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    Les Miserables
    Les Miserables
    Les Miserables
    Audiobook60 hours

    Les Miserables

    Written by Victor Hugo

    Narrated by George Guidall

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    One of the great classics of world literature and the inspiration for the most beloved stage musical of all time, Les MisErables is legendary author Victor Hugo's masterpiece. This extraordinary English version by renowned translator Julie Rose captures all the majesty and brilliance of Hugo's work. Here is the timeless story of the quintessential hunted man-Jean Valjean-and the injustices, violence, and social inequalities that torment him. "Rich and gorgeous. This is the [translation] to read."-Times (London)
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateJun 24, 2011
    ISBN9781461804116
    Author

    Victor Hugo

    Victor Hugo (1802-1885) is one of the most well-regarded French writers of the nineteenth century. He was a poet, novelist and dramatist, and he is best remembered in English as the author of Notre-Dame de Paris (The Hunchback of Notre-Dame) (1831) and Les Misérables (1862). Hugo was born in Besançon, and became a pivotal figure of the Romantic movement in France, involved in both literature and politics. He founded the literary magazine Conservateur Littéraire in 1819, aged just seventeen, and turned his hand to writing political verse and drama after the accession to the throne of Louis-Philippe in 1830. His literary output was curtailed following the death of his daughter in 1843, but he began a new novel as an outlet for his grief. Completed many years later, this novel became Hugo's most notable work, Les Misérables.

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    Reviews for Les Miserables

    4.5/5

    4,652 ratings145 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Long, but worth reading.
    • 5/5
      Beautiful! By far the best format and version of Les Miserables I have ever had the pleasure to consume. Totally worth the time investment. Perfect for commuting on back roads.
    • 4/5
      The language is gorgeous, if at times dark:"Fairy tales all: Goblins for children; God for men. No, our tomorrow is night. Beyond the grave, all are only equal nothings.” “This book is a drama whose first character is the Infinite. Man is the second.”“Being in possession of the false aim of life, happiness, how we forget the true aim, duty!” (Though the novel is immensely quotable, this line is probably my favorite.)
    • 5/5
      I head the people sing and it was glorious. It was a long read for me 1,300 pages translated by Christine Donougher but she made it simple for English speakers. I enjoyed the characters, the plot, and bits of French history especially the parts about Emperor Napoleon I and King Louis Philippe I. Interesting too that Victor Hugo wrote most of Les Misérables in exile on the islands of Guernsey and Jersey for publicly being an outspoken critic of Emperor Napoleon III.
    • 4/5
      Summary: A massive book by a French patriot about people, humanity society and philosophy.
      He uses an epic story of one mans redemption to illustrate and navigate a lot of these ideas.

      Things I liked:

      Characters:

      I loved the characters like Val Jean and Gav Roche. Fantine and Javert and many other besides.

      While they may have been a little unrealistic at times (extreme people in extreme circumstances certainly not like anyone I really know or have met); they ooze poetry (extreme ideas counter pointed within themselves or against each other). Just thinking about the contrast of Val Jean and Javert right now gives me goose bumps.

      I also really liked the way he would introduce a small-ish character into the story, use them and let them go again.

      Scope:


      Hugo will set up a character hundreds of pages earlier for a beautiful payoff later on (for example the Sister Simplice who never lies (not even to spare Fantine the pain not having her daughter,
      who then lies twice to Javert to protect Val Jean. Other characters like this include the horticulturist who dies waving the flag at the barricade and Thenadier who weaves his way through the entire story .

      Things I thought could be improved:

      Informational Sections:

      I'm a bit in two minds, but basically I think a lot of the 'non-fiction' sections could have potentially been moved to an appendix at the back. It seems you'd just be getting to a really good bit of the plot and then STOP !!! I'd be treated to 140 pages on Waterloo or the sewersof Paris (their historical antecedents etc). It's been pointed out to me and I agree that this information does add to the plot, but I still think a bit of editing could have tightened things up a bit.

      Name dropping:

      I get the impression Victor Hugo had read very widely and learnt about a lot of things and events because he must have mentioned just about everyone of them in this book. I got probably about 30% of them and found all the classical references a bit over the top sometimes.

      Highlight:

      For me the section when Javert confronts Val Jean by Fantine's bedside gave me goosebumps.


      Jean Valjean, armed with his bar of iron, walked slowly up to Fantine's couch. When he arrived there he turned and said to Javert, in a voice that was barely audible:-

      "I advise you not to disturb me at this moment."

      One thing is certain, and that is that Javert trembled.
    • 3/5
      The final three paragraphs may well be the best ending I've had the pleasure of reading.
    • 2/5
      AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!I can't take it any more. Every day a new sermon about religion or politics or some other topic that he absolutely beat to death. I don't care enough about the story to endure any more of that.
    • 5/5
      My pick for 2021 PopSugar Reading Challenge prompt #41: The longest book (by pages) on your TBR

      After one month, I finally finished it few minutes before midnight (last night)! If it's not for the reading challenge, I'd have postponed reading it indefinitely. For a classic, it's the typical book that I really dread to read. I'm not going to reread this unless I'm held at gun-point and it's life-threatening. It's dense and full of philosophical ramblings that swerve from the main direction of the plot. Thanks to the audiobooks and text-to-speech features, I managed to read it in a shorter time. If I used my eyes only , I'd have stared at one sentence in five minutes.

      The thing I love about it is how the narrator engaged the readers by reminding us of the previously mentioned instances that lead to the situation of that scene. Will definitely watch any--or all-- adaptations of Les Miserables, including "Cosette". It's an anime adaptation by World Masterpiece Theater.
    • 4/5
      After 1200 pages all's well that ends well. Great story.
    • 5/5
      A classic novel that deserves its place in the pantheon. Its plot is a little bit melodramatic for modern tastes — relying far too much on improbable coincidences — but the core of the conflict is as solid today as it was in the 1860s. The characters of Jean Valjean and Javert are dynamic and compelling (Marius and Cosette perhaps somewhat less so). Most of all, however, this is a brilliant wordsmith at the heights of his powers. Even in translation, Hugo is compulsively readable, with well-turned phrases on every page.

      Les Misérables' infamous tangents, multi-thousand-word digressions into the backstories of the battle of Waterloo or a fictional convent or the Paris sewers, often immediately following cliffhangers, were much less frustrating than I expected simply because of Hugo's writing. (The fact that I am interested in them as a historian of the period also helps somewhat.)

      Were Hugo a modern author, I feel like this novel would be 300 pages shorter, and then he'd publish a series of spin-off novelas and short stories — "Read this short story to learn how Thénardier saved Marius's father at the Battle of Waterloo! Buy this novela to learn the backstory of the saintly bishop who turned Jean Valjean's life around!" And I'm not sure if the book would have been better for it or not!

      It's no surprise that streamlined adaptations of the novel have proven so popular, nor that the book itself remains in print — even if a shockingly high number of people seem to believe it's set during the French Revolution.
    • 2/5
      Various French people are miserable.1.5/4 (Meh).Impossibly long and boring. I gave up after 150 pages (in a 1200+ page edition), still having gotten no clue to what the story might be, if any, or even who the main characters are. Reading this book is not how I want to spend my life.
    • 4/5
      Phew - this was a long one. I downloaded a French edition to an e-reader and read it on the T. Hugo loves to digress and I found myself zoning out on the long descriptions of Waterloo and such. The man did love his language though and there are some great passages and lots of interesting words that the weak French/English dictionary installed on the reader couldn't handle. Who knew there were so many French words for hovel? The best parts of course were the adventures of Jean Valjean, the badass ex-prisoner who knew how to escape and be a loving father to the orphan Cosette.
    • 5/5
      A masterpiece!

      Though not flawless Les Misérables earns its five-star rating through and through. The characters are unforgettable, the plot easily digestible and the romanticism palatable. Still relevant, though a little dated, Les Misérables stands tall.

      Hats off.
    • 5/5
      The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but he who causes the darkness.

      It will always be Belmondo when I think of Jean Valjean in that wonky adaptation I saw at the Vogue back in the 90s. The film affected me deeply, thinking about the Occupation and questions of race and justice; the Willa Cather quote which surfaces a number of times. Beyond all that, the smoldering desire to read the novel was forged and eventually realized. I read Les Miserables here and there, with airports occupying a great deal of the effort. One drunken night in New Orleans the following year I spied someone in a pub reading the novel with obvious pleasure. I wished the man well and tripped out into the balmy night.
    • 4/5
      I've never been married, but reading Les Miserables is what I imagine marriage would be like. I started out so excited to get into the the book, knowing that it was going to be a doozy, but knowing that it was a classic and that I liked the overall story and characters. Then around page 500, Hugo starts going on and on about nunneries and I think, "I did not sign up for this!"

      This indignant thought leads to temptation; after all, why bother time with this long-winded book when there are so many other, shorter, newer books out there? Everywhere I turn, a temptation. Every time, though, I always refrain and turn back to good ol' Les Miserables, because every time I pick it up again and become engrossed with the intricate thought processes and descriptions, I would remember why I was reading it in the first place.

      Sure, there are (as in marriage), times when I wanted to rip my hair out, and other times when things got so syrupy that I wanted to puke, but as a whole, looking back over all those pages, all that time I spent with this book...it really is stunning. Just know that if you're picking up this book with the intention of finishing it, you're entering a pretty hefty commitment. For richer or poorer, better or worse...
    • 5/5
      Les Misérables was one of the first full-length (very full length!) books I managed to read in French. I can still remember the Friday afternoon, all those years ago, when I began to read it. I didn't look up from its pages until the following Sunday evening. A truly magnificent book.
    • 4/5
      Beautifully written, long-winded but informative. I read the Denny translation and listened to the Hopwood translation read by Homewood. Jean Valjean forever!
    • 4/5
      Although there were several times I was tempted to throw this book across the room in frustration, particularly in the interminable scene of Marius watching through the hole in the wall and "agonizing" what he should do, this was a satisfying read. I did find the repeated intersections of the characters far-fetched in a city the size of Paris (e.g. Valjean and Marius' encounter with Thenadier at the Seine with Javert lying in wait) but Hugo wouldn't have a story with these encounters. And until the very end I was uncertain whether this was a story of redemption or a tragedy. At 800+ pages in the abridged edition, you have to be invested in the story and characters to get past Hugo's ambling detours but it's well worth the effort.
    • 5/5
      I read the abridged version when I was in 9th grade and I absolutely fell into the story - I loved it! I want to revisit this one again soon, but go for the unabridged version (which will be a bit of a challenge but I'm up for it). I have yet to see the adaptation and would like to read it before I do watch it.
    • 4/5
      Wow, I knew going in that this was a beast of a book. I knew the basic plot from the movies and the musical, but I was not prepared in the least for the political and social commentary about the dregs of French society.

      The story of Jean Valjean, Fantine, and Cosette, is the heart of the book. If this is the story you are looking for, I'd recommend finding a good abridged version. If you want to know about the innumerable details of Waterloo (skewed toward the French viewpoint, of course), French monasteries and convents, the treatment of galley slaves, the lives of the thousands of homeless children in and around Paris... I could go on, but you get the point. This book is more of a treatise on the downtrodden and how the more-fortunate need to turn their attention and wealth to helping them.

      I do love this story, which is a perfect analogy of redemption and salvation. Jean Valjean, the galley slave turned mayor turned fugitive. Cosette, the young girl saved out the pit of despair and pain. It's a wonderful story, if you can get through many, many tangents that push and pull the characters.
    • 5/5
      Amazing. A passionate tale, full of nostalgia for days gone by. A tale of redemption, of a convict with a conscience, of the great arc of life told through fully-fleshed out characters. As much social commentary as it is a fictional piece, in Les Miserables the genius of Victor Hugo is on full display.
    • 5/5
      Great book, but man it was long.
    • 3/5
      This got so much better towards the end. 3.5 stars is a better fit.
    • 3/5
      I know I read at least parts of this book many years ago and I was familiar with the story and the characters. However, I thought it would be a great book to listen to and I was able to download a copy of the audiobook from my library. The story is compelling but the narrator, David Case, practically spoiled it for me. I kept losing the thread because his voice was annoying and monotonous. He also had a very odd way of pronouncing the French names that made them almost unintelligible.Jean Valjean was convicted of theft of a loaf of bread which he stole to feed his sister's children. He spent many years in the galleys and when he was finally released he was treated as a pariah. One man, a bishop, was kind to him and gave him food and shelter for a night but Jean Valjean took the bishop's silver and fled in the night. When he was apprehended by the police he told them the bishop had given him the silver and the bishop confirmed the story. He also gave Jean the silver candlesticks. By this man's example Jean determined that he should turn over a new leaf and help others. He successfully started a business that made him a lot of money but also provided jobs with good wages which improved the region's economy. He was even appointed the mayor but one detective. Javert, realized who he was and had him arrested just as he was trying to help one of his employees dying of TB get reunited with her daughter. Although Valjean was again relegated to the galleys he managed to escape after a few years in a way that made it seem he was dead. He found his employee's daughter, Cosette, and adopts her, moving to Paris and changing his name again. When Cosette is grown a young man, Marius, sees her in the Gardens of Luxembourg and falls in love. Javert has again found Valjean and Valjean has determined that he and Cosette should leave for England. Marius and Cosette wanted to marry so Cosette writes a letter to Marius to tell him of this plan. Marius gets caught up in the students' revolution and Valjean saves him from certain death by spiriting him away through the sewers of Paris. When Marius recovers he marries Cosette but he is appalled when Valjean discloses his past. He banishes Valjean from their house but when he realizes that Valjean is the man who rescued him he and Cosette go to Valjean and are reconciled before Valjean dies.It's quite a convoluted plot and relies extensively on coincidence and synchronicitiy. Nevertheless Valjean comes across as a heroic figure and the reader can't help but feel sorry for him.
    • 4/5
      I read this book during my sophomore year of high school. I think that its when we had the KBAR (kick back and read) period. This allowed me to read the novel bit by bit at a leisurely pace.

      What I remember most is how Hugo chose to write this work. Some areas of the novel followed a pattern of one chapter of details and "setting the scene" followed by one chapter of story action.

      I enjoyed reading it, although this book requires patience. You might not finish if you aren't a patient person or create a schedule to help see you though.
    • 5/5
      This is a slow read, but well worth the effort. Hugo chronicles the time and place in detail, with many digressions that may seem unneccessary to the modern reader, but I think are essential to the texture of the work. The novel's main story deals with the convict Jean Valjean, and his search for redemption against the backdrop of 19th century poverty and a vindictive penal system. Lots of food for ethical thought.
    • 4/5
      I won't even lie, this book took me 3-4 months to read? I did put it down a lot, but I always picked it up again.

      Having said that, this book is probably one of the most rewarding books I've ever read. This book left one of the greatest impressions on me. I don't usually have 'favourite' books - I can't pick one book to end all books, but when I think about the books that affected me most, this book comes out on top.

      I read the unabridged version of this book and I have to say it did take me quite a while to get used to Victor Hugo's writing style. He will build a world meticulously, talking of a village and its history, building it brick by brick. Nothing will happen, and as a reader, I would often drown in the details.

      Then, suddenly, a character enters the scene and so much happens in 20 pages that I can't even look up because the plot grips me so much. World-building aside, I adored a lot of Victor Hugo's characters.

      Jean Valjean, Javert and a couple of other characters all have very distinct character arcs and it's wonderful to watch them transform.

      This book has one of the strongest and most resonant voices I've ever read. It talks about class, about judging people prematurely, about compassion, about love, about how a person's past is always their future. These are all still very relevant ideas and so it's not as antiquated as you might think.

      Fair warning, though - this book will make you cry. I cried for the last 100 pages or so. (I suppose it is called 'The Miserable', which is sort of indicative and warning enough - but still.)

      This book does a really brilliant job of finishing the plot into a nice little dovetail, which I really appreciated. And afterwards I wondered how one man could write a book like that, and what an incredible feat it must've been.
    • 4/5
      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.)
    • 5/5
      This book is an undeniable masterpiece. The sheer scope of the novel is praise-worthy. Then you add on fascinating characters, the complicated plot, which weaves countless lives together, the detailed history of France and so much more and it blows you away. The basic plot (there's no way to briefly sum up the whole thing) follows a convict named Jean Valjean. He was imprisoned for stealing bread and now, years later, he tries to make a life for himself in 19th century France. The plot is complex and the characters are intricately connected in unexpected ways. I loved the Bishop at the very beginning of the story. His gentle heart and merciful choices make him unforgettable even though he is only in a brief section of the book. The police chief Javert is a villain of sorts. He is so focused on living by the letter of the law that he misses the point of true justice. Hugo writes dozens of pages of French history in between actions scenes. By the time I made it through his wandering sidetracked thought I'd sometimes forget where we'd left the major characters. I just wish that Hugo had had a better editor. It's not even that the history lessons weren't interesting, it's just that they hindered the flow of the book (at more than 1,400 pages, it doesn't need to be hindered). Apparently Hugo told his editor that he wasn't allowed to remove anything from the book. ANYTHING. Not a single line. Now this obviously shows Hugo's passion for his work and his desire to maintain the integrity of his original vision, but there are editors for a reason. Sometimes authors aren't the best judge of what might improve their book after its been completed. I loved the story. It's such an inspiring tale of redemption and sacrifice. There are so many beautiful lines in the novel that are a testament to Hugo's talent. "One can no more prevent the mind from returning to an idea than the sea from returning to a shore. In the case of the sailor, this is called a tide; in the case of the guilty, it is called remorse." Over all I really enjoyed it. I was able to sink completely into the time period because of the books length and details. I do believe that trimming a few of the historical parts would have sharpened the focus on the plot, but that's just my opinion. I'm so glad I read it. It is one of those books that provide such a rich experience. It's not one I'll read every year or something, but it's a story that will stay in my soul for decades to come.
    • 4/5
      An incredible writer who needed a better editor. I loved it anyway.