"There's a grief that can't be spoken": Beginning Les Misérables

For months I've been searching for a hard copy of Victor Hugo's grand work Les Misérables to buy and own- granted, I've only gone to secondhand bookstores this far, and I didn't think to ask for Christmas. Either way, I've been trying to find it since last spring. I found out from a friend it was free on Kindle, but it wasn't until I found out I could use my mom's Kindle account on my phone that I actually (finally) got my eyes on a copy of the 959-page-long novel. Already being a huge fan of the musical based on the novel, I was ready to rise up to the occasion for my love of the story and the characters and complete what will be the longest novel I've ever dared to read. 

Thus far, I'm fifty pages into my experience. It is split into five books, and begins with Book I: Fantine. Fifty pages into Book I, I haven't met Fantine yet. I haven't even met main character Jean Valjean yet. So far, the only character I know is the Bishop, who by knowing the musical I know sets Jean Valjean onto his path to salvation. And though I usually get discouraged by things like this (fifty pages so far on a character who has little to do with the story comparatively), I find myself enthusiastically reading rather than skimming by long-looking paragraphs or needing to go back and re-read sections because my mind wanders. I'm excited to finally reach Jean Valjean's and Fantine's story and truly begin the novel, but I'm not learning about the Bishop grudgingly, either. Maybe it's because I'm reading it on my own accord, or maybe it's because I already have a love and knowing of the story and characters, but I'm excited to read "the brick", as it is called, and know what I've been missing out on. 

I still hope to be able to find an unabridged hard copy of the novel somewhere, which is closer to 1,500 pages long than 959, but until then I'll do with having the lighter and more portable phone version.