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Trying to forget his past and live an honest life, escaped convict Jean Valjean risks his freedom to take care of a motherless young girl during a period of political unrest in Paris.
In the 1820s and 1830s, Victor Hugo came into his own as a writer and figurehead of the new Romanticism, a movement that sought to liberate literature from its stultifying classical influences. His 1827 preface to the play Cromwell proclaimed a new aesthetic inspired by Shakespeare, based on the shock effects of juxtaposing the grotesque with the sublime. The great success of Notre-Dame de Paris (The Hunchback of Notre Dame) confirmed Hugo's primacy among the Romantics.
By 1830 the Hugos had four children. Exhausted from her pregnancies and her husband's insatiable sexual demands, Adèle began to sleep alone, and soon fell in love with Hugo's best friend, the critic Charles-Augustin Sainte-Beuve. They began an affair. The Hugos stayed together as friends, and in 1833 Hugo met the actress Juliette Drouet, who would remain his primary mistress until her death 50 years later.
Personal tragedy pursued Hugo relentlessly. His jealous brother Eugène went permanently insane following Victor's wedding to Adèle. His daughter, Léopoldine, together with her unborn child and her devoted husband, died at 19 in a boating accident on the Seine. Hugo never fully recovered from this loss.
Political ups and downs ensued as well, following the shift of Hugo's early royalist sympathies toward liberalism during the late 1820s. He first held political office in 1843, and as he became more engaged in France's social troubles, he was elected to the Constitutional Assembly following the February Revolution of 1848. After Napoléon III's coup d'état in 1851, Hugo's open opposition created hostilities that ended in his flight abroad from the new government.
Declining at least two offers of amnesty -- which would have meant curtailing his opposition to the Empire -- Hugo remained in exile in the Channel Islands for 19 years, until the fall of Napoléon III in 1870. Meanwhile, the seclusion of the islands enabled Hugo to write some of his most famous verse as well as Les Misérables (1862). When he returned to Paris, the country hailed him as a hero. Hugo then weathered, within a brief period, the siege of Paris, the institutionalization of his daughter Adèle for insanity, and the death of his two sons. Despite this personal anguish, the aging author remained committed to political change. He became an internationally revered figure who helped to preserve and shape the Third Republic and democracy in France. Hugo's death on May 22, 1885, generated intense national mourning; more than two million people joined his funeral procession in Paris from the Arc de Triomphe to the Panthéon, where he was buried.
Author biography from the Barnes & Noble Classics edition of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Hugo owned a pet cat named Gavroche -- the name of one of the primary characters in Les Misérables.
The longest sentence ever written in literature is in Les Misérables; depending on the translation, it consists of about 800 words.
When Hugo published Les Misérables, he was on holiday. After not hearing anything about its reception for a few days, Hugo sent a telegram to his publisher, reading, simply:
"?"
The complete reply from the publisher:
"!"
I. Monsieur Myriel
In 1815, Monsieur Charles-François-Bienvenu Myriel was bishop of Digne.1 He was an elderly man of about seventy-five and he had occupied the seat of Digne since 1806.
There is something we might mention that has no bearing whatsoever on the tale we have to tell—not even on the background. Yet it may well serve some purpose, if only in the interests of precision, to jot down here the rumors and gossip that had circulated about him the moment he first popped up in the diocese. True or false, what is said about people often has as much bearing on their lives and especially on their destinies as what they do. Monsieur Myriel was the son of a councillor of the Aix parliament, a member of the noblesse de robe.2 They reckoned his father had put him down to inherit his position and so had married him off very early in the piece when he was only eighteen or twenty, as they used to do quite a lot in parliamentary families. Charles Myriel, married or no, had, they said, set tongues wagging. He was a good-looking young man, if on the short side, elegant, charming, and witty; he had given the best years of his life thus far to worldly pursuits and love affairs. Then the Revolution came along, events spiraled, parliamentary families were wiped out, chased away, hunted, scattered. Monsieur Charles Myriel emigrated to Italy soon after the Revolution broke out. His wife died there of the chest infection she’d had for ages. They had no children. What happened next in the destiny of Monsieur Myriel? The collapse of the old society in France, the fall of his own family, the tragic scenes of ’93,3 which were, perhaps, even more frightening for émigrés4 watching them from afar with the magnifying power of dread—did these things cause notions of renunciation and solitude to germinate in his mind? Was he, in the middle of the distractions and amorous diversions that filled his life, suddenly hit by one of those mysterious and terrible jolts that sometimes come and strike at the heart, bowling over the man public calamities couldn’t shake, threatening as these did only his existence and his fortune? No one could say; all that was known was that, when he came back from Italy, he was a priest.
In 1804,5 Monsieur Myriel was the curé of Brignolles.6 He was already old and lived like a real recluse in profound seclusion.
Around the time of the coronation, a small parish matter—who can remember what now?—took him to Paris. Among other powerful persons, he called on Cardinal Fesch,7 Napoléon’s uncle, to petition him on his parishioners’ behalf. One day when the emperor was visiting his uncle, the worthy curé, who was waiting in the anteroom, found himself in His Majesty’s path. Napoléon, seeing the old boy give him the once-over with a certain curiosity, wheeled round and said brusquely: “Who is this little man staring at me?”
“Your Majesty,” said Monsieur Myriel, “you see a little man, and I see a great man. Both of us may benefit.”
That very night, the emperor asked the cardinal what the curé’s name was and some time after that Monsieur Myriel was stunned to learn that he’d been named bishop of Digne.
But, when all’s said and done, what was true in the tales told about the first phase of Monsieur Myriel’s life? No one could tell. Few families had known the Myriel family before the Revolution.
Monsieur Myriel had to endure the fate of every newcomer in a small town, where there are always plenty of mouths blathering and not many brains working. He had to endure it even though he was the bishop, and because he was the bishop. But, after all, the talk in which his name cropped up was perhaps nothing more than talk; hot air, babble, words, less than words, pap, as the colorful language of the Midi8 puts it.
Whatever the case, after nine years as the resident bishop of Digne, all the usual gossip that initially consumes small towns and small people had died and sunk without a trace. No one would have dared bring it up, no one would have dared remember what it was.
Monsieur Myriel arrived in Digne accompanied by an old spinster, Mademoiselle Baptistine, who was his sister and ten years his junior.
They had only one servant, a woman the same age as Mademoiselle Baptistine, called Madame Magloire. Having been the servant of Monsieur le curé, she now went by the double title of personal maid to Mademoiselle and housekeeper to Monseigneur.9
Mademoiselle Baptistine was a tall, pale, thin, sweet person, the personification of that ideal expressed by the word respectable; for it seems a woman must be a mother to be esteemed. She had never been pretty, but her entire life, which had been merely a succession of holy works, had ended up laying a sort of whiteness and brightness over her; as she aged, she had gained what you could describe as the beauty of goodness. What had been skinniness in her youth had become transparency with maturity; and this diaphanous quality revealed the angel within. She was more of a spirit than a virgin. She seemed a mere shadow with scarcely enough of a body to have a gender; just a bit of matter bearing a light, with great big eyes always lowered to the ground, an excuse for a spirit to remain on earth.
Madame Magloire was a little old lady, white skinned, plump, round, busy, always wheezing, first because of always bustling about and second because of her asthma.
When he first arrived, Monsieur Myriel was set up in his episcopal palace with all the honors required by imperial decree, which ranked bishops immediately after field marshals.10 The mayor and the president of the local council were the first to visit him, and on his side, he made his first visits to the general and the chief of police.
Once he had moved in, the town waited to see their bishop on the job.
II. Monsieur Myriel Becomes Monseigneur Bienvenu
The episcopal palace of Digne was next door to the hospital. The episcopal palace was a vast and handsome town house built in stone at the beginning of the previous century by Monseigneur Henri Puget, doctor of theology of the faculty of Paris and abbé of Simore,1 who had been bishop of Digne in 1712. The palace was truly a mansion fit for a lord. Everything about it was on the grand scale, the bishop’s apartments, the drawing rooms, the bedrooms, the main courtyard, which was huge, with covered arcades in the old Florentine style, and the gardens planted with magnificent trees. It was in the dining room, which was a long and superb gallery on the ground floor opening onto the grounds, that Monseigneur Henri Puget had, on July 29, 1714, ceremoniously fed the ecclesiastical dignitaries, Charles Brûlart de Genlis, archbishop prince of Embrun, Antoine de Mesgrigny, Capuchin bishop of Grasse, Philippe de Vendôme, grand prior of France, abbé of Saint-Honoré de Lérins, François de Berton de Crillon, bishop baron of Vence, César de Sabran de Forcalquier, lord bishop and lord of Glandève, and Jean Soanen, priest of the oratory, preacher in ordinary to the king, lord bishop of Senez.2 The portraits of these seven reverend fathers embellished the dining room and the memorable date of July 29, 1714, was engraved there in gold lettering on a white marble panel.
The hospital was a low, narrow, single-story house with a small garden.
Three days after his arrival, the bishop visited the hospital. When his visit was over, he politely begged the director to accompany him back to his place.
“Monsieur le directeur, how many sick people do you have in your hospital at the moment?”
“Twenty-six, Monseigneur.”
“That’s what I counted,” said the bishop.
“The beds are all jammed together,” the director went on.
“That’s what I noticed.”
“The living areas are just bedrooms, and they’re difficult to air.”
“That’s what I thought.”
“Then again, when there’s a ray of sun, the garden’s too small for the convalescents.”
“That’s what I said to myself.”
“As for epidemics, we’ve had typhus this year, and two years ago we had miliary fever—up to a hundred were down with it at any one time. We don’t know what to do.”
“The thought did strike me.”
“What can we do, Monseigneur?” said the director. “You have to resign yourself to it.”
This conversation took place in the dining-room gallery on the ground floor. The bishop fell silent for a moment, then suddenly turned to the hospital director.
“Monsieur,” he said, “how many beds do you think you could get in this room alone?”
“Monseigneur’s dining room?” cried the astonished director.
The bishop sized up the room, giving the impression he was taking measurements and making calculations by eye alone.
“It could easily hold twenty beds!” he mumbled, as though talking to himself. Then he spoke more loudly. “Look, my dear director, I’ll tell you what. There has obviously been a mistake. There are twenty-six of you in five or six small rooms. There are three of us here and we’ve got enough room for sixty. There’s been a mistake, I’m telling you. You’ve got my place and I’ve got yours. Give me back my house. This is your rightful home, here.”
The next day, the twenty-six poor were moved into the bishop’s palace and the bishop was at the hospital.
Monsieur Myriel had no property, his family having lost everything in the Revolution. His sister got an annuity of five hundred francs, which was enough for her personal expenses, living at the presbytery. Monsieur Myriel received a salary of fifteen thousand francs from the government as bishop. The very day he moved into the hospital, Monsieur Myriel decided once and for all to put this sum to use as follows. We transcribe here the note written in his hand.
household expenditure
For the small seminary 1500 livres
Mission congregation 100 livres
For the Lazarists of Montdidier 100 livres
Seminary of foreign missions in Paris 200 livres
Congregation of the Saint-Esprit 150 livres
Religious institutions in the Holy Land 100 livres
Societies of maternal charity 300 livres
For the one at Arles 50 livres
For the betterment of prisons 400 livres
For the relief and release of prisoners 500 livres
For the release of fathers of families imprisoned for debt 1000 livres
Salary supplement for poor schoolteachers in the diocese 2000 livres
Upper Alps public granary 100 livres
Ladies’ Association of Digne, Manosque, and Sisteron,3 for the free education of poor girls 1500 livres
For the poor 6000 livres
My personal expenses 1000 livres
total 15000 livres
The whole time Monsieur Myriel held the see of Digne, he made almost no change in this arrangement—what he called, as we shall see, “taking care of his household expenses.”
Mademoiselle Baptistine accepted the arrangement with absolute submission. For this devout spinster, Myriel was both her brother and her bishop, the friend she grew up with and her superior according to ecclesiastical authority. Quite simply, she loved him and revered him. When he spoke, she listened, and when he took action, she was right behind him. Only the servant, Madame Magloire, grumbled a bit. As you will have noticed, the bishop kept only a thousand livres for himself which, added to Mademoiselle Baptistine’s pension, meant fifteen hundred francs a year. The two old women and the old man all lived on those fifteen hundred francs.
And when some village curé came to Digne, the bishop still managed to find a way of entertaining him, thanks to the assiduous scrimping and saving of Madame Magloire and Mademoiselle Baptistine’s clever management.
One day, when the bishop had been in Digne for about three months, he said, “With all that, things are pretty tight!”
“They certainly are!” cried Madame Magloire. “Monseigneur hasn’t even claimed the money the département owes him for the upkeep of his carriage in town and his rounds in the diocese. In the old days, that was standard for bishops.”
“You’re right, Madame Magloire!” the bishop agreed. And he put in his claim.
A short while later, after considering this application, the department council voted him an annual stipend of three thousand francs, under the heading, Bishop’s Allowance for Carriage Upkeep, Postal Costs, and Travel Expenses Incurred in Pastoral Rounds.
The local bourgeoisie was up in arms over this and an imperial senator,4 who had been a member of the Council of Five Hundred5 promoting the Eighteenth Brumaire and was now provided with a magnificent senatorial seat near Digne township, wrote a cranky little private letter to the minister of public worship, Monsieur Bigot de Préameneu.6 We produce here a genuine extract of a few lines:
“Carriage upkeep? Whatever for, in a town with less than four thousand people? Travel expenses incurred in pastoral rounds? To start with, what’s the good of them anyway? And then, how the hell does he do the rounds by post chaise in such mountainous terrain? There are no roads. One has to proceed on horseback. Even the bridge over the Durance at Château-Arnoux7 can barely take a bullock-drawn cart. All these priests are the same. Greedy and tight. This one played the good apostle when he first turned up. Now he acts like all the rest. He must have a carriage and a post chaise. He must have luxury, the same as the old bishops. Oh, these bloody clergy! Monsieur le comte, things will only come good when the emperor has delivered us from these pious swine. Down with the pope! [Things were not good with Rome at that point.]8 As for me, I’m for Caesar alone.” And so on and so forth.
Madame Magloire, on the other hand, was delighted.
“Hooray!” she said to Mademoiselle Baptistine. “Monseigneur put the others first but he’s wound up having to think of himself, finally. He’s fixed up all his charities. Here’s three thousand livres for us. At last!”
The same night, the bishop wrote a note, which he handed to his sister. It went like this:
carriage upkeep and travel expenses
Beef broth for the sick in the hospital 1500 livres
For the society of maternal charity of Aix 250 livres
For the society of maternal charity of Draguignan 250 livres
For abandoned children 500 livres
For orphans 500 livres
total 3000 livres
And that was Monsieur Myriel’s budget.
As for the cost of episcopal services, redemptions, dispensations, baptisms, sermons, consecrations of churches and chapels, marriages and so on, the bishop took from the rich all the more greedily for giving it all to the poor.
It wasn’t long before offerings of money poured in. The haves and the have-nots all knocked on Monsieur Myriel’s door, some coming in search of the alms that the others had just left. In less than a year, the bishop became treasurer of all works of charity and cashier to all those in distress. Large sums passed through his hands, but nothing could make him change his style of life in the slightest or get him to embellish his spartan existence by the faintest touch of the superfluous.
Far from it. As there is always more misery at the bottom of the ladder than there is fraternity at the top, everything was given away, so to speak, before it was received, like water on thirsty soil. A lot of good it did him to be given money, he never had any. And so, he robbed himself.
The custom being for bishops to put their full baptismal names at the head of their mandates and pastoral letters, the poor people of the area had chosen, out of a sort of affectionate instinct, the one among all the bishop’s various names that made the most sense to them, and so they called him Monseigneur Bienvenu—Welcome. We’ll do likewise whenever the occasion arises. Besides, the nickname tickled him.
“I like that name,” he said. “Bienvenu pulls Monseigneur into line.”
We are not saying that the portrait of the man we offer here is accurate; we will restrict ourselves to the claim that it is a passing likeness.
Anonymous
Posted July 1, 2003
The translation of Victor Hugo's Les Misrables by Norman Denny is as close as you can get to an unabridged version. This is not a volume to be read quickly, so if you are on a deadline let this one lie & get one of the shorter translations; but you will be missing the full experience! Hugo's style was to go on in excrutiating detail about the people, places, & institutions in his stories. It is one of the things that make his works timeless; you come away with not just so much entertainment, but an understanding of the place & time that the characters inhabited, & what they thought & felt & why. Norman Denny captures that full experience in his translation, with minimal editorializing or abridging. He includes two appendices that were complete chapters in Hugo's original text, but depart fully from the story line to give background & explanation. You will be tempted at times to skip several pages or whole chapters. Don't! Instead, take a break (stretch, get a cup of coffee, a nap, some conversation, some excercise, or do some work) and come back to it fresh later so you can savor every nuance. It will be worth it when you come to the last chapters & can read not only what happens to the characters, but feel what they feel.
3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Opinion
Posted April 29, 2011
The novel has several poems, songs,and other passages that are essential to the story. In this edition, these passages are truncated on the right side of the page. No matter how small you shrink the font, you can't see the whole line, and the lines don't wrap. Don't buy this edition if you care about the story.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted November 2, 1999
Despite a large number of typos in the 1996 B&N unabridged edition, every word in it marks two masters--Hugo as editor, and Wilbour as translator. Don't lose out by choosing an abridged edition! All 1222 pages of the 1996 ed. are worth reading--twice.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted January 24, 2012
How long is this book?
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Posted January 23, 2012
French version. Wish it would say that in description!
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Posted January 6, 2012
I Also Recommend:
Les Misérables is potentially one of my most beloved books. The story itself is timeless - the redemption of a criminal and the evaluation of morality.
Asides from the plot, the interaction between the characters and the vibrant writing of Victor Hugo make this novel a complete joy to read. Despite its length, I would encourage everyone to read the unabridged version. The length is not noticeable (as it is difficult to put the book down), and Hugo's humor and social insight provide hours of entertainment and reflection.
A wonderful classic that almost everyone could enjoy.
Anonymous
Posted December 26, 2011
Read it a few years ago and fell in love w the characters. The situations and the tragities moved me.
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Posted December 6, 2011
This book is a classic for a reason the first book of Fantine was boring but as you get into it it is so much better!
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Posted December 6, 2011
One of the greatest books ever written. If you have not read this book, you must read it soon.
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Posted November 16, 2011
This book is a romantic novel, that has much history thrown in. It is highly detailed and full of character depth. Must read, for french history.
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Posted January 13, 2011
This book is so great, it gives a tragedy and it turns this young mans world around.
This book gives a good lesson on why you shouldn't steal for anything even if it's for a good cause because you still get in just as much trouble as the person that steals for no stinking reason. It also shows how important family is and and how you need to honor that and you shouldn't do anything stupid to dishonor you name. When you start of reading this book it's almost like it's really boring because you really don't know whats going on and it really doesn't make sense but you keep reading and everything kinda just ties in right there. For a small version of real Les Miserables Victor Hugo does a pretty good job on the characters, I've never read the real version but i hear this one is just like it but in a smaller book and a little twist with everything. If you are having second thoughts on this book, don't be this is a very good french novel and i recommend this to all that can handle the french words and all the big words. This is a great book so get to reading
0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted January 9, 2011
I really enjoyed reading Les Misérables by Victor Hugo. Before I read this book, I was only reading the junior fiction type of books, so reading this one was a challenge. At first when I started reading it, I barely understood it, but, after I got close to half way through it, I started understanding it a lot easier and it made the book more enjoyable. It challenged me to read other classic challenging books. One of the many things I enjoyed about this book is that there were different sections and that all the chapters in that section were based on a specific person. And in of those each sections, it introduced a new character and gave the background on them and built the story off of them. All in all, the author introduced three or four different people. Throughout the story, each of those different people were tied together in some way. It makes you stop and think about what your reading and try and wrap your head around how the characters might possibly be related. One thing I didn't really understand is why the names of the villages and city's were cut out. Instead of having the whole name it would have something like 'M- sur M-'. It confused me a little bit. Before I read this book, I had heard a couple of different things about it, but none of it gave the story any justice. All I knew was that it took place during the French Revolution and a man that went from place to place but couldn't stay because he was an ex-convict. But there was a lot more to it than that. First of all, that was about the first chapter or so when that happened, and secondly, there were a lot more people involved. With a couple of the characters, you had to think about if they were the same people or not because of the person's point of view you're reading from. It made it quite complicating sometimes, but it made the book a lot more enjoyable if you're the kind of person that likes to think when they read something. What I thought was fascinating about Les Misérables was that it went from pretty close to the beginning of someone's life to the end of it. I mean, how many books do that? With most if the books I read, it goes from like the beginning of a month and last, oh you know, about three to six weeks. I think it's a lot more fun to read a book that lasts over years rather that a few weeks. Yes, it does make it harder to follow along and, yes, it does get confusing, but all in all it was a really amazing and in great detail for the most part. I really enjoyed this book and I would most definitely request this book to a more advanced reader that is ok with stopping every now and then to process what they have just read.
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Posted January 7, 2011
Okay so at first I wanted to just stop reading the book.12 It was long and boring.17 I hated it.20 But I had seen the movie.26 So I thought that it would get better.34 So I trudged on through the book.41 I actually am not even past part one, because it is such a hard read.56 Like I said, the first part was torture to read.66 I really thought about changing books.72 It seemed like it was going on and on and on and . . . 84 Finally Hugo kicked the story into gear, and made interesting.94 Finally the description of the MAIN character happened, then his emotions, his memories, then finally: the ACTION.111 The characters are interesting.115 Victor Hugo writes extremely detailed.120 So everything was stretched out, and the reader is really allowed to understand almost everything about the characters.138 Hugo does not just say: Monsieur Muriel (Jean ValJean) is a very troubled man.152 Or say: Javert tried to do justice, but still remained a very evil, man.166 Or: Fantine was a kind person that through becoming almost like dirt, unleashed her bad side.182 Hugo keeps referring the "animal" inside of us. He says that prison can unleash the animal inside.199 He says that poverty can unleash the inner animal.208 Sometimes it gets a little graphic. Fantine has blood running out of the corners of her mouth. Half of part one is all about a priest, that changes Jean ValJean's life.239 Though this is important, the priest disappears basically, after Jean ValJean turns into Monsieur Muriel. In my opinion, I understand that Hugo is trying to explain to the reader how "angelic", or how righteous the priest is, but Hugo spends waaaaaay too much time on the priest.286 The priest is there.290 He changes Jean ValJean's life.295 And then he dies, and disappears. And that's it. And yet Hugo gave almost HALF of part one to explaining the priest.307 Honestly? That, to me, is almost a waste of paper.317 I mean part one is long! And Hugo just spent half of it talking about a priest that is important, but not THAT important.341 Any way. . . After Hugo is done writing tons and tons of pages about the priest, then it actually gets interesting, and, at least for me, it no longer bores my brain right out of my skull.377 Though I am complaining about how long Hugo wrote about the priest, his lengthiness, and description, is actually a really good thing.399 His lengthiness, and description, allow the reader to almost be able to put themselves in the characters' positions.417 I was able to almost feel exactly how frightened Jean ValJean is in the courtroom.432 What I am trying to say is that, yes, it is extremely boring, and almost excruciatingly painful to read the first half of part one, but Hugo meant well in writing that long of a description, and it really does help the reader to understand just how righteous the priest was, and though Hugo maybe didn't need to write all of what he did write about the priest, he also put that amount of description into the other characters, which is also extremely helpful, and crutial, if the reader is to fully understand what is going on, and exactly how the characters feel.535
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Posted December 19, 2010
This is a French version of Les Miserables. The text is clear and readable, it just isn't what you're looking for if you want an English translation.
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Posted November 2, 2010
I read Les Miserables because my brother was in the musical Les Miserables playing Jean Val Jean. Let me tell you thing: if you are expecting the book to be like the play, then you'll be surprised. Sure, the play has the same characters and main events, but the book goes into so much more detail. For example, in the play, Marius just sort of pops up as an entirely new character, whereas in the book, it explains his background, his youth, his father and grandfather, etc. The beginning with Jean Val Jean meeting the Bishop goes into much more detail as well. Don't get me wrong, though. The book Les Miserables is very intellectually stimulating, although if you don't have a good vocabulary or a very large dictionary nearby, you might not want to read it. There are some parts that do such a good job describing what is going on that you feel as if you are watching a video depicting exactly how everything was. The language and word choice is somewhat difficult to understand, and if you don't have a reading level over 11th grade, you may want to wait a bit to read it, but no matter what you're reading level is, there are many great things about Les Miserables that can be appreciated. The end is so touching that I actually cried (Gasp!) and was extremely moved, and the way Jean Val Jean defies the law again and again is truly awe-inspiring, as well. My favorite character by far is the Bishop, because Jean Val Jean steals his silver, and out of the goodness of his soul, he not only doesn't tell the police to go after him, but when the police do catch him and take him to the Bishop's house, the Bishop covers for him and gives him even more silver. Another note-worthy item from Les Miserables is how much Jean Val Jean changes. At the beginning, he is a cruel-hearted old son of a gun, but when the he meets the Bishop, the effect is immediately noticeable. Jean Val Jean unintentionally cheats a small boy of his money, and when Jean Val Jean notices his crime, he not only feels terrible about it, but also seeks to rectify his mistake, something that he most certainly would not have done before meeting the Bishop. There is one more character who had a profound impact on Jean Val Jean's life, and that is Cosette. Jean Val Jean takes care of Cosette after her mother dies, and she thinks of him as a father (seeming as how he is the only parental figure she really ever knew). One thing that I got out of this is that even the most hardened criminals can be repentant. Even though the law persisted after him, Jean Val Jean kept clear of capture and, in the process, learned a lot about him and about other people through such people as the Bishop, Cosette, and Marius. The author definitely did a good job of portraying his beliefs through fictional writing, and it is indubitably one of the most touching, inspiring, and entertaining novels in the history of modern day literature. Les Miserables is one novel that everyone should read-the sooner the better.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Do not take my word for it. Buy this book, read it and I am sure you'll love it!
Most of us reach a stage where we want to wake up and be a COMPLETELY different, better person. We want to erase our past, move forward, issue another self. But most of the time, we failed.
So we learned we cannot move forward without acknowledging and learning from our past. The past holds the future; and how we deal with it is what matters.
Let the lead character here show us how.
Enjoy reading!
Anonymous
Posted February 9, 2009
This book is amazing and the characters are very deep. You have to understand that this book is so much more then a story it's history. I've seen the play and read the book and I've loved every minute of it.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted July 11, 2008
This book is amazing!! It has an amazing hero you will never forget, and draws you into all the characters personal stories and problems. This book made me jumped out of my seat and scream aloud at times. Don't be intimidated by the size of the book, it was so good, i finished it in only 3 days. It is soo great!!
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted August 10, 2005
You can almost find no better book than Hugo's Les Miserables. It captivates and enthralls you so much that the book is completely irrestiable. You'll have a hard time putting it down.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted June 26, 2003
Victor Hugo brings you back to 19th century France with his vivid and amazing writing...You live with Jean Valjean through his times with the chain gang, you are with him on the run, and you understand his never-ending seek for redemption. You are with poor Cosette, the girl on the cover, through her abuse, and finally her love. You are with her mother, Fantine, from her horrible beginning to her peaceful ending...And you storm the barricades with Enjolras and the revolutionary students... You understand why the title means 'the miserables ones'. What is 'Les Miserables'? Well, it is simply revolutionary...
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Overview
Audiolibro dramatizado en español basado en la historia original de Víctor Hugo. Catalogada como la primera novela social de su época, Los miserables, es una de obras literarias las más famosas de todos los tiempos. Es la historia de Jean Valjean, un convicto que estuvo injustamente encarcelado por 19 años por haberse robado una rebanada de pan. Al ser liberado de su injusta condena, Valjean trata de escapar de su pasado, lleno de maldad y depravación, para vivir una vida digna y honesta. Sin embargo, esto se ve truncado al ser reconocido por el inspector Javert, quien lo persigue obsesionadamente para enviarlo de nuevo a prisión. Esta persecución consume la vida de ambos hombres, terminando en un inesperado desenlace.