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Title: Les Miserables a New Unabridged Translation (Signet Classics) by Victor Hugo, Lee Fahnestock, Norman MacAfee ISBN: 0-451-52526-4 Publisher: New American Library Pub. Date: March, 1987 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.72 (348 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Not the translation I read... but shouldn't matter
Comment: There are classics. Then there are CLASSICS. Then... well, then there's Les Mis.
Yes, it's 1200 pages long. Yes, it does get sidetracked giving painstakingly detailed information about things that barely relate to the story (if you don't know what a gamin is or the exact details of the battle of Waterloo... you will!). Yes, there are more characters than you can keep track of without taking notes.
But it's still possibly the greatest work of fiction ever written in any language or time period.
Victor Hugo takes the suffering of the masses and gives it a name and a face. He delves deep into troubled souls and brings them to light. All this is wrapped in a magnificent tale of redeption, justice, and mercy in the setting of France just as the dust of the revolution is settling. If it doesn't bring tears to your eyes, you have a heart of stone.
He takes his time developing characters, but they become so real, so human, that you would swear they're the guys next door. Seriously, there's a guy at my church who when I first met him, my first thought was "OMG... it's Enjolras!"
You may have seen movie versions, the play (which I'm dying to see), or read paraphrases. These simply don't do the whole work justice. It's impossible to fit such a convoluted story with its complex characters into a two-hour time frame.
For example, in the '98 film version, Marius was made the leader of the Friends of the ABC. He went to the barricade despite his love for Cosette because he believed in the revolution so strongly. However, that's really an oversimplification. He did have connections with the Friends of the ABC, but had no intention of going to the barricade (a sure death warrant). He loved Cosette too much for that. However, when a series of events made their marriage impossible and then the revolutionaries said they needed his help, he went with them out of sheer despair, basically committing suicide. There's a whole level of depth that you just can't experience any other way. (Even if someone were to make a 15-hour 'epic' film version, it couldn't capture the thoughts and emotions of the characters or all the backstory, so it still wouldn't be nearly as rich.)
Good versions capture the spirit of the story, but there is just no substitute for the real thing.
In short, if you haven't read it yet... do!
Rating: 5
Summary: Amazing Characters, Poetic Plot Make This the Best Book Ever
Comment: I'm a high school sophomore amd we had to read this book for school last semester. Honestly I wasn't encouraged by it's seemingly impossible thickness, nor by its slow start. Having never before seen any Les Mis movie or play or the musical (which is ALMOST as awesome as the book) I didn't know anything about the plot or the great characters and the whole experience was new to me. This is the only book I've ever read that has kept me up hours as night just to finish one beautiful part after another. My sister made fun of me that I would always talk to the book but when the believable characters act in ways that so thoroughly move your heart it's hard to resist sighing or commentary. Hugo is truly a master at combining every element of everything human to create characters from all walks of life and intertwine them into a poetically romantic plot that can only be described as beautiful. But don't skip the descriptions just to move from event to event. Hugo, I feel, has the unique ability to convey idea and thoughts and descriptions in a way that touches your heart and makes you think and yet at the same time doesn't bog you down with flowery adjectives. The language in his page-long paragraph descriptions flow so naturally you find yourself nodding and flipping pages and before you know it you're on to the next event in the plot. My friends laughed at me when we recently traveled to Paris and I wanted to buy the two-volume unabridged original Les Miserables- even though I don't know a word of French! It is a tragedy for any person with a poetic mind or a romantic heart to miss this book-truly a human classic.
Rating: 1
Summary: ugh, ever hear of overdoing something?
Comment: Don't read it, it's crap. It's 520 pages of mumbo-jumbo. If you can understand half of what is said I must say you belong at oxford teaching a literature class.
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Title: Hugo's Les Miserables (Cliffs Notes) by Amy L. Marsland, George Klin ISBN: 0822007355 Publisher: Cliffs Notes Pub. Date: 01 November, 1968 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo ISBN: 0812563123 Publisher: Tor Classics Pub. Date: 15 June, 1996 List Price(USD): $4.99 |
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Title: The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas ISBN: 0140367470 Publisher: Puffin Pub. Date: November, 1995 List Price(USD): $4.99 |
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Title:Les Miserables ASIN: 076781505X Publisher: Columbia/Tristar Studios Pub. Date: 01 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.95 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $16.36 |
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Title: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas ISBN: 0679601996 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 09 July, 1996 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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