Customer Reviews

Les Miserables (Abridged Edition)

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FOR YEARS I HAVE WANTED TO READ THE ENTIRE LONG VERSION, BUT FELT I WOULD NEVER BE ABLE TO GET INTO IT. I SETTLED FOR THE ABBRIDGED VERSION AND ALTHOUGH I LIKED IT, I WAS DISAPPOINTED. I FELT THAT THERE WERE THINGS MISSING AND AT TIMES I WAS CONFUSED. THE VERSION I READ WAS ONLY 400 PAGES AND THEREFORE LEFT OUT A MAJORITY OF THE DETAIL. THE STORY REMAINS A CLASSIC.

This is one of the most amazing stories I have ever read. I loved the musical and wanted the rest of the story. I wanted the unabridged version, but got this one as a gift. GREAT story--and well worth the read--but this abridgement is too severe in my view. I felt like too many chunks of the story were missing and left unexplained.

I recently bought another abridged (but still 880 pages) version (actually the Barnes & Noble version) and that one is just about right. Whatever they cut, I didn't miss (and there were still a few segments I could have skipped over).

So if you want to experience the real Les Miserables and see what all of the fuss is about, I would skip this version and get a less severe abridgement or, if you dare, an unabridged version.

This is without a doubt the greatest story I have ever read! Victor Hugo does a masterful job blending his political views with the deep portrayal of each of the book's many characters. I was amazed at his ability to so perfectly capture his characters, from the 12 year old street urchin Gavroche to Marius's ninety year old grandfather M. Gillenormand. The book kept me completely absorbed for all 1000-some odd pages - I have never cried as hard and so much as while reading Les Miserables. For fans of the musical, reading the book also helps add background to the characters and social situation of the time. It is a long read, but I reccomend it highly for anyone who loves good literature

I've just discovered the musical and I wanted to read the book as well. To be honest, I knew that it would be unrealistic of me to try to plunge into a 1,400 page novel. In glancing through the introduction to the unabridged version, even scholars consider it digressive and longwinded. I opted to read the abridged version instead.

The result?

I feel I have an idea now of the story, yet I am not sure I have really read Les Miserables. What is lost in the story, what is considered extraneous, is a lot of the background and the character definitions. I would have liked to have spent more time with Gavroche. I'm still not sure how the July Revolt started or why or how Marius was involved. We skip most of Fantine and her suffering. A lot of the questions remain unanswered.

What we have left is the plot. That is enough for me to recommend this book. I would have never have read it otherwise. I think I have an idea now of Hugo as an author and Les Miserables as a novel.

Some day however, I'll read the whole thing.

I last read Les Miserables years ago in high school and remembered it as one of the best novels I'd ever read. Wanting to get reacquainted after seeing the musical in London, I went to the library and got the Unabridged edition. I quickly realized that it was much longer than the version I had read in high school; for example, there were 40 pages of (I thought) irrelevant backstory about the Bishop before it introduced the main character, Jean Valjean. Then I found this abridged edition and hoped it was closer to the version I had read before: gripping and coherent but not heavy with extraneous details, side-plots and backstories. Unfortunately, this version was very disappointing! Important plot points have been eliminated so that vital continuity is lost. Characters leap into the action without any prior introduction so you don't know where they came from or why they are important. Things happen for no apparent reason because the cause has been deleted from the effect. Motives are left unexplained as well as connections between characters. Unanswered questions linger about how things came to pass. Example: There is absolutely no description of Fantine's connection to "Madeleine" or why he agreed to adopt Cosette, undermining the basis for the rest of the entire novel. The scene where he rescues Cosette from the Thenardiers is completely missing. Javert keeps miraculously showing up without explanation of how he tracked his target to that exact location. I could go on and on. There must be another compromise abridgment between this version's 336 pages and the original's 1400+ pages. Don't waste your time or money on this one!

No one has a way with words quite like Victor Hugo. He has a completely unique way of setting up a situation and an exceptional knack for coming up with complex, yet enjoyable plots. Les Miserables, his most ambitious work, is arguably one of the greatest literary accomplishments ever and I truly loved it.

This, however, would be lost to any of the readers to this edition, b/c they are not truly reading Hugo's great work, they are reading a version that has been nipped and tucked to fit into the publishers' idea of a good book; that is, one short enough to keep today's average, short-attention-spanned readers from becoming bored. In reading this book, you are admitting to the publisher that you are too lazy and dumb to grasp real literature or appreciate beautiful use of language when you see it. If you want to read a great book, read the original, don't read this censored rubbish.

Les Miserables is truly a fantastic book set in the Napoleon era in France. Ex-convict, Jean Valjean, goes through poverty, wealth, love, sadness, and happiness. He tried to forget his past and change himself for a new life while encountering a little girl, Cosette, who becomes like a daughter to him. This book relives the French setting of a person's life, whether it was a rich man or a poor man. It tells the story of many people's lives and how they all relate to every other character in the book. Les Miserables entangled me into the scenes through the sewers of Paris and the Battle of Waterloo because it sounded so real I felt as if I were there, running and fighting alongside of the men. This book also made me stop and think about what just happened because the people and events were all very conflicting. They match up at one point of the story. Victor Hugo really kept me into the book, except when some of the paragraphs went into so much detail it was tempting to just skip over it. But most of the time it was so exciting it made me want to skip the next few paragraphs to see what would happen. Though it took me awhile to read it, I couldn't stop reading and wondering what would happen next.

Although the story is a little different than the real version because Jean Valjean is the main character throughout the novel and you don't really get to know the bishop as well, this abridged version is still awesome. It's not really that long and you'll finish this book quickly because the plot is so interesting. There is a lot of action as well as little romance that deals with realistic emotions that we all could relate to,

I bought this book because it was the selection of my book club - so glad I did! It was one of the best books I've ever read.
Shipping was prompt, and book was in excellent condition.

FOR YEARS I HAVE WANTED TO READ THE ENTIRE LONG VERSION, BUT FELT I WOULD NEVER BE ABLE TO GET INTO IT. I SETTLED FOR THE ABBRIDGED VERSION AND ALTHOUGH I LIKED IT, I WAS DISAPPOINTED. I FELT THAT THERE WERE THINGS MISSING AND AT TIMES I WAS CONFUSED. THE VERSION I READ WAS ONLY 400 PAGES AND THEREFORE LEFT OUT A MAJORITY OF THE DETAIL. THE STORY REMAINS A CLASSIC.