Les Miserables (Modern Library) (Hardcover)

by Victor Hugo (Author), Charles E. Wilbur (Translator)

Editorial Reviews

Review
“Rich and gorgeous. This is the [translation] to read… and if you are flying, just carry it under your arm as you board, or better still, rebook your holiday and go by train, slowly, page by page.”
—Jeanette Winterson, The Times (London)

“[A] magnificent story… marvelously captured in this new unabridged translation by Julie Rose.”
—The Denver Post

“A new translation by Julie Rose of Hugo’s behemoth classic that is as racy and current and utterly arresting as it should be.”
—Buffalo News (editor’s choice)

“Vibrant and readable, idiomatic and well suited to a long narrative, [Julie Rose’s new translation of Les Miserables] is closer to the captivating tone Hugo would have struck for his own contemporaries.”
—Diane Johnson

“A lively, dramatic, and wonderfully readable translation of one of the greatest 19th-century novels.”
—Alison Lurie

“Some of us may have read Les Miserables back in the day, but… between Gopnik and Rose, you’ll get two introductions that will offer you all the pleasures of your college instruction with none of the pain.”
—The Agony Column (trashotron.com)


From the Hardcover edition. --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Review
“Rich and gorgeous. This is the [translation] to read… and if you are flying, just carry it under your arm as you board, or better still, rebook your holiday and go by train, slowly, page by page.”
—Jeanette Winterson, The Times (London)

“[A] magnificent story… marvelously captured in this new unabridged translation by Julie Rose.”
—The Denver Post

“A new translation by Julie Rose of Hugo’s behemoth classic that is as racy and current and utterly arresting as it should be.”
—Buffalo News (editor’s choice)

“Vibrant and readable, idiomatic and well suited to a long narrative, [Julie Rose’s new translation of Les Miserables] is closer to the captivating tone Hugo would have struck for his own contemporaries.”
—Diane Johnson

“A lively, dramatic, and wonderfully readable translation of one of the greatest 19th-century novels.”
—Alison Lurie

“Some of us may have read Les Miserables back in the day, but… between Gopnik and Rose, you’ll get two introductions that will offer you all the pleasures of your college instruction with none of the pain.”
—The Agony Column (trashotron.com)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 1280 pages
• Publisher: Modern Library (September 5, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679600124
• ISBN-13: 978-0679600121
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #145,486 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars There Aren't Enough Stars for Books Like This., June 4, 2001

By	Ryan - See all my reviews

A few words of advice about Les Miserables...

Buy an old copy (am I allowed to say that!). I found mine in an antique bookstore. It's an old beat-up hardcover. It just makes the whole experience more...historic!

Dare to read the unabridged edition. If Hugo could have told this story in fewer words he would have. Don't cheat yourself out of the real thing. Charles Wilbour's translation is an excellent one.

Take your time with it. When you get frustrated by lengthy explanations and background information, put it down and come back to it. But don't give up!

Les Miserables is one of the greatest stories every written. Hugo brings to life such weighty concepts as Grace, Forgiveness, Repentance, and Redemption and Salvation. The spiritual imagery is very rich. The interaction between Jean Valjean and the Bishop is absolutely life changing.

"Jean Valjean my brother: you belong no longer to evil, but to good. It is your soul that I am buying for you. I withdraw it from dark thoughts and from the spirit of perdition, and I give it to God!"

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars We should be better for reading it..., June 28, 2006

By	Howard G Brown "brownswan" (Port St. Lucie, FL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

... but this was the most popular book, read by soldiers, North and South, during our Civil War. We should be better for hearing democracy in Beethoven, piety in Bach, compassion in Mozart -- and perhaps we do, one person at a time, but I fear we are always running out of time.

I read this book thirty years ago, over two winters, setting it down midway in March 1977 I believe. I had heard a near-complete reading on NPR, spread over at least a month of Saturday afternoons. I always made sure I was home for that; I was a single parent, then, father of a seven year old boy. To use a cheap term of the day, I could 'relate' to Jean Valjean, and I was thrilled by the music that opened each episode: the March to the Scaffold from Berlioz' "Symphony Fantastique." After the final episode, I went out and bought the Modern Library Giant, and began to read.

The radio production was not complete! While I found the details surrounding the Battle of Waterloo truly informative -- the description of the battlefield as a captial A was a vivid model of simplicity -- the long section on the history of the nuns' order where Valjean and his young ward take refuge, and where she is educated, invited a lot of skimming.

Skim where you will, but try to read the complete book. At some later time you can return to those pages you skimmed, and discover what you missed.

Les Miserable, The Brothers Karamazov, War and Peace, Moby-Dick, Joseph and His Brothers, Remembrance Of Things Past (okay, In Search Of Lost Time), Ulysses -- all of these demand much of us, particularly our time. That is a good thing, considering the many ways modern life invites us to waste time, and I could not begin to choose the best among these. Fortunately I don't have to; I might run to "As I Lay Dying" or "Lord Jim" instead.

Meanwhile, I'm glad I devoted a chunk of my life to this book. I do know I emerged a better man for that, and how sad I was when I read the final page, and closed the book.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a colossus of literature, December 3, 2001

By	"tenor_in_training" (Denver, CO USA) - See all my reviews

Hugo's books are not an easy read in a sense that they are very much emotionally involving. About 15 years ago I was pulled in by "The Man Who Laughs." The kind of emotional punch it packed was astounding. During the same year I first read "Les Miserables" - and for me Jean became a hero to look up to. But it's not only a book about one remarkable individual - it is also a book about the world we live in, just a moment's pass on eternal clock.
Hugo places the reader in the midst of dark valleys of 19th century Paris or it countryside and one can't help following Jean and Cosette with Javert hot on their heels. One reason we feel so much "inside" the story is that each character, even the non-sequential ones, are incredibly well-drawn, their faces (or mugs) are as clear as etchings. But it's not only that, otherwise it would be easily dismissed as so many works by so-called "scholars". The narrative is infused with white-hot passion. Yes, Hugo is taking a preacher-like stance on many issues, but without that the story would be simply entertaining but not involving and provocative which it remains to the present day. (After all, the villains have just changed their masks. Instead of unwashed rags they may now wear Italian business suits.)
This book cries out to its readers to take action, to ask themselves if their lives have meaning, to stop the pursuit of worldly possessions and concentrate on the pursuit of the moral ones. It is also about the second chances, about real and fake love, and about misplaced guilt and internal conflict.
I really hope the teachers don't make this book a "requirement" or that the students read abridged versions of it.