His wandering, unfocused style sometimes turns tedious and paternalistic. Hugo famously wrote entire digressive sections of Les Miserables about The Battle of Waterloo, Parisian street slang argot , prostitution, the case against closed religious orders, the Paris sewers and whatever else struck his fancy.
It takes enormous ambition and bold confidence to do what Hugo did. Because of it, Victor Hugo became for 40 years the progressive conscience of what he famously named The United States of Europe. And this big old doorstop of a tome, in spite of or because of its desultory pace, continues to inspire even at its advanced age.
Les Miserables has been the source of several recent films and television mini-series, which is pretty funny, since the book itself constitutes a mega-series. This novel, so visually descriptive and endlessly, minutely observational, delivered a cinematic scope and feel even before cinema came into being. Spring in Paris is often accompanied by keen and sharp north winds, that do not exactly freeze, but do produce frostbite; these winds, which mar the most beautiful days, have precisely the effect of those cold drafts that sneak into a warm room through the cracks around a window or a poorly closed door.
It seemed as though the dreary door of winter were partly open and the wind coming that way. In the spring of , the time when the first great epidemic of this century broke out in Europe, these winds were sharper and more piercing than ever.
James Poonnolly Certified Buyer. A handsome book with good page quality,. The description of the book does not mention that this is the abridged edition of the book. The abridgement is taken from The Penguin Audiobook. Information about editions need to be part of the book description on the website.
It might be important for some people to know which edition they are buying. I Roy Certified Buyer. I have to agree with one of the reviewers here, if you haven't read this one, you've missed a lot. The book is lengthy, the reader may feel frustrated. I've read The Hunchback of Notredame and his other works too, but this one is a classic.
Pratyay Modi Certified Buyer. Satisfied with quality of paper and parcel delivery. Great job. I read it about two decades ago. It remains one of the best books I have read. Very educative and full of human interest. I read it again now and it continues to inspire. P G College Principal. Satya Sharma Certified Buyer , Bikaner.
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Targeting cookies are used to make advertising messages more relevant to you and your interests. They perform functions like preventing the same content from reappearing, ensuring ads are displayed and, in some cases, selecting content based on your interests. Paperback I read the unabridged version over 20 years ago. Highly recommend reading her process, followed up by what others have to say.
I was blessed reading this -with a class - and with my daughter who was only in the 8th grade at the time. Her brilliant literature teacher got each parent and student involved my husband was too. Afte I noticed a few friends currently reading this masterpiece. After all the investment of time and discussion - plus having seen the play which we went to see again 2 more times while it played in SF , I concluded this has got to be one of the greatest books of all time. I don't think it's important to have to try and remember all the minor characters names.
What a wonderful gift The audio sounds like it could be a wonderful way to engross oneself. Just my 2 cents! OH YES!!!!!!!!!!!!! Plus, its still my favorite play today And I am not just talking about the many plot twists. This book contains, quite possibly, the largest number of literary themes and personas I have ever encountered in just one single body of work. Rogues, rebels, police officers, prostitutes, bishops, the poor, the rich, social injustice, love, hate, compassion, redemption, death All merged together into one gigantic mishmash of storylines and character backgrounds and set up against the background of the political uproar following the French Revolution.
The central character, ex-convict Jean Valjean , is one of the best characters I have ever read about. After stealing bread to save his sister's starving children, he is sent to the galleys to waste away as a slave for years and years. His trauma is hinted at in every corner of this book, and it is all so beautifully done.
The arc of redemption Hugo gave him kept me hooked until the very last chapter. And the galleys now meant not only the galleys, but Cosette lost to him forever; that is to say, a life resembling the interior of a tomb. Each character is connected to Jean in some way, but also has enough distinct features and characteristics to never fall into the background.
Gavroche, for example, only really becomes important to the storyline once the June Rebellion starts; however, I spent enough time reading about him to know exactly who he is and what he stands for. This book made me cry multiple times, oops ; as the title states, this is anything but a happy story. But the author's humor shines through very often too. At times, the characters are made fun of; at others, there is some light-hearted remark or witty dialogue to lighten the mood: "Monseigneur, you who turn everything to account have, nevertheless, one useless plot.
It would be better to grow salads there than bouquets. The beautiful is as useful as the useful. Very slow. Which shouldn't be a surprise to anyone, as the page count is what the story is notorious for. I took the book with me and read it everywhere: in a city apartment on the 46th floor, outside in the garden, and even on the boat I took a trip with last summer. Luckily, the story is divided into "books", which are in turn divided into small chapters.
It makes reading this more manageable. And even when you aren't particularly invested in a certain chapter or character, there's always pretty writing to look at! I sure as hell won't be re-reading this book. I think. Plus, those endless chapters with elaborate explanations of battle strategies, Waterloo, and sewers did not impress me. As much as I appreciate the way Hugo's mind worked, I would have liked to see him stray less from the actual plot.
Hugo's area of expertise is very clearly the flip side of life in 19th century Paris, but I could have done with a little less information. That said, read this book. Maybe an abridged version, though. Literally a book hangover - The fact that I read this over lockdown makes me even more attached to it, I think. I'd recommend this to anyone with a bit of time on their hands View all 25 comments. Oct 03, Duane rated it it was amazing Shelves: rated-books , french , favorite-books , reviewed-books , 5-star-books , guardian I'm obsessed with everything Les Miserables.
The novel, the musical, the movies, especially the latest adaptation of the musical. I actually saw the musical before I ever read the novel. It's musical score is second to none and yes I have been known to shed tears during the performance. The novel is epic, a timeless classic and described by some as "the greatest story ever told". I don't know about that but it is one of the most detailed and intricately constructed novels I have ever read. The le I'm obsessed with everything Les Miserables.
The length can be daunting to some readers but go slow, read a little each day. After a time you won't put it down. As a book lover you want to have this one on your resume of books read. View all 9 comments. Feb 10, Corinne rated it it was amazing Shelves: favorites , social-justice , sacrifice , dignity , constructive , hope , compassion , classic , courage , literature-of-quality.
At the school, I was obliged to read this book as a part of our curriculum, and it came across as something heavy. But, now that I have been blazed a few times in my life, I could relate to this book a lot better, and, at times, even felt healed by it. The police inspector Javert values his duty of keeping law and order above human beings, until he is humbled by Jean Valjean, when he saves the life of Javert, his worst enemy, during the barricade.
Then Javert enters his irreconcilable internal conflict between ethics and law, that is between his moral duty to preserve a good man like Jean Valjean and his legal duty of turning him in as a fugitive, and Javert ends his life to save Jean Valjean.
We can see his humane side, even after his conversion into a good man, when he enters his severe inner conflict vis-a-vis the man about to be condemned in his place, for having stolen the forty sous from Petit Gervais. You can see his temptations to evade law and save his own life; you can also see traces from his life of ex-convict when he gets angry with people, and the use of his force when his personal ethics conflict with the law. And, even for a powerful man like him, you can see his fears, his anxieties, and his insecurities about Cosette.
Even for the rogue Thenardier, Victor Hugo has made him humane, by letting him save the father of Marius in the battle of waterloo!! Gavroche, the son of Thenardier, earns his bread by stealing, but he also steals your heart when he saves the two kids, and gives up his life at the barricade.
His sister, Eponine, is another thief and manipulator, but she sacrifices her life at the barricade too, trying to save Marius, her secret love. The way he details the inner landscape of the characters, and the values of the society he touches upon, are as universal today, as they were during his time. As a woman, I wonder what was there in her spirit that could inspire a writer like Victor Hugo, for so long.
View all 29 comments. Mar 01, Jason rated it really liked it Recommends it for: Speed readers; people who like to curl up to month-long books. And I've isolated the best single sentence in the whole book. It describes how you die in warfare: If anything is horrible, if there is a reality that surpasses our worst dreams, it is this: to live, to see the sun, to be in full possession of manly vigor, to have health and joy, to laugh heartily, to rush toward a glory that lures you on, to feel lungs that breathe, a heart that beats, a mind that thinks, to speak, to hope, to love; to have mother, wife, children, to have sunlight, pages!!
It describes how you die in warfare: If anything is horrible, if there is a reality that surpasses our worst dreams, it is this: to live, to see the sun, to be in full possession of manly vigor, to have health and joy, to laugh heartily, to rush toward a glory that lures you on, to feel lungs that breathe, a heart that beats, a mind that thinks, to speak, to hope, to love; to have mother, wife, children, to have sunlight, and suddenly, in less time than it takes to cry out, to plunge into an abyss, to fall, to roll, to crush, to be crushed, to see the heads of grain, the flowers, the leaves, the branches, unable to catch hold of anything, to feel your sword useless, men under you, horses over you, to struggle in vain, your bones broken by some kick in the darkness, to feel a heel gouging your eye out of their sockets, raging at the horseshoe between your teeth, to stifle, to howl, to twist, to be under all this, and to say, "Just then I was a living man!
How do you review a paged complete and unabridged uber-classic? The book has the rectilinear dimensions of a fire-baked brick.
It's a doorstop. Les Miserables is a successful, sweeping epic. It follows several interrelated characters throughout their lives, and philosophizes on religion, language, warfare, science, etc. I'm sure it's much more poignant, more beautiful in its original language, but this was a satisfactory translation.
Nevertheless, I can't award more than 4 stars, and here's why. The unabridged version is just too much book; it's too slow-moving; it's too expansive; it's too overwrought; it's too circumlocutious.
Near the end of the book oh This is not to say it's poorly-written. On the contrary, I think Hugo, more than any other writer besides Shakespeare, has the most memorable, thought provoking one-liners.
He'll write an entire paragraph on a single thought, then sum it up in one profound, euphonic sentence. I could list of these aphorisms simply by rifling through the book and randomly pulling one from each page. They're there, on every page, and they're all profound, take a look. Hugo also blithely diverges for pages on war, language, religion, revolution, love, science, the Paris sewer system. In this unabridged version, Hugo's diversions act as an antecedent, merely establishing what at first seems like an unnecessary diatribe, but actually provides the background or milieu for a subsequent storyline involving the main characters.
For example, Hugo waxes for almost 60 pages about the Battle of Waterloo, with absolutely no reference to the main story, except at the end--the last paragraph of the diatribe--where he provides the critical link back to the story. I'm not an editor, but these diatribes, these philosophical meanderings, makes it absurdly easy to edit Les Miserables into a successful abridged work. Cut out these diversions, and you have quite a driving story of only pages. The 'Complete and Unabridged' version has its place; it exposes the reader to the wonderful expanses of Victor Hugo's polymathic mind.
However, as a final recommendation, I can only tell you to read the abridged version!! I feel horrible saying that, but as Hugo would quip, wherever you go, there you are. New words: euphony, antonomasia, sutler, chilblain, anchylosis, afflatus, demiurge, argot, ochlocracy I don't believe I've ever been this ambivalent about a book.
I don't remember having ever read anything that I loved and hate the way I do this. Okay, it got four stars, so maybe there are more loveable than loathsome parts, but still, thinking about it tugs my heart in both directions. When it's good it's excellent, and completely deserves 5 stars - more even. The descriptions of the moral complexities a man is faced with are spectacular and Jean Valjean's internal struggles are always a wonder I don't believe I've ever been this ambivalent about a book.
The descriptions of the moral complexities a man is faced with are spectacular and Jean Valjean's internal struggles are always a wonder to witness. Hugo really nails large parts of the human condition in much of the book; the compassion, the cruelty, the greed, the forgiveness, the love.
He presents us with some memorable characters, who each possess qualities and flaws that we're all familiar with. Enjolras and Grantaire are great examples of this, of two men who, in their contrast, fulfill each other somehow, and both together and apart help describe a part of human life.
It's brilliant, I loved it. I want to go into detail with all the major characters, and some of the minor, but I'll refrain. I'll have nothing new to say anyway. But the characters are the best part about this book, no doubt. Unfortunately, when this book turns bad, it turns goddamned awful. Before that, however, let me address the length and version of the book I read.
I read a fourth of this unabridged before I gave up and got an abridged version. I both regret and don't regret this decision there it is again, the fucking ambivalence. The unabridged version simply had too much ridiculous filler chapters in it. Yes, the battle of Waterloo is interesting, no I don't want 6 effing chapters of it. That's not what the book is about.
However, the abridged version meant you lost some of the details and character descriptions and I regret not getting that. There was one hilarious moment in this particular edition, after Marius sent Cosette his love letter, it shows us one and a half page of his lovesick rambling, and then goes something like "The letter goes on like this for another 4 pages".
Which cleverly brings me back to what is so awful about this book. The love story. Get it away from me. I know how you all love to say Edward and Bella have an abusive relationship and Edward is a shady stalker, but guys? He has fucking nothing on Marius. A year he follows Cosette around. A YEAR. He sends her a 15 page long love letter, without having spoken a word to her.
How did he get her address? He asked someone to track her down. But, you know, okay. People like what they like and times were different back then. I could have forgiven it somewhat if that was it, but it isn't. Before her marriage and before her ridiculous infatuation with Marius, Cosette actually seemed to have real character, she could stand on her own, but then Marius enters and she slowly evaporates.
She lets her entire soul and being be overtaken by Marius. It's worst after their marriage. She turns into a pretty, shallow shadow of her husband.
It is absolutely despicable. I wanted to throw the fucking book through a window, I was so mad. That, ladies and gentlemen, is not a healthy relationship and it irked the hell out of me. Unforgivable, Hugo, I don't care how much you thought you couldn't write women, that's no excuse for not even trying. And for this reason I also feel a wonderful kinship with Enjolras as he sings to Marius in the musical: "Who cares about your lonely soul?
Because indeed, who cares? Not me. Marius is a pawn in this book and probably one of the least interesting characters. In contrast, I love the story of Jean Valjean - it's breathtaking and immensely moving - and I love the story of the barricades and the revolution.
I just also absolutely despise the story of Marius and Cosette. The great thing is that my anger toward that one part hasn't tainted my love of the other part. It simply makes it difficult for me to love the book as a whole. This got very long, I apologize. I urge you all to read it. It has some amazing philosophy in it - another part I regret about reading it abridged; a lot of Hugo's own musings were gone. I'd love to have someone collect and organize of his thoughts on various things as they are presented throughout this book and make into a separate book.
That'd be very interesting. View all 23 comments. The novel is as comprehensive a work as is imaginable.
Digressions, essays and asides make up a large percentage of the word count, and nothing seems omitted for the sake of narrative pacing.
The first fifty or so pages are devoted almost entirely to the detailed personal history of a priest. Later, there are sections of comparable length containing a detailed account of the battle of Waterloo, a series of essays on the clergy, an editorial on street urchins, accounts of French history and the reigns of monarchs, even a lengthy description of Paris's sewer system.
But the novel is far better for their inclusion, than if they had been edited out. While these digressions may sound indulgent, in fact there is very little that is truly extraneous. Hugo's asides provide an essential framework through which the story weaves. Rather than disrupting the narrative flow, they immerse the reader in this turbulent period of French history, frame the characters and locations, and in fact serve to elevate the stakes, when the action resumes.
The story itself is utterly compelling, and brilliantly composed. This creates a sort of circular philosophical perspective, a reciprocal resonance between the individual and the society he inhabits. Hugo exposes the corrupt contradictions inherent in the morality of his age; the moral inversion that is brought about by the inequitable economic system. One really feels the true horror of industrial-era poverty, the way it subverts humanity and eliminates moral choice.
But beyond any analysis of the novel's plot or themes, what I must emphasise here, and what I cannot overstate, is the experience I had reading this novel, which was one of the most intense and satisfying in memory. Simply, this is one of the greatest novels ever written. I put off tackling this novel for more years than I can remember.
This was mostly because I wanted to read it in French and the length of the book daunted me somewhat. The last two month I put off tackling this novel for more years than I can remember. The plot is well known to anyone who has seen the musical. For me, they are the story. Or at least they make the story so much more than the elements of the plot which form the basis for the stage adaptation. This is a vast, sprawling, hugely digressive, powerful, sentimental monster of a novel. It is by no means flawless.
Hugo suffers from the failing of so many male writers of the 19th century, that is, an unhealthy preoccupation with the virginity and purity of nice young women. This means that he makes the adult Cosette not only dull in her perfection, but stupid as well. Of them, Jean Valjean and Inspector Javert are of course the standouts. Hugo creates intensely detailed psychological portraits of these two fascinating men, who have such different philosophies of life.
I sorely regret not reading the novel sooner, because the number of times I will be able to re-read it is so much more limited than it would have been otherwise. Listening to the novel over the past few weeks has been a fabulous literary experience. I appreciate that not all readers will appreciate its length, its language or its digressive nature, but for total immersion in a different world there can be nothing more satisfying.
For anyone interested in the geographical locations described in the novel and planning a trip to France, a blogger has written a great account of travelling through France while reading the novel. He has also created a fabulous interactive map which shows the locations of various events in the novel. The blog can be found here and the map can be found here. View all 61 comments. Jun 04, BAM Endlessly Booked rated it it was amazing Shelves: catching-up-on-classics , wc-democratic , guardian-list , tiferet , before-death.
View all 7 comments. Readers also enjoyed. About Victor Hugo. Victor Hugo. Victor Hugo, in full Victor-Marie Hugo, poet, playwrighter, novelist, dramatist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights campaigner, and perhaps the most influential exponent of the Romantic movement in France, who was the most important of the French Romantic writers.
Books by Victor Hugo.
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