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PaperclipPerfector  8d ago (text post)   2083 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 12, 2026

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Seconding this. Skip the lengthy discussions on the Battle of Waterloo and the Parisian sewer system (also the argot one, though I personally found it interesting the first time I read it), but enjoy the rest of the novel intact.

It has lengthy discussions on the Battle of Waterloo? This is the first thing I've heard that makes me want to read it.

50 pages’ worth in my copy, plus a final few pages that are directly relevant to the story (this out of a total page count of 1,463). I wouldn’t want to discourage anyone from reading it, but it’s definitely extraneous to the plot.

Coming back to this discussion, I think I’ve changed my mind. A 900-page abridgment would probably only eliminate the digressions, in which case it wouldn’t be bad to read. Actually, I suppose you’d also lose the lengthy biography of the bishop at the beginning of the novel.* I enjoyed that section of the book, but its omission would lose very little of value to the plot.

*No spoiler since it’s the first 58 pages.

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