Les Miserables (Signet Classics) | 
| Author: Victor Hugo
Creators: Lee Fahnestock, Norman Macafee
Publisher: Signet Classics
Category: Book
List Price: $7.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  257 reviews
Sales Rank: 5461
Format: Unabridged
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 1488
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 6.9 x 4.3 x 2.7
ISBN: 0451525264
Dewey Decimal Number: 843.7
UPC: 705703008376
EAN: 9780451525260
ASIN: 0451525264
Publication Date: March 3, 1987
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Product Description
In this story of the trials of the peasant Jean Valjean--a man unjustly imprisoned, baffled by destiny, and hounded by his nemesis, the magnificently realized, ambiguously malevolent police detective Javert--Hugo achieves the sort of rare imaginative resonance that allows a work of art to transcend its genre.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 252 more reviews...
 Overrated but good October 10, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo, is the type of work that is almost beyond the measure of excellence or not. Hugo so indulgent, so excessive, that the book becomes almost otherworldly, an edifice out in an ether of its own, subject to its own literary rules. It is simple in narrative construction, but byzantinely complex in the curlicues of detail. It is such a diverse work that it is almost a cosmos unto itself, apart from the time and reality of mortal men and writers. If there was ever an over-the-top work of prose that was the equivalent of a Walt Whitman song it is this work. Then, again, I have used the qualifier almost, because while the novel has quite a number of excellent moments, it has just as many, or more, bad moments- and I mean horrifically bad examples of writing; writing so bad that to believe it could belong to a `classic' or a `masterpiece' of the Western Canon boggles the mind....Les Miserables is one of the most unique works of art in human literature, but that does not necessitate its greatness. Crime And Punishment, published just four years later, in 1866, while still suffering from some of the naive-te and caricaturization that Hugo's novel suffers from, clearly represents a significant step forward toward modern thought, as it is a much psychologically richer book that limns its coeval Russian counterparts to a greater internal degree than Hugo was capable of. It is shorn of the Capital R Romance that bogs down much of Les Miserables. Its action is mostly interior, spread over a relatively short period, while Les Miserables' action is spread over decades and often leaves its characters abruptly hanging, to take a more deific view of the human panorama. Crime And Punishment's view is microscopic, while Les Miserables' is macroscopic, to the point of losing its way far too often in the grand, as its main characters flounder. That's why Hugo's novel is three times the length of Dostoevsky's, and would fall apart if not propped up by the action-driven narrative. Crime and Punishment's narrative, by contrast, is driven not by action, but reaction.
It is interesting to note that not many published literary critics- Helen Vendler, Lionel Trilling, Harold Bloom, nor Edmund Wilson- write of Les Miserables in the awed way they approach other works of that age- be it Crime And Punihment, Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, Melville's Moby-Dick, or Twain's Huckleberry Finn. It's as if it's tacitly accepted, as a way station between the pre-modern and the modern novel; one far more dependent upon its entertainment than intellectual value. This is the correct assessment to give the book. Les Miserables, to a modern eye, reads far more like a gay, cavalier farce, or outright comedy, than a serious work of realistic fiction in the A Tree Grows In Brooklyn or Embers vein.
Les Miserables is a good novel, one might even call it a very good novel, and one that I `liked', but it's nowhere near great, despite its bulk meaning it has as much actual great writing as some great books a tenth its size. Yet, one simply cannot pretend all the bad writing does not exist- there's far too much of it, and its no comfort to know that editing a century and a half ago was capable of being as derelict as it routinely is today, even granting the glory of its Whitmanian excesses.
Even better than I'd thought October 1, 2008
I've always been familiar with this story because of the broadway musical, but had never actually read it, until recently. It was the most moving, brilliant, wonderful story I've read in so long. And even being familiar with it, there was nothing lost, because as you'd expect, not all of the plot lines in this amazing novel made it into the play (shocking, I know). It was incredible. Considering it was dauntingly long, I feel like I read it in no time at all. A must read!
The Genius Without a Brain September 21, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Hugo is a man of contradictions: royalist and republican, chaste and amorous, defender and provocateur. It is sometimes difficult to pin down Hugo's politics, and the man paints with a broad brush, but one thing is certain: Victor Hugo is a creative genius of the highest level.
The pen isn't necessarily mightier than the sword. Hugo's pen, however, most certainly is.
Consider why you enjoy reading books. If you read in order to meet larger-than-life characters dealing with profoundly complex and emotional situations (along with stirring historical digressions), this book is for you.
Victor Hugo has created one of the most beautiful novels you will ever read. This is as good as it possibly gets.
Y'learn something new every day... August 12, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I didn't realize there are different translations of this work. I got half-way through this one, left it at home, visited the library in another city and checked out the book there, which turned out to be a different translation, one much more difficult to follow! In fact, I gave up and returned that book, and waited until I got home to take-up-where-I-left-off with this translation. Hugo certainly isn't an "easy read" (no brain-candy, this!) but I'm quite satisfied with my purchase.
Oh my how I loved reading this August 9, 2008
It was a marathon, reading this book. It was worth it. Friends have said to me that getting through the first portion about the bishop was difficult, but I actually enjoyed it. It was beautiful. If you are considering it, I encourage you to pick it up. The length might be intimidating, but it's not a difficult book to read. If you're just beginning with it, press on and you will be rewarded.
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