Les Misérables: A Novel (Modern Library) Hardcover – September 5, 1992

Victor Hugo will simply not shut up. Or, not until he tells you everything he knows about his topic at hand. His chapter- and book-long digressions on the streets of Paris, their denizens (and particularly the street urchins of the city, the gamin), or the sewers of Paris, their construction, expansion, and functioning, or the differences between insurrections and riots, or the long, shambling, somewhat accurate account of Waterloo, or so much else have exasperated readers for nearly two centuries now, even when they grant him a foreshadowing - deep, deep foreshadowing - method to his particular mad narrative style.But he is a thrilling writer of timeless stories and memorable characters - even though, for all those words, descriptions, interior monologues, most of these strike me (with the exception of Frollo in Notre-Dame de Paris) as only a centimeter deep - and recalls for me two favorite 19th century writers, Dickens and Tolstoy, in his ability to elevate soap opera into art that stirs the heart.There's not much I can add to the many fine notices of Les Misérables here from Amazon reviewers. It has been on my bucket list for decades, and I'm happy to have finally got to it, in the Wilbour translation, which I specifically chose from the many options. I've come, grudgingly, to the view that 19th century novels not written in English are best read in 19th century translations. These are often criticized for their stuffiness and 19th century idioms. I'm going to surmise that, in the original languages, these novels seem stuffy and old-fashioned to contemporary readers of those languages. But I like Wilbour (and, for the great Russians, Constance Garnett). What I wish for the Wilbour translation, though, is that the Everyman and Modern Library editions would annotate the the long passages of untranslated French verse, inscriptions, songs, and scholarly rederences with footnoted translations and explain some of the more obscure references that only specialists will understand. Hugo loves to put his erudition on display and is a relentless name dropper, and his mid-19th century French readership probably caught most of his references. For 21sr century English-speaking readers, not so much. The meticulously annotated Modern Library Classic edition of Notre-Dame de Paris is exceptional for resolving in an endnote every question raised in Hugo's text. I find it interesting that Wilbour left in the text so much of the original French. At the same time I recognize that educated English speakers of the 1860s will almost certainly have had some French. But I'd love a fully annotated Wilbour. If anyone who reads these words might direct me to such an edition, I'd be gratefully delighted.And I'd also like to applaud Frederick Davidson, known also as David Case (which is, I believe, his true name) and a few other pseudonyms, for his brilliant narration of Hugo. I walk for an hour or so a day, listening to a book. When I'm at home, I sit down with the book itself and pick up at the point I left off in the audiobook. Case is so compelling an interpreter that he makes you want to listen non-stop to the radio play that is a well-narrated novel. Very often, I did, speeding up the audio to reading speed while following along in the text. To audiobookophiles, Case is a well-known, beloved voice (his narration of War and Peace is dazzling) of more than 700 titles, great and obscure. If you've found Les Miz (or War and Peace, for that matter) forbidding for its length, download the audio from your local library and try it as an audiobook. (I'd add, check the book out from the library as well.) Yes, it's a very different experience than simply reading the text silently, but it's similarly wonderful in its ability to expose layers of a book or highlight nuances of meaning that fast readers might miss.This is a justifiably great novel, another one that has become a thing more talked about than read. Lovers of classic literature owe it to themselves to scale its dizzying heights.

Wow! I have just read Les Miserables for the third time and found it to be one of the greatest reading experiences of my long senior citizen life! This reading was in the Everyman Library edition which is a quality hardback with easy to read pages. This edition includes a chronology of Hugo's life; a good introduction and excellent binding. Victor Hugo (1802-1885) was the son of an officer in Napoleon's vaunted army. Hugo was a genius who wrote plays, literary and political reviews and novels of which this one and The Hunchback of Notre Dame are the most notable. Les Miserables is a brick of a book! This Everyman edition runs to 1432 pages but each of those pages has interest and keeps the reader's attention. Hugo devotes hundreds of pages to such topics as Waterloo, French politics, the streets and slang of Paris, the Parisian sewers, the life of a gamin and many more . The main story concerns the life of the Christ-like Jean Valjean. Valjean has spent 19 years in the galleys for stealing a loaf of bread for his family. He receives help from a saintly priest, becomes the mayor of a small Alpine village, raises the orphan Cosette daughter of Fantine and dies beloved. The novel covers the 1830 revolution and follows the love affair of Cosette and Marius. We meet nineteenth century French society in these pages from evil innkeepers to peasants, intellectual revolutionaries and the poor people who suffer from life's hurts and heartaches. The main theme of the novel is the need for human love and freedom. Les Miserables has been turned into a long running musical and has been a bestseller since it was written in 1862. Victor Hugo was a complex man but one who stood for the disadvantaged in society. He was also a genius who in these pages demonstrates his massive literary abilities. A gem of a brick of a book! Vive Jean Valjean. Vive Hugo. Vive la France!

A very difficult book to read. The print is tiny and has chapter after chapter of totally irrelevant details.. I tried really hard to read it all... but finally gave up after 500 pages or so.. Life's too short!

Love this story

Fully satisfied

The work itself needs no introduction, it has been praised countless times by more knowledgeable people than I. I will say that this translation is excellent, I've read this in it's original french and I do think Wilbour did a great job capturing most aspects of it while translating to english. In terms of the quality of the actual book fabrication, it's everyman's library, you're getting a book that has been made with care, Smyth sewn binding and acid free archival paper, they make books that look good and last long.

This is an excellent reproduction of a timeless classic. The philosophy of the Bishop of Digne shines through the being of Jean Valjean. Hugo's penchant for wandering away at times, to the fields of Waterloo and through the sewers of Paris, is, for the modern reader, perhaps a little off putting. But the sheer scope and canvas of the whole is "extraordinaire". My only problem was that the hardback book was not wrapped in waterproofing, and was a bit water damaged and bruised on the base of the spine. Perhaps for mailing around the world, more robust and waterproof packaging could be implemented.