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Spark Publishing’s Literature Guides are celebrating their 5th Anniversary! To celebrate this, we’re giving our TOP 50 a revamp by adding some exciting new features.
There will be sixteen pages devoted to writing a literary essay including:
Anonymous
Posted December 28, 1999
This book is truly a masterpiece. The reader is absolutely drawn in by the characters. I adore books that make me cry because I know that then, I am definately involved. For this book, I bawled! I have to warn you that I have read a couple of different abridged versions and some of them cut out really crucial parts. Play it safe, pick up the unabridged version! You'll love it!
34 out of 34 people found this review helpful.
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Posted March 28, 2011
I love this book, but I was not at all satisfied with the Nook version. It worked fine at first, but then it would freeze up on me. I would constantly get error messages saying the Activity Reader has stopped working, and then I would have to force close it. Then to top it all off, the last part of the book is missing! Not worth wasting your $ ... even if it's only a dollar.
26 out of 40 people found this review helpful.
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Posted November 16, 2008
I'm not sure how this excruciatingly long-winded book managed to achieve classic status. The characters are completely flat, from the relentlessly selfless Bishop of Digne to the reformed Jean Valjean who, though he sometimes doubts himself, always winds up being utterly generous and humble, to Thenardier, the caricature of bottomless greed, and Javert the relentless inspector who instead of pursuing murderers, rapists and con-artists, inexplicably spends ten years obsessing over the capture of a guy who stole a loaf of bread and wouldn't give a kid back a coin that he'd dropped. <BR/>For all its flowery prose, this book doesn't manage to bring much of anything to life. We're told that Jean Valjean has this timeless love for adopted little Cosette, but we never get to see that love develop. We never see any tender and inspirational moments between them. The author just insists that it's an amazing love and we are supposed to take his word for it. Likewise the romance between Cosette and Marius. Not much of anything happens between them. There is never a moment when they are together and we feel like we're seeing two people discover the elements of love buried beneath their outward surfaces. Here everything is surface. VH insists that their love is great; we watch them pining away for each other; but really we wonder why exactly they're pining.<BR/>As for the famous digressions in the book, they aren't the problem. Okay--four chapters on the sewers of Paris and the poetics of excrement were a bit much, but the real problem is that Hugo endlessly repeats himself. It seems like he doesn't think the reader is smart enough to appreciate the sense of what he's saying unless he repeats it three or four or five times. At one point, I put the book down in disgust because he posed the same philosophical question (with slight rewording each time) over and over again till it filled up most of a page. If you read this book, be prepared to mutter under your breath "All right, I get it already...could you move on please" quite frequently.<BR/>I've read some reviews that cite this book as a good lesson in the history of the French Revolution. It's not actually about THE French Revolution, just an uprising in Paris more than forty years later, though echoes of the Revolution and its aftermath are everywhere. Unfortunately for the modern non-French reader, Hugo pretty much assumes you already know everything about the Revolution, the Restoration, the reign of Napoleon and lots of more obscure tidbits of French history. He doesn't often explain, but only rhapsodizes on bygone days so that, if you aren't already steeped in French history, you often have to resort to an online encyclopedia to find out what it is he's actually talking about.<BR/>Speaking of not being a French reader, will someone please tell the idiot translators of these kinds of books that they need to translate everything into English. There are untranslated French and Latin phrases sprinkled throughout every chapter. I realize they may not have an exact equivalent in English, but I could at least get a sense of them if they were translated. Leaving them in French or Latin just leaves me with a bunch of words I have to translate myself.
18 out of 60 people found this review helpful.
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Posted July 8, 2011
The story of Les Mis is absolutely wonderful. I was drawn to reading the book after seeing the 25th Anniversary production of the musical at the O2 in London (also highly recommended). I like that in the unabridged version, you get more details about the story, but you also get extensive social commentary from Hugo on the world he sees around him. It adds another dimension to the book. That having been said, this particular file works great until you get to 700 out of the 1250 pages. From that point on it continually freezes everytime you try to turn a page. It also frequently kicks you to an entirely different page which may be numerous pages back from where you are currently reading or several chapters ahead.
16 out of 21 people found this review helpful.
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Posted May 9, 2011
The very ending of the book is missing. It starts freezing towards the end. Loved the story and so upset I couldn't finish it.
13 out of 17 people found this review helpful.
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Posted April 5, 2011
I have spent nearly two hours with customer service because my nook freezes up whenever I try to something unusual like highlight a portion, look up a word, or turn the page. Also got the Activity Reader Error. Final engineering report: we will refund your money. I will purchase another version, but still unabridged as the story is wonderful.
11 out of 12 people found this review helpful.
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Posted August 19, 2012
Don't buy this for the NOOK! It's the translation by Fahnestock (as
advertised). It's the Hapgood translation.
10 out of 12 people found this review helpful.
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Posted July 21, 2012
The misleading title "complete with all 5 volumes" had me thinking this was an unabridged version. It is NOT. Though I enjoy the translation, I wanted to read the WHOLE book.
9 out of 9 people found this review helpful.
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Posted March 17, 2011
This is truly a classic. But why pay even $0.99 when you can get it for free at Project Gutenberg????
8 out of 13 people found this review helpful.
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Posted August 16, 2008
As if anyone needed an excuse to read Les Miserables--one of the most fantastic pieces of literature of all time--we now have a wonderfully rendered translation by Julie Rose. Coupled with a wildly intelligent introduction by Adam Gopnik, this is the most complete and informative edition of Hugo's masterpiece to date. With ludicrously complete endnotes, one can read the novel and achieve near total comprehension of the era about which Hugo was writing. We understand through this winning translation and notes why Napoleon was good and evil, why he was such a polarizing figure, why the French Revolution was so important to European and world history. Understanding the world from which Hugo's charaters come helps us relate and identify with them even more. We understand why Enjolras is a zealot, why Javert is dedicated beyond reason to the law, why Fantine felt she had run out of options, to name a very few. Les Miserables, at its core, is a meditation on the human spirit in its idealized form: what Man can achieve through good deeds, dedication, and love of his fellow men. Read and be inspired.
6 out of 7 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.
4 out of 5 people found this review helpful.
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Posted July 31, 2012
Les Miserables is without a doubt the greatest novel ever written. With 1463 pages, the unabridged version published by Signet Classics is the translation you simply must read. Based off of the classic C.E. Wilbur translation, the voice of Victor Hugo is clear and consistent throughout the novel, and yet the adaptation of the language by MacAfee and Fahnestock makes the story easy to understand and appreciate. While some translations and abridged versions seem to steal away the personalities of the characters and the author, this complete translation makes you feel like you personally know Jean Valjean, Javert, Enjolras, and Victor Hugo.
Les Miserables isn't like a lot of the classical books that you are forced to read in school, with tragically simple and unsurprising plot lines and blan characters. No, in Les Miserables, there is a surprise in every chapter, and the characters are original and refreshing. (Take Cosette for example: she is not just some boring, preppy 1800's girl. She laughs and jokes with Jean Valjean, and has a bit of a snooty side, very modern and exciting.)
Victor Hugo included in the novel several poems, songs, and philosophical discussions, which are enlightening and inspiring. In a scene near the beginning of the novel, Bishop Myriel of Digne has a debate with a member of the National Convention, who tells the Bishop why the French Revolution happened, why it had to happen, and why it was a good thing. In no other book is the fight against tyranny expressed as well, save perhaps the works of Thomas Paine.
And if poetry and philosophy and redemption aren't your thing, there are still the Friends of the ABC. Lead by the brave, Bad-A, Enjolras, this group of quirky students, workers, and misfits take to the streets of Paris in June of 1832, and build a barricade to fight off and over-through the rule of Louis-Philippe. Bravery, action, and explosions fill the later parts of the novel. And yes, even the most manly of men will cry, as our heroes sacrifice their lives for the cause of freedom.
With its amazing characters, intense plot, and moving words, Les Miserables, written in French by Victor Hugo, and translated into English by C.E. Wilbur, Norman MacAfee, and Lee Fahnestock, is what a novel is supposed to be. You will be spellbound. Though a daunting read, you will not be able to put down what is the greatest novel ever written.
3 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
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Posted December 25, 2012
Les Miserables is among the greatest book ever written. However, this ebook edition has too many faults to be forgiven. There are several pages that are presented in French with no translation. The last 20 or so pages of the book are missing. The ebook itself bogs down about midway through. Pages become VERY slow to turn. Barnes and Noble should stop selling this edition. The book deserves a five star rating but there are too many problems with this ebook edition.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted March 1, 2012
In this epic tale, Hugo has an endless array of characters that are willing to do whatever they have to including sacrificing themselves, to ensure that those they love are happy. The amazing characters are made even more realistic in that Hugo shows that each one of them is human, each one has their own faults, this only makes the novel more inspiring, as it illustrates to us that everyday people, just like us, have the strength to self sacrifice for the greater good. It is a beautiful novel that inspires us to live not for ourselves, but for others.
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted March 3, 2013
This is the unabridged
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted January 27, 2013
I WENT TO SEE THE THE MOVIE IT WAS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO SAD BUT SOOOOOOOOOOO GOOD!!!!z
1 out of 5 people found this review helpful.
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Posted January 23, 2013
The movie is good, the play is good, the movie based on the play is good, but none of them can hold a candle to the book. It is brilliant and life altering. It is one of my favorite books ever. I have read it many times.
1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted January 5, 2013
I have read many books before but this one just touched my heart in a diffrent way. It made me think diffrently and Victor Hugo did a very good job! It will make you see a diffrent way of life. I hav only read the free sample but it was just as fasinating.
P.S- invest in a box of tissues!
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted December 30, 2012
I just went to see the movie!Soooooooooooooooooooooooo sad almost everybody died.i cried the whole movie.now i just need to read the book!
1 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
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Posted December 30, 2012
Although this isnt the right one, i still love the story. I saw a nonmusical version of the movie and it was good so i cant wait to see the new one soon. My dad espesially... you shouldve seen his face when he found out its been released X-mas day. XD
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Overview
Spark Publishing’s Literature Guides are celebrating their 5th Anniversary! To celebrate this, we’re giving our TOP 50 a revamp by adding some exciting new features.
There will be sixteen pages devoted to writing a literary essay ...