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    Les Misérables
    Les Misérables
    Les Misérables
    Audiobook12 hours

    Les Misérables

    Written by Victor Hugo

    Narrated by David Case

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    This is an Abridged Edition

    Victor Hugo began writing Les Miserables twenty years before its eventual publication in 1862. Les Miserables is primarily a great humanitarian work that encourages compassion and hope in the face of adversity and injustice. It is also a historical novel of great scope, and provides a detailed vision of nineteenth-century French politics and society. Hugo hoped Les Miserables would encourage a more progressive and democratic future. Hugo wrote Les Miserables with a literary and political revolution in mind.

    Les Miserables emphasizes the three major predicaments of the nineteenth century. Each of the three major characters in the novel symbolizes one of these predicaments: Jean Valjean represents the degradation of man in the proletariat, Fantine represents the subjection of women through hunger, and Cosette represents the atrophy of the child by darkness.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateNov 17, 2008
    ISBN9781400179008
    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 Misérables

    4.5/5

    180 ratings146 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Did I really just read 1200 pages of a book only to give it 3 stars? Apparently so. My thoughts:- Unlike everyone else, I enjoyed the diversions. The story of Waterloo at the beginning of book 2 is one of the best bits. The sweep of history is this book's strength, but also its weakness. Everyone feels like a pawn in a overcooked plot, set against the backdrop of historical determinism. - The characterisation in this book is profoundly weak. Over 1200 pages, only Valjean comes close to appearing actually human, rather than a cartoon, and even then not wholly so. - Of the characters, perhaps only Fantine, Gavroche, Eponine, Javert, and a few others are actually interesting. The rest are either comically villainous (Thenadier et al) or dully virtuous (Valjean, Cosette, the bishop). Marius is a plot device, nothing else. - Hugo manages to hold many divergent threads together quite well. Perhaps a little too well, relying on sometimes quite desperate narrative acrobatics to bring Thenadier and Valjean together again. Some of the happy coincidences (e.g. Fauchelevent and the convent) are too forced and absurd.- I'm unsure if it's the translation, but there is some very clunky language employed in this book (I picked out the end of 3.III.ii as a particularly egregious example).- Worse than the language is Hugo's contrived narrative style, which I confess I frequently found grating. Example: in the last chapter, Thenadier visits Marius dressed in disguise. Hugo gives us this scene by first introducing us to "the Changer", the "ingenious Jew" who disguises criminals for a living - twenty pages from the end of the novel... Trying to add this kind of colour/detail doesn't give add up to depth - and it just serves to highlight how insufficient Hugo made his main protagonists. - The main thrust of the novel is enjoyable, and the significant deaths genuinely moving. The over-sentimentality didn't bother me at all, although the over-moralisation did. "No writer enters a girl's bedchamber"? Well that's why Hugo isn't Dostoevsky. - The musical retains a surprising fidelity to the book, that I wasn't expecting. I don't feel cheap in saying that the musical is worth most people's time, and subsequently reading the book is probably unnecessary.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 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...

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Well this is nothing but the French War and Peace, is what this is. And if it doesn't quite plumb the psychological depths of the human individual like Tolstoy's work does, it contains more, far more, of the real, common human life that we share. "Man is a depth still more profound than the people", says Jean Valjean, but that good old man is wrong, and this book is 1463 pages of passionate refutation.
    • 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.
    • 5/5
      This book is excellent, glorious and captivating. !! Highly recommended
    • 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.
    • 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
      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.
    • 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.
    • 5/5
      It exceeded my expectations. :))
    • 5/5
      Victor Hugo is one of my favorite authors. He wrote very politically-charged works.This one focuses on themes of revolution, poverty, classism, and injustice. But the story is not just about the French Revolution. Hugo builds some very lovable and very hateable characters. Jean Val Jean has a rare dignity and integrity that perseveres through all his many misfortunes. The protagonists are also well-illustrated. Javert struggles when his firm belief in order contrasts with realities, and the resulting cognitive dissonance is not often so well portrayed.Les Mis is so full of weaving plot twists and coincidences that made me gasp in surprise. I really got attached to the characters, and had a hard time when bad things happened to them.This version of the book is abridged, and I'm glad of that. I think they did a good job of keeping the plot lines in tact, while removing Hugo's out-dated ramblings about .. architecture, or whatever. (He does make fine points in his ramblings, but could do so in 2 paragraphs!)While the movies and musical are also very good, they do cut out much of the plot, so the book is worth reading.
    • 5/5
      I'm finished. I actually finished.
      Oh my lord this book is amazing and I am so grateful I decided to read it even though I nearly threw up when I saw the pages.
      It was wonderful. Such a mix of emotions. I wish all my friends could read it just so they could understand how I'm feeling right now. I cried but I was happy. The ending was beautiful, especially that passage written on the tomb.
      I think I may have highlighted this book to death but that's okay.
      Hugo is a genius. This is a literary masterpiece. I fell in love with every word.
      It may have been a big book to read but finishing it just feels amazing. It probably isn't a book I'm going to reread often but sometime in my life I want to read this again.
      I am in love and to finish this book and to not be reading it anymore is almost sad.
      I can't say enough for les Miserables just that if you can read it, READ IT.
    • 5/5
      It literally took me three years to finish this book--I would get distracted by some other smaller, more manageable book, and then completely forget who was doing what, or even who they all were, and have to start over. When I was finally able to work through it in a single reading (of a couple of months), I felt rewarded for my effort.
    • 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 one of my all time favorite books. I read it at least once a year and it breaks my heart every time. It's beautiful and tragic and wonderfully written.
    • 5/5
      Probably my favorite novel of all time.
    • 4/5
      Victor Hugo's classic Les Misérables is a good story bogged down by many digressions. It's probably what anyone should expect from the era. Authors of the time did frequently step away from the narrative and give their opinions about this matter or that, then tell you about the historical context (Hugo departed from his opinions occasionally to tell the story). More than once, Hugo wrote, “The following is an authentic incident which, although it has no bearing on our story...” “Although it has no bearing on our story”--this is a problem. Half the book could be eliminated and you'd still have the same story. Fortunately, the tale that is the backbone of Les Misérables is memorable enough than the reader still recalls the story by the time Hugo finishes his thirty or forty page rant.So I will say flat out that Hugo was not a great novelist as we think of it today. Not only did he try to lure the reader into a book of philosophy, political theory, and whatever other train of thought Hugo wanted to follow, but he tried (unsuccessfully, I believe) to trick the reader with moments of suspense. He played this game where he tried to suspend the revelation for several chapters. Maybe it's effective the first couple times, but it becomes clear too early that it is a gimmick. This man, the man you've been reading about for the past thirty pages, is really...All that thrown to the streets and left to beg, Hugo was a wonderful storyteller. The tales of Valjean, Fantine, Cosette, Marius, et al are epic. They may only be loosely connected to one another, but their bulk is comprised of one theme. Parallels can certainly be made to the Bible when viewed as a work of literature. Both are filled with tragedy, history, love, and enough digressions to reinterpret and make a religion out of. But the stories that many people remember from the Bible—Cain and Abel, Joseph and his brothers, Moses and the exodus, the birth of Jesus, the prodigal son, Paul on the road to Damascus, et cetera—these stories carry much of the same love, jealousy, anger, and hope that the stories in Les Misérables impart on the reader. And when you take a step back, look at the story in its full context, try not to let your annoyances or biases get in the way, you'll find a story of redemption. That is the Bible. And that is Les Misérables.
    • 5/5
      A work of pure genius. I recommend it to only the most passionate readers. It is not for the faint of heart. It took me nearly six months to power through the 1400+ pages, however the feeling I got upon actually finishing it was well worth it.
    • 4/5
      Amazing. I know a lot of people read the abridged version to skip all the digressions about convents and sewer lines when really all you want to know is how Jean Valjean escapes, but I think you lose some of the experience by doing that. Yes, its long. Yes, I began to lost patience with the digressions by the end, but I also felt I understood not just the characters but also the world they lived in.
    • 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.
    • 4/5
      Victor Hugo's editors wanted to remove copious amounts of text. I agree with them, but I won't recommend buying an abridged version, for what *I* think should go out is not necessarily what the translators took out. Read this book and skip the extraneous details; Hugo took scenic detours often throughout this work. That out of the way, this book was stunning, beautiful, and ultimately uplifting, a "take that!" on behalf of the human spirit. Jean Valjean's battle to let the angel on his shoulder get the better of the demon on the other shoulder (metaphorically; nothing so crass appears in the book) provides the pivots on which the story turns. This is a book meant to be re-read; I believe it will say something new with each reading, especially as the stages of your life change.
    • 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.
    • 5/5
      This is the biggest book I've ever read and one of the best. I like how it goes through Jean Valjean's entire life, from being a prisoner, to a good man, to his death. I like how everything worked together in the end, and how Marius realized Valjean wasn't bad after all. I also liked the digressions that Victor Hugo goes into. They were all very interesting.
    • 4/5
      Finally, I have defeated the behemoth. Les Misérables has been vanquished and will probably never again stray from my bookshelf. Which is a shame, because the story itself is really good, and Jean Valjean will go down in my personal literary history as one of my top ten characters. He's very well-written while also being almost completely admirable, which is somewhat rare. But Victor Hugo felt it necessary to give the complete history of every aspect of anything mentioned in his story. Something happens to one of the characters during the battle of Waterloo? Forty pages detailing the entire battle, but not in such a way that a person who doesn't already have a good grasp of Who's Who In The Napoleonic Wars can understand it. A character escapes through the Paris sewer system? Let's have a lengthy treatise on the history, advantages, and shortcomings thereof. Yes, OF THE SEWER SYSTEM. (not for reading while eating, that section). And then there were the discussions of all these little barricaded city uprisings in early 19th century Paris which I was supposed to already know about, but which I was basically just hearing about for the first time (thank you public school system), and let's not forget the pages of tribute to the city of Paris itself and all its beauties and uglinesses and street urchins, and all the pages devoted to discussions of royalists and how they felt about republicans and how everyone felt about Buonapartists, and all the allusions to Voltaire and Rousseau... all of which succeeded in making me feel like a complete idiot because I had only the faintest of faint ideas what they were talking about. All this extra stuff seriously dampened my enjoyment of what was otherwise a really, really superb book.I am reminded of a discussion on an author's weblog about how much the author should tell, and how much s/he should assume her readers will be able to figure out (the author in question had been accused of being overly subtle, since she runs little subtexts through her stories which are so well-hidden that almost nobody finds them). Hugo seemed to miss the boat completely on both sides of this issue. He assumed knowledge on his readers' part about the intricacies of French (and even more specifically, Parisian) government and customs in the early nineteenth century, while simultaneously feeling the need to go into far too much detail about nearly inconsequential side issues. If he'd made five or six books out of this one -- one ripping good yarn and several academic treatises on various subjects in which he was obviously quite interested and well-versed -- he'd have saved at least this reader a lot of frustration. For once there's a book for which a condensed treatment on film would be a blessing. I can't wait to see the movie of this one.
    • 5/5
      Great book, but man it was long.
    • 3/5
      Formidabel epos, maar zeer heterogeen samengesteld met soms wervelende of aandoenlijke stukken, soms saaie beschouwingen. Vooral de figuur van Jean Valjean overheerst het geheel, imponerend, maar overdreven donker-dreigend. Typisch stijlprocédé: beschrijving van een actie of karakter, daarna opengetrokken naar algemene beschouwing over kleine of grote zaken. Zeer zwakke vrouwenfiguren. Marius is de enige figuur die echt een evolutie doormaakt en menselijke trekken vertoont.
    • 5/5
      Awasome book! This is one of the few books that actually made me cry.
    • 3/5
      This was a good story, but I made the mistake of reading the unabridged version, which contans endless tedious textbooky sections on French history, occupying easily as much space as the plot. There were good sections which may well have been cut from the abridged version, such as the 'sewage' chapter - an amusing eye-opener, and a chilling account of death by sinking sand. Otherwise it was a bit of a drag.I did shed a tear at the end, but there was relief, too, at having reached the end of this doorstopper.
    • 5/5
      This book is a masterpiece.It is an incredible story of temptations, redemptions, evil, love; it describes how miserablelife in that era of France was for the common people. A story about real life, with fictional characters creating real people, and the social perspective is as true today as it was in the past.
    • 5/5
      Where do I begin? Maybe I should start with this: I love epic novels. There are not many therapies quite as effective as books with the ability to transport you out of your problems and into fictional ones. This book came at just the right time; half of it was read during a tumultous two week period in which my family moved slightly abruptly; the second half was devoured last month, while I recovered from some unexpected goodbye's. I started Les Miserables with high expectations, and was not disappointed. Victor Hugo is champion of the touching moment. He will spend chapter after chapter setting up every tiny detail for the perfect moment. I found myself having to stop multiple times, I could read no more because I was crying too hard. Please do not be intimidated by this. The title is "The Miserable," and Hugo isn't afraid to bring you down to the level of the lowest to show you what must be the depths of despair. But woven into these troubles and woes are themes of hope and redemption. Thus, the tears and sorrow I felt were of the most satisfying variety. It was those sweet little moments that make this novel so great. Victor Hugo is not afraid of spending adequate time to set things up for a devestating paragraph or shocking sentence. Victor Hugo is certainly not concerned about wasting your time. For example - he spends over four chapters describing the history of the sewer systems of Paris. Was it really necessary? Maybe some of us enjoy having this random bit of history to share with our naughty nerd friends. I wasn't quite so enthusiastic. I attempted to immerse myself in the quality of his writing, and forgive the putrid subject matter. We must allow these great novel writers some lee-way in this area. They spend so much time and thought masking their genius behind characters and intricate story plots. The greatest epic novels tend to have the longest diversions; if we take advantage of the treasure they have handed us, we must also submit ourselves to the occasional ramble. And when you realize exactly how smart this man is, you shan't mind submitting yourself to a (maybe) unnecessary diatribe. So we plow through the history of Parisian sewers and find ourselves in a climax worthy of the highest accolades. For those of you worried about the time and stamina it takes to make it through a 1000+ page novel, have no fear. The book is constantly progressing, becoming more and more beautiful with each succuesive chapter. Before I finish this perhaps conservative and certainly not over-exaggerated praise, I must mention the characters. To me, the characters are the most important element of any novel or work of prose. Hugo's characters were interesting. Although a few bordered cliche, they each had their fair share of peculiarities and were (to some extent) relatable. They certainly had not the four dimensional reality of Tolstoy, neither were they the caricatures of Dickens. Hugo found a lovely middle ground. Although his characters are life-like, they also seem to embody themes, ideas, and philosophies that play and interact within the story - creating a suprisingly interesting philosophical thought box. Kudos to the man- for creating a novel that will outlive every rebellion and continue to reach the multitude with a message of the existence of undying love.