I loved the book, but I must admit to doing my share of skimming. When Hugo stuck to the story, it was rivetting. However, it did tend to get a bit dragged out in spots and often went way off the topic. For example, it took over 80 pages just to say the priest was a nice man who helped people. There were about 20 pages just describing the Paris sewer system. More background on the Crimean War than I ever need to know. But other than that, it was a great book.