The thing about Waterloo is that there are bits of it that I legitimately like - mostly the sad bits about how France is (or isn't) recovering from the battle, because I recognize in them echoes of our own national consciousness of the Civil War - but they are surrounded by chapters of troop movements made by people whose names I do not know and cannot pronounce and are not properly part of the story. Just, there was a cliffhanger, Victor Hugo, tell me what is happening to Valjean!