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spectralcas's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
4.0
magratajostiernos's review against another edition
4.0
Un libro enorme en todos los aspectos :)
Quitando algunas partes Históricas demasiado densas (en esto me recordó a "Los Miserables") la narración me resultó en su mayor parte apasionante, y los personajes cada vez más fascinantes (me reconcilié y los comprendí en la segunda parte a todos).
Una obra muy reflexiva y pasional a la que hay que dedicarle su tiempo pero que te recompensa con creces el esfuerzo.
♥ #TeamAndrei #TeamNikolenska ...... #TeamBolkonsky
Quitando algunas partes Históricas demasiado densas (en esto me recordó a "Los Miserables") la narración me resultó en su mayor parte apasionante, y los personajes cada vez más fascinantes (me reconcilié y los comprendí en la segunda parte a todos).
Una obra muy reflexiva y pasional a la que hay que dedicarle su tiempo pero que te recompensa con creces el esfuerzo.
♥ #TeamAndrei #TeamNikolenska ...... #TeamBolkonsky
caroparr's review against another edition
3.0
Wildly sentimental and filled with coincidences, and without Dickens' humor. Nevertheless, some compelling moments (when the priest blandly swears he gave Valjean the silver, e.g.) and I'm glad I listened. The narrator is terrific - I didn't mind one bit that this was an abridged edition.
shari_billops's review against another edition
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (1982)
emmatarswell's review against another edition
4.0
A classic for obvious reasons. As someone who completed their undergraduate degree with a focus on French Revolutionary history, this was a great book to read (and I'm surprised that it took me this long to finally read it).
All that really needs to be said is: Great story, great character development, and some truly amazing ideas from Victor Hugo.
All that really needs to be said is: Great story, great character development, and some truly amazing ideas from Victor Hugo.
mherring's review against another edition
3.0
I don't think this was the best translation of Les Miserables. I listened to the audio version of this work and found it enchanting is parts and painful in others. Glad I did invest the time to get through it though.
crankylibrarian's review against another edition
5.0
Wow. And I thought the musical was a masterpiece.
Like all great literature, Les Miz manages to be both completely of its time and yet eternally relevant. Whether he's describing the tender, yet fraught relationship between parents and children, or the intricacies of a small town economy, Hugo makes the everyday seem transcendent. A sharply observant critique of political, sexual, religious and social hypocrisy (I found myself pondering Hughes' criteria for justifiable revolution during the BLM protests), it is also a profound meditation on what it means to be a truly moral person.
One of the problems with the musical is that redemption comes to Jean Valjean fairly easily: one dinner with the Archbishop and bang! he's a changed man. But that's not how it works in real life and it's not how it works in the novel either. It takes another crime before Valjean begins his moral awakening, a crime that will haunt him far longer than stealing that loaf of bread. Even when he does the right thing, it's painful and difficult: when he decides to reveal his crimes to exonerate another convict, it requires a lengthy, accident and weather plagued carriage journey, giving him ample excuses to give up. But he doesn't. And after rescuing Marius from the barricades, and hours of staggering through the sewers with his daughter's boyfriend on his back, he carefully lays the boy down, cleans his wounds, and "gazed at him in that half-light with an inexpressible hatred". Being good is HARD...and a constant struggle.
Hugo was an ardent advocate of penal reform, yet he was no sentimental naif. His description of the sordid ugliness of poverty, and its degrading effect on human relations is sobering, yet his true contempt is for the casual cruelty of the rich; the scene where a middle class business man and his "well fed" child throw bread to a swan, ("because we should always be kind to animals") as opposed to a pair of starving children is chilling. He was also able to see the humanity beneath the ugliness: Fantine, after shaving her head to provide for Cosette happily sings, "I have clothed my child with my hair", while street rat Eponine spontaneously waters an old man's garden, "distributing life all around her". Even swaggering little Gavroche proves a kind and compassionate guardian to lost children.
There is so much more to say, that has already been said about this extraordinary novel: the history, the critiques of royalism and revolution, the gentle mockery of student idealists, the fascinating characters we barely see in the play: good time guy Grantaire, redeemed by his love for Enjolras; crotchety M. Guillenormand and his prideful tug of war with his rebellious grandson Marius; and the shameless, fiendishly clever Thenardier, a born survivor, able to transform at will into whatever guise will evoke the most sympathy. I'll close with a line which sums up Hugo's attitude towards the blinkered people of his own generation, and of ours:
“They deplored the age they lived in, which saved them the bother of having to understand it”.
Like all great literature, Les Miz manages to be both completely of its time and yet eternally relevant. Whether he's describing the tender, yet fraught relationship between parents and children, or the intricacies of a small town economy, Hugo makes the everyday seem transcendent. A sharply observant critique of political, sexual, religious and social hypocrisy (I found myself pondering Hughes' criteria for justifiable revolution during the BLM protests), it is also a profound meditation on what it means to be a truly moral person.
One of the problems with the musical is that redemption comes to Jean Valjean fairly easily: one dinner with the Archbishop and bang! he's a changed man. But that's not how it works in real life and it's not how it works in the novel either. It takes another crime before Valjean begins his moral awakening, a crime that will haunt him far longer than stealing that loaf of bread. Even when he does the right thing, it's painful and difficult: when he decides to reveal his crimes to exonerate another convict, it requires a lengthy, accident and weather plagued carriage journey, giving him ample excuses to give up. But he doesn't. And after rescuing Marius from the barricades, and hours of staggering through the sewers with his daughter's boyfriend on his back, he carefully lays the boy down, cleans his wounds, and "gazed at him in that half-light with an inexpressible hatred". Being good is HARD...and a constant struggle.
Hugo was an ardent advocate of penal reform, yet he was no sentimental naif. His description of the sordid ugliness of poverty, and its degrading effect on human relations is sobering, yet his true contempt is for the casual cruelty of the rich; the scene where a middle class business man and his "well fed" child throw bread to a swan, ("because we should always be kind to animals") as opposed to a pair of starving children is chilling. He was also able to see the humanity beneath the ugliness: Fantine, after shaving her head to provide for Cosette happily sings, "I have clothed my child with my hair", while street rat Eponine spontaneously waters an old man's garden, "distributing life all around her". Even swaggering little Gavroche proves a kind and compassionate guardian to lost children.
There is so much more to say, that has already been said about this extraordinary novel: the history, the critiques of royalism and revolution, the gentle mockery of student idealists, the fascinating characters we barely see in the play: good time guy Grantaire, redeemed by his love for Enjolras; crotchety M. Guillenormand and his prideful tug of war with his rebellious grandson Marius; and the shameless, fiendishly clever Thenardier, a born survivor, able to transform at will into whatever guise will evoke the most sympathy. I'll close with a line which sums up Hugo's attitude towards the blinkered people of his own generation, and of ours:
“They deplored the age they lived in, which saved them the bother of having to understand it”.
sbnich's review against another edition
5.0
Les Miserables deserves every bit of praise it has received as the world's greatest book.
Hugo's writing is magnificent - floating between both wit and interwoven story arcs that have lasted nearly 200 years. To be certain, 1455 pages is daunting (and best enjoyed slowly), and not everyone wants a detailed description of the Battle of Waterloo (skip to the last few paragraphs of the section to understand a thread that continues to weave through the book) or the Parisian Sewers (ok to skip entirely), but Hugo's entire novel brings both the characters and 19th century Paris alive in such a way that few authors can master.
Highly recommend, even if one reads a good abridged version, and particularly if one enjoys the musical or movies
Hugo's writing is magnificent - floating between both wit and interwoven story arcs that have lasted nearly 200 years. To be certain, 1455 pages is daunting (and best enjoyed slowly), and not everyone wants a detailed description of the Battle of Waterloo (skip to the last few paragraphs of the section to understand a thread that continues to weave through the book) or the Parisian Sewers (ok to skip entirely), but Hugo's entire novel brings both the characters and 19th century Paris alive in such a way that few authors can master.
Highly recommend, even if one reads a good abridged version, and particularly if one enjoys the musical or movies
uncle_remus's review against another edition
4.0
3.5-4 stars, so kept rounded at 4.
Overall, a solid classic novel Although a bit preachy/religious (especially in the beginning), that is likely more a sign of the times, culture and place. Perhaps the lower page-count, and the fact that Les Miserables was made into a successful Broadway play enhances its popularity on the book charts, but I thought The Count of Monte Cristo a better book, albeit much longer.
Themes from The Count of Monte Cristo (1844)
Extensive imprisonment for minor or no crime
Escape from imprisonment via ships/galley
Association with the greasy underbelly of crime in major French cities
False names and aliases
Rags to riches
Anonymous gifting to charity or charitable cases
Deep devotion to the righteous / God / religion
Theme from Silas Marner (1861)
Redemption of the soul via a small female child
Overall, a solid classic novel Although a bit preachy/religious (especially in the beginning), that is likely more a sign of the times, culture and place. Perhaps the lower page-count, and the fact that Les Miserables was made into a successful Broadway play enhances its popularity on the book charts, but I thought The Count of Monte Cristo a better book, albeit much longer.
Themes from The Count of Monte Cristo (1844)
Extensive imprisonment for minor or no crime
Escape from imprisonment via ships/galley
Association with the greasy underbelly of crime in major French cities
False names and aliases
Rags to riches
Anonymous gifting to charity or charitable cases
Deep devotion to the righteous / God / religion
Theme from Silas Marner (1861)
Redemption of the soul via a small female child