, I believe that if Hugo had thought there was a reason for Cosette's life to be extended in a new novel, he would have written it himself.
Rating:  Summary: I agree with the reader from New York Review: I received *Cosette: A Novel* by Laura Kalpakian for my birthday. I had never heard of this woman, and in having read *Les Miserables* in high school (and loved it), I decided to check out any and all reveiws about the novel. A friend suggested I check out AMAZON.COM, so I did. I read the two available reviews, one glowing, the other, not so much. Still, I decided to tough it out and read the damn thing; after all, even if the novel sucked, it was a birthday present and it is the though that counts. Anyway, I read the book, not once, not twice, not three times even; I read *Cosette: A novel* four times, and I am planning to read it again. Every time I read it, I find something new and amusing (heartwrenching, tear-jerking, etc.). I held high standards for this book, and hopped it would measure up to the original novel. It did and more. Sure, Ms. Kalpakian used similar styles as Victor Hugo, but so what? Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. In addition, she lived over one hundred years after the fact, and still portrayed events as Hugo did, and he lived during that period in history. To the other reviewer, I appologize if I am coming across as harsh, but your review was harsh. Give the girl a break. The book was incredible. I highly reccomend it to any and all fans of *Les Miserables* the novel, and the musical.
Rating:  Summary: it's a preety good book Review: Okay, so maybe it's not *Les Miserables*, there is only one *Les Miserables* (actually, two, if one counts the musical, now in its thirteenth year in the West End and its eleventh year on Broadway. But,Laura Kapakian did a pretty good job continuing Cosette's saga. I mean, didn't you want to know what ahppened after Val Jean died? Didn't you want to know if Marius and Cosette lived happily ever after? I loved the book and the musical, but it was just too much suspence, not know what happened. Thank You, Laura Kalpakian, for satisifying my curiousity. So maybe it's not what Victor Hugo would have written, but hello, he's dead. Although I hardly doubt he's spinning in his grave, or crypt, or moseleum. He's probably flattered.
Rating:  Summary: Expect disappointment if you expect Les Miserables standard Review: There is a phrase that came to mind after I read this novel: "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". And this is what Laura Kalpakain tries to do in "Cosette; A Novel". It was a nice attempt, though it does not do any justice to Victor Hugo's masterpiece. She attempts to incorporate different storylines, other than the main character's, and intertwine them, she uses French in a similar style as Hugo does, and she attempts to further discuss and describe deeper into the characters' psyche (namely Cosette and Marius). But sex scenes? No. Hugo was a leader of the Romantic movement, not a Mills and Boon 'writer'. A nice effort, but anyone who decides to read this should be well aware that this is no way comparable to Les Miserables. It is universally acknowledged that a sequel written by anyone else rather than the author of the original novel will never do as well, nor do justice to the original. No matter how much you want to know what happens to the characters at the end of the novel, it is usually best left as they are. Sequels generally ruin whatever spark the original had, as well as the reader's ideas of the characters and the impact that the original novel had on them. This novel attempts to recreate and continue what Hugo had begun but sadly fails to live up to any standard that the sequel author intended. (I rated it 2/10 for effort, to say the least)
Rating:  Summary: High end of mediocre Review: When I read the other reviews for "Cosette", I saw many that were really scathing, comparing it to "Les Miserables". I don't think that is fair. Ms. Kalpalian is a pretty good writer, but she's no Victor Hugo. That much should be obvious. What she had working against her is the fact that she is continuing a story that was begun by a much better writer. It can't be helped that her book will be compared to Hugo's and found lacking. On it's own, it is a pretty good novel. Not great, but, I would say, the high end of mediocre. Quite engaging while you are reading it, but forgettable. Also, many reviews were negative because Kalpakian made her characters more coarse. People that, in "Les Miserables" are pure and faultless heros, become swearing and somewhat obscene. This is another fault of Laura Kalpakian's book. Her characters let their emotions hang out where Hugo would have had them be much more subtle. In "Les Miserables" some of the most fascinating action takes place in characters' minds; in "Cosette", they say whatever they feel. The emotional impact if the former is incredible, because much more is left to the imagination; the latter is much more shallow. For example, the scene from "Les Miserables" where Valjean receives the letter Marius wrote for Cosette and ends up going to the barricades to bring him home safely. The way Hugo wrote it, Valjean sits with this letter and says nothing; then he gets up and walks out the door. All the spiritual torment he undergoes is silent; in Ms. Kalpakian's rendition of the same scene, Valjean says something of a monologue over sleeping Cosette. Why? Do the readers really need to have everything spelled out for them? Ultimately, I think that if this had been anything but a sequel to such a grand book, it would be a fairly good novel. As it is, Kalpakian tried to fill the shoes of someone much bigger than she; tried and failed.
Rating:  Summary: High end of mediocre Review: When I read the other reviews for "Cosette", I saw many that were really scathing, comparing it to "Les Miserables". I don't think that is fair. Ms. Kalpalian is a pretty good writer, but she's no Victor Hugo. That much should be obvious. What she had working against her is the fact that she is continuing a story that was begun by a much better writer. It can't be helped that her book will be compared to Hugo's and found lacking. On it's own, it is a pretty good novel. Not great, but, I would say, the high end of mediocre. Quite engaging while you are reading it, but forgettable. Also, many reviews were negative because Kalpakian made her characters more coarse. People that, in "Les Miserables" are pure and faultless heros, become swearing and somewhat obscene. This is another fault of Laura Kalpakian's book. Her characters let their emotions hang out where Hugo would have had them be much more subtle. In "Les Miserables" some of the most fascinating action takes place in characters' minds; in "Cosette", they say whatever they feel. The emotional impact if the former is incredible, because much more is left to the imagination; the latter is much more shallow. For example, the scene from "Les Miserables" where Valjean receives the letter Marius wrote for Cosette and ends up going to the barricades to bring him home safely. The way Hugo wrote it, Valjean sits with this letter and says nothing; then he gets up and walks out the door. All the spiritual torment he undergoes is silent; in Ms. Kalpakian's rendition of the same scene, Valjean says something of a monologue over sleeping Cosette. Why? Do the readers really need to have everything spelled out for them? Ultimately, I think that if this had been anything but a sequel to such a grand book, it would be a fairly good novel. As it is, Kalpakian tried to fill the shoes of someone much bigger than she; tried and failed.
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