Les Miserables: Victor Hugo (Penguin Clothbound Classics)

Les Miserables is justifiably known as a great literary masterpiece. However, I had hitherto neither read the book nor seen the show. I am now so pleased that I have read the book before seeing the show and I am sure that I will enjoy the latter so much more through having enjoyed so greatly the former. This edition, translated by Norman Denny, runs to more than 1,200 pages and Mr Denny makes the point in his introduction that Victor Hugo's original contains 'digressions,' meaning that, to some readers at least, certain sections of the book, maybe some 100 pages or more in total, may appear to 'digress' from the principal 'plot.' But even the 'digressions' are valuable, for they give to the less knowledgeable - such as myself - a fine lesson in French history, as does the 'plot' itself. Victor Hugo takes the reader through some of France's most turbulent times, from before the Revolution of 1789, through the Empire of the first Napoleon, and to and beyond the further Revolution of 1848. If one were wanting to be flippant, it would appear that the French were for ever revolting and for ever at the barricades. I do not wish to be flippant, however, and this great tome charts the progress or otherwise of French affairs through the late eighteenth and early to mid-nineteenth centuries with inimitable flair and profound knowledge, for the author lived through most of it, even suffering temporary exile from France when he crossed the authorities of Napoleon III. It is against the background of such ongoing turbulence (which explains so much of later French history) that the immensely moving and complicated tales of Jean Valjean and Cosette and Marius and all of the other larger-than-life characters are told. To those readers with the willingness to spend more than the average time on a tremendous and unforgettable work, this is for you. Read it and then see the show!

Very good quality book, bought for a gift which I'm sure will be very appreciated

Brilliant book, didn’t think I would get such a genuine version

A true monument of literature, it is hard to categorise. It's part-thriller, part-history, part-philosophical treatise, part I don't know what. At times, it was so exciting, I could not put it down; at other times, the various excursuses (on convents, on slang, on the Paris sewer system...) palled. The pacing is like continental football: slow, slow, quick, quick, slow. You can see why it is a great subject for a musical, a film or a TV series: you can skip the digressions and cut to the great set piece scenes, in the Bishop's study, on the barricades, in the Paris backstreets etc. It's also emotionally overwrought, as characters are brought together through unlikely coincidence, in a manner that often happens in 19th Century novels. Here, the characters are also often presented facing a series of moral and spiritual crises, which gives the book a strong religious dimension. I don't know why the review on one of the front covers cites Les Miserables as 'a humanist masterpiece', because it's heavily freighted with both covert and overt religious ideas and language, e.g. atonement and guilt and forgiveness, though I would add that you do not need to be religious to enjoy it. For me, I made a conscious effort to read it without having seen the film/ musical/ whatever first and I think that helped as there's often a genuine 'what happens next' urge compulsion to turn the next page. As you're going to have to turn over 1200 pages to get to the end, that sort of thing helps. Certainly, you need to have a good run at it or you will get stuck halfway. I can see how for some the weight of historical detail, the superfluity of adjectives and general OTTness of it all might grate, but I enjoyed this almost all the way through and at times was genuinely spellbound. I'm now seriously encouraged to go on and read "Notre Dame de Paris" as a result, for example. One minor but nonetheless annoying feature of the Kindle version is that the scanning/ transfer process has gone wrong so that the word 'die' usually gets translated as 'the'; there must have been some glitch in the system. You expect more from Penguin Classics.

I have seen the musical and played the soundtrack numerous times. I have seen the film version numerous times and watched the BBC version. Nothing, but, nothing compares to the book. It is without doubt the best reading experience I have had. There is so much more depth to the story and all the characters. Whilst the story is basically the same as what the musical does the book adds a lot more that fills in gaps, we find out about Cosette's father and his relationship with Fantine as one example. In the musical the Thernardiers are what would be described as "loveable Rogues", however in the book the are totally nasty and horrible (this is my polite description.) Before the barricade we get an insight into who is involved and to why. I could carry on but I do not wish to spoil what is a fantastic read and a must for any fan of Les Mis. I recommend this version, though there are others to choose from.

Bought for my 17 year old daughter in the wake of the 2010 25th Anniversary Concert at the O2 which hooked all of us when it was shown on the TV. I wanted her to get the in depth story and the genius of Victor Hugo (I read it myself at about the same age, and can't remember anything but the basic story - I'm not very deep). She started off with a will and must have read a quarter of it and then lost interest. To be fair she was doing her A levels at the time so I will excuse her. I hope she will return to it, but it is a heavy tome and it is deeply miserable as you might expect by the title. Happily it looks good on the bookshelf, and who knows I may even revisit it myself one day!

Ottimo

大当たり！ ページの黄ばみは、中古の洋書の典型。気になりません。表紙が少し破けてはいたのですが、許容範囲でしょうか。 本自体は、Norman Denny訳 (Penguin Classics)。今までで読んだレ・ミゼラブルの中で一番読みやすいエディションです。 他の出品者さんから、模造品のような本も出ているので、どの翻訳でどの出版社の本なのかを念入りに確認した方がいいと思います。このような商品に当たってしまってから、2冊目に購入したこの本が大当たりでした。

It's a good summary with some help for the vocabulary that can be very helpful if you are learning or are a teacher, for instance. However, in my case I just wanted to read the whole original which I had already read in Spanish so I first read the summary in French and then downloaded the original version for Kindle (for free) along with the French dictionary.

Buen libro, es el tercer libro con este tipo de tapa que tengo y siempre son muy buenos. Tienen algo de contexto histórico y de historia del autor antes de empezarlo para entenderlo mejor

Well made and aesthetically pleasing line of books.