I think he did mean Hugo's Les Miserables. I remember that chapter where he described the city's "cloaca", referring to it as the "third level substage". Goes on for quite a while and was indeed memorable.

So was the long chapter about Waterloo which was seemingly unrelated to the book's plot until the final paragraph or so.

The description of Fantine's life before she fell goes on with florid language, but it captures the "golden hour" of life when youth is at its peak.

And lastly I'll mention the chapter where Marius' grandfather (I think) goes on a terribly long rant about the Jacobins. Those brigands...!