What League?

For a while now I have been reading A Life's Ambition by Alexandre Dumas. This has been fun, and very easy to read, even if I am worried that my copy is about to fall to pieces! It hasn't fallen apart yet and I hold out hope. The main character M. Gustave, an aspiring actor, travels around a lot - often not by choice. I have no problem with the travelling, but I do have a problem with his travelling in leagues.

Until recently (this last week) I did not know how long a league was. It's very difficult to sympathise with a character who has to walk eight leagues or so if you don't how far that is. However, thanks to my cunning idea of reading Les Mis I have discovered that a league is just over three miles.

Hooray! With this knowledge I can read on with peace of mind. For those of you out there that have also been wondering how far a league is, I bet you are relieved to have finally found out. That is if you didn't do the sensible thing in the first place and google it, rather than waiting for the slight possibility that another book might explain it for you. Or you might not care how long a league is - in which case you can carry on with life uninterrupted by this news.