Item: Les Misérables
Rating: 4.00
Author: brokentune

by Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo's tale of injustice, heroism and love follows the fortunes of Jean Valjean, an escaped convict determined to put his criminal past behind him. But his attempts to become a respected member of the community are constantly put under threat: by his own conscience, when, owing to a case of mistaken identity, another man is arrested in his place; and by the relentless investigations of the dogged Inspector Javert. It is not simply for himself that Valjean must stay free, however, for he has sworn to protect the baby daughter of Fantine, driven to prostitution by poverty.

Norman Denny's lively English translation is accompanied by an introduction discussing Hugo's political and artistic aims in writing Les Misérables.

Victor Hugo (1802-85) wrote volumes of criticism, dramas, satirical verse and political journalism but is best remembered for his novels, especially Notre-Dame de Paris (also known as The Hunchback of Notre-Dame) and Les Misérables, which was adapted into one of the most successful musicals of all time.

'All human life is here'
Cameron Mackintosh, producer of the musical Les Misérables

'One of the half-dozen greatest novels of the world'
Upton Sinclair

'A great writer - inventive, witty, sly, innovatory'
A. S. Byatt, author of Possession

I had to re-read Les Miserables. I fell in love with the story on the first read, but not the language. Having seen a few adaptations on stage and screen in the few years since my first read of the book, it has not lost any of its original appeal but I noticed that in all the adaptations I was drawn to Javert almost more than to Valjean. So, it was time to rediscover the original characters from the book... I still don't find the language used adequately telling the story - but maybe that's a translation issue. (And yeah, Javert is still the character that intrigues me most.)

Les Misérables

by Victor Hugo

Reviewed by brokentune on Jul 2, 2012

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