For those who have read the brilliant novel (despite its rather tedious first part), some of Hugo’s paragraphs run a page and a half, but so smoothly that you hardly notice.
In some parts the emotional highs and lows of kinds that human beings rarely experience. A single page might leave you in tears of sympathy, righteous indignation, burning anger, or angelic joy.
After he sent the manuscript to the publisher, Hugo went off for some weeks to an isolated house in England. After a short time, he sent his publisher a telegram that just said “?”
His publisher replied “!” They couldn’t print them fast enough.
At the time, the French pastime was writing novels, but after reading it, people just stopped, knowing that anything they wrote would be unfavorably compared to it.
Since that time, actors have been driven to distraction trying to portray emotions that are far beyond the range of most. They rarely succeed.
RE: His publisher replied “!” They couldn’t print them fast enough.
I guess “:)” was just too expensive to telegraph back then? LOL.