Customer Reviews

Les Miserables : Tome 3

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When I was 13 or so, I began reading 'les misérables' in English translation. There were many, many words I did not know. Given that it was well over 1000 pages, I at first decided simply to guess what those words meant, but then decided to consult any unknown word in my dictionary. Some words stumped me more than once, but by the time I finished I was consulting a dictionary infrequently and my English vocabulary had expanded dramatically. Many years later I decided to read the original and find myself in remarkably the same situation: many, many words I do not know. Hopefully, my French vocabulary will be dramatically better when I finish this. The genius of Hugo is that he keeps you reading no matter what, and you will regret there are only 1200 pages. In this edition by Pocket, there is in fact more. Volume 3 has 150 pages in interesting analysis such as a chronology of events in the novel (this 1998 re-issue added a summary, but do not read that first). This and the other volumes are well printed with generally dark and handsome typeface (some variation in darkness but not much). It appears to be 12-point type. The books are paperback, glued not sewn, but high quality. The paper looks as if it will last quite sometime.

I was so happy to see that the French edition of LES MISERABLES was available on Amazon.com..The French are so much smarter than their English publishers: the French edition of this very long novel is divided into volumes rather than in one.It is more difficult to have to hold and read the entire book in ONE tome. It is much harder to handle that way and yet the French volumes don't take up any more space on the shelf than the English editions. I am happy with the separate books even though Volume Two of LES MISERABLES was listed as being in English and it is in French. I thank Amazon.com for making these volumes of the original French available this side of the Atlantic Lake...

Dr. Alan-Clarke Hudson

I love this story. I think it was worth the trouble to try to read these in French because there are subtle differences from the English that change the meaning. There were a lot of old-fashioned French words that I didn't know the meaning of. When I asked my French friends about them I learned a lot about French history.