Monseigneur Bienvenu

...And the extremely wordy introduction. 

Forewarned by the introduction about Hugo's 'extravagances' I am nevertheless hit by a tidal wave of description of the sainted Bishop. Here, at the very start we can already see how literature has changed since this was published. In the modern novel we might be shown a few scenes to demonstrate to the reader about Bienvenu's character, here we are treated to description upon description of his personality and behaviour towards people. He is a demonstration of the principle of how not to 'show don't tell'. 

He's a charming man, but, lacking even a sniff of a plot at the moment, he is starting to grate slightly in his complete and utter perfection. I think here we have a rather old-fashioned archetype of a holy man, accompanied by his archetypal saintly spinster sister and his archetypal protective cynical servant. The only slightly more worldly aspect of their personality is the love of the silverware including the inherited silver candlesticks. I think I might see where this is going. 

I suppose I should try not to be so harsh, however. I am only on chapter seven of book one, there is plenty of time to make the Bishop a more well-rounded character and introduce some more action and dialogue to the book.