Les misérables Download Streaming Online Watch Here in Hindi

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Year=2019

Crime

Info=Assigned to work alongside unethical police veterans Chris (Alexis Manenti) and Gwada (Djebril Zonga) in Paris' Anti-Crime Brigade, Brigadier Stéphane Ruiz (Damien Bonnard) - a recent transplant to the working-class suburb of Montfermeil, where Victor Hugo wrote his famous novel Les Misérables - struggles to establish a working relationship with influential community leaders while attempting to maintain some semblance of peace between his disreputable team and the citizens of the local housing projects. When what should be a simple arrest goes tragically awry, the three officers must individually reconcile with the aftermath of their actions while angling to keep the neighborhood from retaliating with mob violence. Beginning as a Cesar-winning short film, the film was inspired by the 2005 riots in Paris. It was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Jury Prize (in a tie with BACURAU) and was selected as France's entry for Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards

Duration=104 Minute

Audience Score=4527 Vote

 

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Synopsis One of the worlds most iconic and longest-running musicals, Les Misérables tells the story of Jean Valjean, a former convict who spends a lifetime seeking redemption. Set against the backdrop of 19th-century France and the aftermath of the French Revolution, this timeless story of intertwined destinies reveals the power of compassion and the quiet evil of indifference to human suffering. As Valjeans quest for a new life carries him into Paris and to the barricades of the Student Revolution, he is hunted by Inspector Javert and the ghosts of his past. Amidst a battle for the soul of Paris, he discovers the true meaning of love and salvation. Performed in over 40 countries and 22 languages, and with a lush, swelling score that features such famed songs as “I Dreamed a Dream, ” “On My Own, ” and “Bring Him Home, ” Les Mis brings Victor Hugos revolutionary novel blazingly to life.

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Hit Broadway Les Misérables Revival Begins Final Week of Performances "One Day More" A History of Les Misérables Feel 30 Years of Les Miz Emotion with One Supercut PLAYBILL ON OPENING NIGHT: Les Misérables — Meanwhile, Back at the Barricades Sponsored Content By Playbill Staff, Look back at the incredible talent that has been a part of Les Misérables past and present. Special Features By Karu F. Daniels, 08/25/2014 Tony Award winner Nikki M. James and newcomer Kyle Scatliffe chat with about the colorblind casting in the current Les Misérables revival. News By Ruth Leon, 03/25/2014 Ramin Karimloo, Colm Wilkinson and Cameron Mackintosh discuss Karimloo's unexpected path from an unknown (and untrained) child to Broadway leading man. By Joe Gambino, 10/08/2015 Frances Ruffelle, who originated the role of Eponine in Les Misérables in London and subsequently on Broadway, has released a music video in which she sings a newly arranged version of "On My Own. " By Michael Gioia, 03/05/2015 Brennyn Lark and Erika Henningsen are fresh out of college. This week, they made their Broadway debuts as the respective fated females Eponine and Fantine in the revival of Les Misérables. Here's how. By Michael Gioia, 03/04/2015 Broadway's Les Misérables got a hunky new Marius last night, when Chris McCarrell — who understudied the role since the re-imagined revival opened last year at the Imperial Theatre — officially took over for Andy Mientus. We ask the new star eight burning questions. By Michael Gioia, 10/20/2015 She dreamed a dream… and, last week, it came true! A grandmother scored an exclusive backstage pass for her soon-to-be seven-year-old granddaughter to meet the character of Javert after a performance of Les Misérables. By Brandon Voss, 08/28/2015 After touring the world performing the signature song of Les Misérables ' hero Jean Valjean, Alfie Boe returns to Broadway to star in the re-envisioned revival of the tragic tale of revolution and love. From Colm to Karimloo: Looking Back at 31 Years of Les Misérables We look back at some of the amazing talent to have climbed the barricades. 72 PHOTOS Frances Ruffelle as Eponine, Roger Allam as Javert, Sue Jane Tanner as Madame Thénardier, Patti LuPone as Fantine, Colm Wilkinson as Valjean and Rebecca Caine as Cosette Joan Marcus Patti LuPone Michael Le Poer Trench Betsy Joslyn and Nick Wyman on Broadway Terrence Mann in the original Broadway cast Michael Maguire as Enjolras Donna Vivino, the original Broadway Young Cosette Randy Graff in the original Broadway cast Braden Danner in the original Broadway cast Colm Wilkinson as Valjean on Broadway Leo Burmester and cast on Broadway Joan Marcus.

Les miserables download movie. ほんとに感動しました. 音楽の授業でみましたが涙が止まりませんでした.私よりも小さな子供が戦ってるシーンは特に胸が痛かったです. Les miserables downloads. Ok people, lets do the math! Lea Salonga did Eponine at West End, then on Broadway. She also did Fantine on broadway. She's on both the 10th and 25th anniversary. Need i say more. Download les miserables 2012 movie. Skip to Main Content Les Miserables Sundays at 9/8c Victor Hugos masterpiece comes to television in a six-part adaptation by multi- award-winning screenwriter Andrew Davies. Dominic West stars as fugitive Jean Valjean, with David Oyelowo as his pursuer Inspector Javert and Lily Collins as the luckless single mother Fantine. Ellie Bamber and Josh O'Connor costar as the young lovers Cosette and Marius. Funding for MASTERPIECE is provided by Viking and Raymond James with additional support from public television viewers and contributors to The MASTERPIECE Trust, created to help ensure the series future. Sponsored By: One of the most popular drama series in TV history. Bringing you the best in classic adaptations, mysteries filled with eclectic characters, and provocative contemporary works. See More Masterpiece Shows Feature Episode 6 Recap, Locations & History Get a recap of all the action and all the feels in Les Misérables' heart-wrenching finale. Plus, see some of the episode's filming locations and discover Victor Hugo's shocking experience in the real June Uprising! Learn More Learn More Support for provided by.

Les Miserables (2019) is a well acted, loose, updated version of Victor Hugo's classic novel. Damien Bonnard plays a sympathetic police officer, assigned to a new team, policing an intercity town in France. He is met with difficulties from the people, as well as from his fellow officers, however he is able to hold it together. I would recommend this film to anyone that enjoys good cinema. Something went wrong, but dont fret — lets give it another shot. Les Misérables is a novel by Victor Hugo that was first published in 1862. Summary Read a Plot Overview of the entire book or a chapter by chapter Summary and Analysis. Summary & Analysis “Fantine, ” Books One–Two “Fantine, ” Books Three–Four “Fantine, ” Book Five: The Descent “Fantine, ” Books Six–Eight “Cosette, ” Books One–Two “Cosette, ” Book Three: Fulfillment of the Promise Made to the Departed “Cosette, ” Books Four–Five “Cosette, ” Books Six–Eight “Marius, ” Books One–Three “Marius, ” Books Four–Seven “Marius, ” Book Eight: The Noxious Poor “Saint-Denis, ” Books One–Seven “Saint-Denis, ” Books Eight–Fifteen “Jean Valjean, ” Books One–Three “Jean Valjean, ” Books Four–Nine Characters See a complete list of the characters in Les Misérables and in-depth analyses of Jean Valjean, Cosette, Javert, Marius Pontmercy, and Fantine. Main Ideas Here's where you'll find analysis about the book as a whole. Quotes Find the quotes you need to support your essay, or refresh your memory of the book by reading these key quotes. Further Study Continue your study of Les Misérables with these useful links. Writing Help Get ready to write your essay on Les Misérables.

Victor hugo les miserables download. She said she was going to rock the audience. She never dreamed she would rock the world! Good for you, Susan. C'est triste à dire, mais malheureusement la France devient le Brésil de l'Europe. Et c'est une fin indigne pour l'une des plus belles civilisations de l'histoire. Les miserables download. About Les Misérables Hugo wrote several novels, but the only three that have continued to be much read today are Les Misérables; Notre Dame de Paris; and Les Travailleurs de la Mer, the story of a young fisherman who fights the sea to salvage a wreck and win the girl he loves, but who gives her up when he learns she prefers another man. Les Travailleurs de la Mer is read chiefly for its magnificent evocations of the sea, but Notre Dame de Paris is known the world over. Set in medieval Paris, it is one of those Romantic historical novels inspired by Sir Walter Scott, and on more than one score it bears comparison with Ivanhoe. Both are popular classics; both have suspenseful and melodramatic plots; both contain character sketches which, despite their lack of depth, have remained vivid and memorable for a century. Just as every English school child knows Rowena, Rebecca, Ivanhoe, and Sir Brian de Bois Guilbert, so every French reader knows the poor but beautiful gypsy Esmeralda with her little goat; the alchemist-priest Claude Frollo, who desires her; and Quasimodo, the "hunchback of Notre Dame. who loves her and tries to save her. The chief fascination of Notre Dame de Paris, however, lies in its powerful and living recreation of the Middle Ages. Hugo consulted many historical archives and accounts in his research for the novel, but the scenes of Paris life seem the work not of a scholar but of an eyewitness. Les Misérables has many of the same qualities as Notre Dame de Paris, but it is a far more complex creation. As early as 1829, Hugo began to gather notes for a book that would tell the story of "a saint, a man, a woman, and a child. but over the years it became enriched by a throng of new characters and multiple accretions from Hugo's philosophy and experience. When it was finally published in 1862, it had attained, both in quality and quantity, an epic sweep. In both thought and feeling, Les Misérables is far more profound than Notre Dame de Paris. In writing it, Hugo came to grips with the social problems of his own day, which demanded much reflection upon the nature of society and, therefore, upon the nature of man. In 1830, the average life expectancy of a French worker's child was two years. Hugo, unlike many of his contemporaries, did not consider this statistic as "inevitable" or "the fault of the parents. but evaluated it in human terms and cried out that suffering of such magnitude was intolerable and that such conditions must be changed through social action. What social action he considered desirable he shows us indirectly by portraying children who need to be fed, men who need jobs, and women who need protection; but also directly through M. Madeleine, who serves as an example of the ideal employer, and through the students of the 1832 revolt, who demand legislation that will make possible equal education, equal opportunity, and genuine brotherhood among men. But to support this social action Hugo must be convinced, and convince others, that the poor, the outcast — the misérables — are worth saving: that even the most impudent, scruffy street gamin has something to contribute to society, that even the most hardened convict is capable of great good. And the most appealing and enduring quality of Les Misérables is the fact that it is permeated by this unquenchable belief in the spiritual possibilities of man. Like that of Notre Dame de Paris, the plot of Les Misérables is fundamentally melodramatic; its events are often improbable, and it moves in the realm of the socially and psychologically abnormal. But this melodrama is deliberate; Hugo has chosen an extreme example, the conversion of a convict into a saint, to illustrate a general truth: Man is perfectible. Moreover, within this general framework, the sequence and interrelation of the events are credible, and the structure is very carefully plotted. Like a good play, it opens on a situation of high suspense, rises to two increasingly tense climaxes at the ends of Part Three and Part Four, and arrives at a satisfactory and logical denouement in Part Five. Its two themes, the struggle between good and evil in the soul of one man and society's struggle toward a greater good, are skillfully interwoven, and Hugo effectively immortalizes this struggle in our imaginations by a number of striking visual tableaux. Psychological subtleties are not Hugo's forte. He does not, probably cannot, delve into the baffling paradoxes, the complexities, the idiosyncrasies of the soul. His gift is for the fundamental truth. Valjean is a simple character dominated by one powerful emotion: caritas (charity — active, outgoing love for others. He helps a prostitute, protects his workers, gives constantly to the poor. His very raison d'être is literally love since his existence revolves around Cosette; when she leaves him, he dies. Javert is the watchdog of the social order. Marius is the incarnation of the romantic lover. Enjolras is the incorruptible revolutionary. All of Hugo's characters can be briefly described — in other words, labeled. But this simplicity has its own value. It allows the writer to analyze in depth a particular emotion, like a scientist studying an isolated germ. No one has captured better than Victor Hugo the arduous path of virtue or the poignancy of love. Valjean's deathbed scene has brought tears to the most sophisticated reader. Of course, Hugo's truth is the poet's not the psychologist's. He takes great liberties with reality. His characters do not always evolve in convincing steps. Valjean's conversion is almost miraculous, Thénardier's degradation unmotivated. They are larger than life. Marius loves passionately, Valjean is a modern saint, Thénardier a Satanic villain. But these are superficial criticisms. Hugo only distorts details: He scrupulously respects the basic integrity of the character. Les Misérables is the archetypal representation of eternal human emotions such as love, hate, and abnegation. Style is the reflection of the man and it is therefore not surprising that a writer of Hugo's enormous vitality should abandon classical restraint. Hugo revels in language. Ideas are stated and restated. Places are exhaustively described. Characters do not speak; they harangue, lament, eulogize. No doubt, Hugo's exuberance is excessive. His antitheses occasionally grow tiresome. His discourse can degenerate into verbiage. His pronouncements sometimes sound hollow, or worse, false. But the defect is minor, for Hugo suffers only from an overabundance of riches. His style is a mighty organ. He is at home in every idiom from the argot of the underworld to the intellectual tone of student discussion. He captures the slangy sarcasm of the gamin, the eloquence of the idealist, the lyricism of the lover. His expository prose, fed by an insatiable curiosity, deals with a range of subjects rarely encountered in a novel. Hugo writes with an absolute command of the mot juste, about history, logistics, philosophy, religion, and political morality. He remains, of course, the greatest word painter in the French language. In Les Misérables no less than in his poetry, he justifies his claim of being "the sonorous echo of the universe. Countless vignettes and a few bravura pieces such as the description of the Battle of Waterloo invest his novels with a heightened sense of reality. Few writers can rival the vividness and eloquence of Hugo's style.

Part of the 2018-2019 Broadway In Richmond Series Cameron Mackintosh presents the new production of Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönbergs Tony Award-winning musical phenomenon, Les Misérables, direct from an acclaimed two-and-a-half-year return to Broadway. With its glorious new staging and dazzlingly reimagined scenery inspired by the paintings of Victor Hugo, this breathtaking new production has left both audiences and critics awestruck, cheering “Les Miz is born again! ” (NY1.  Set against the backdrop of 19th-century France, Les Misérables tells an enthralling story of broken dreams and unrequited love, passion, sacrifice and redemption – a timeless testament to the survival of the human spirit. Featuring the thrilling score and beloved songs “I Dreamed A Dream, ” “On My Own, ” “Stars. “Bring Him Home, ” “One Day More, ” and many more, this epic and uplifting story has become one of the most celebrated musicals in theatrical history. Seen by more than 70 million people in 44 countries and in 22 languages around the globe, Les Misérables is still the worlds most popular musical, breaking box office records everywhere in its 32nd year. Ticket Information Season tickets available at or by calling [phone]. Individual show tickets are available August 3 at the Altria Theater and Dominion Energy Center box offices, by phone at [phone] and online at Ticket prices subject to applicable fees. Ticket prices and sections subject to change. Group Sales Save 10% on tickets when purchasing 10+ through our Group Sales Office. Call 804-592-3401 or email us at [email protected. No discount offered on Friday evening, Saturday matinee or Saturday evening performances. Run Time This production runs 2 hours and 55 minutes which includes an intermission. Age Appropriateness Recommended for ages 10+ LES MISÉRABLES has been a mainstay on the stage for over 30 years and while this epic musical is an inspiring story of love, courage and redemption it also contains many themes related to complex and difficult subject matter including social revolution, poverty and prostitution. When choosing to bring the family to LES MISÉRABLES, parents should make their own decision based on the maturity of their child.

Do it here in the Philippines 🇵🇭 all the cars and people even on the other side of the road will stop to watch it! You can perform in our roads with more time because our traffic here is hilarious 🤣. 24, 716 edits, 281 articles, 6 active users Les Misérables is an 1862 French novel by author Victor Hugo that is widely considered one of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century. The popular musical based off of it has been shown in countries all around the world, and is officially the world's longest running musical. This Wiki is all about the wonderful musical and book it is based on! Anyone can edit or create an article, so please feel free to do so and make this Wiki even better! Fantine's Arrest is a song from Les Misérables. It takes part in 1823, Montreuil-sur-Mer. Fantine is arguing with Bamatabois after he threw a snowball at her back when she did Read More... Les Miserables 10th Anniversary (HD. Javert's Suicide (34 41) Trivia Bahorel is the only one from Les Amis who wasn't featured in the musical. Gueulemer, one of Patron-Minette also was not featured in the musical/movie. Victor Hugo's first attempts at the novel were going to be named "Miseres. The Thénardiers were trying to steal silverware at Marius and Cosette's wedding. Éponine was originally at 'Valjean's Death' because of Marius. Fantine was there for Valjean and Cosette. The famous words encrypted on Valjean's blank grave were "Il dort. Quoique le sort fut pour lui bien étrange, Il vivait. Il mourut quand il n'eut plus son ange. La chose simplement d'elle-meme arriva, Comme la nuit se fait lorsque le jour s'en va. which translates to "He sleeps. Though fate was quite strange to him. He lived. He died when he no longer had his angel. The thing simply happened itself, as the night makes itself as the day departs. " To write a new article, just enter the title in the box below. Not sure where to start? Struggling with something to edit? Go to the wiki's "to do list. If you are new to wikis, check out the tutorial. Check out Help:Starting this wiki if you're setting up the wiki. Visit the wiki's rules to be familiar with our policies. Adding content Every wiki has two list of articles that need help called "Stubs" and "Wanted Articles. Don't be shy, get in there. Uploading images is another really easy way to help out - see the Special:Upload page! You can find a list of useful templates on Category:Templates, some of which are documented on the templates project page.

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Les misÃrables download download. Les misÃrables download pdf. Grantaire - “I am agog, I am aghast” is one of us actually straight. Les Misérables by Victor Hugo Open Preview See a Problem? Wed love your help. Let us know whats wrong with this preview of Les Misérables by Victor Hugo. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Read Book* Different edition 634, 040 ratings 14, 758 reviews Start your review of Les Misérables Dec 25, 2007 Hippo dari Hongkong rated it it was amazing review of another edition Recommends it for: Everyone One of the "biggest" book I've ever read, and I remembered Mick Foley's "warning" about a big book. "A big book is like a serious relationship; it requires a commitment. Not only that, but there's no guarantee that you will enjoy it, or that it will have a happy ending. Kind of like going out with a girl, having to spend time every day with her - with absolutely no guarantee of nailing her in the end. No thanks. Haha. Well, I took my chances reading this big book. I made my commitment, I spent One of the "biggest" book I've ever read, and I remembered Mick Foley's "warning" about a big book. I made my commitment, I spent my time everyday with this book ( about a month) and what do I get? Happiness and the joy of reading! This book really nailed me, I have my happy ending! Woo Hooo! Thank you very much for the "warning" Mister Foley This book is amazing, lengthy in descriptions, compelling storyline and has influenced so many people. Breaks my heart into pieces but somehow put it back together. You want to be a better person after reading this book. "He said to himself that he really had not suffered enough to deserve such radiant happiness, and he thanked God, in the depths of his soul, for having permitted that he, a miserable man, should be so loved by this innocent being. Jean Valjean about Cossette... Les Misérables can be translated from the French into "The Miserable Ones. The Wretched. The Poor Ones. The Wretched Poor" or "The Victims. So, as you will have concluded, this is not a happy book. In fact, it is the very opposite of fluffy happiness. It is a story about the lowest and darkest parts of French society in the first half of the nineteenth century. Hugo takes the reader on a 1200+ page journey around France and into the lives of criminals, prostitutes, those wasting away under Les Misérables can be translated from the French into "The Miserable Ones. The Wretched. The Poor Ones. The Wretched Poor" or "The Victims. Hugo takes the reader on a 1200+ page journey around France and into the lives of criminals, prostitutes, those wasting away under the strain of poverty. and he provides food for thought on commonly-held ideas about the nature of law, justice, love, religion and politics. Not only this, but I can say that not one page of this giant bored me. At the end of the day you're another day older And that's all you can say for the life of the poor I feel the need to mention the musical of Les Misérables (and I'm going to incorporate some lyrics into this review because why not. It's one of my favourite musicals. The book is, as is often the case, a much deeper and well-developed version of the same story, but I still recognised many of my favourite scenes from the stage production. I had actually expected the book to be more gentle and subdued than the musical because of the time it was written and to avoid controversy - especially as Hugo's opinion of the French judicial system during this time was made very clear - but this was not the case. Les Misérables is a nasty, gritty, haunting novel that doesn't fail to stay with you for a long time after putting it down. I had a dream my life would be So different from this hell I'm living So different now from what it seemed Now life has killed the dream I dreamed. It seems wrong to try and simplify the amazing plot of Les Miserables but I have to somehow fit all that greatness into this little review space. So, the main plot line of this story is about the ex-convict, Jean Valjean, who has been released from prison after serving nineteen years for stealing a loaf of bread and then trying to escape. He comes away from all those years doing hard labour with anger running in his veins- what kind of society sends a man to that disgusting fate for trying to quell his hunger? His thoughts turn to revenge and rebellion; he no longer even wants to try playing by the rules of a country which has done this to him. Until he is shown an act of kindness beyond his imagination by someone who breaks the cycle of anger and vengeance. Lovely ladies ready for the call Standing up or lying down or any way at all Bargain prices up against the wall Taking the little money and the vast amount of kindness he has been given, Jean Valjean slowly becomes an honest (and wealthy) man who helps those in need. But his new found way of life and the respect he has earned becomes threatened one day when the police officer, Javert, starts to recognise him. But that is just one story being told here. Several stories run parallel to one another throughout this book and thye begin to entwine more and more as the novel progresses. Another is the story of Fantine and her illegitimate daughter - Cosette. Forced into prostitution in order to feed her child, Fantine is a woman who looks old for her age and no longer has the sparkle of joy in her eye that she enjoyed back when she was allowed to be naive. Cosette, meanwhile, is mistreated by the foster family who agree to take care of her while Fantine "works" in the nearby town. Other stories include that of Marius and Eponine, but there are many more. The city goes to bed And I can live inside my head The above lyrics are from one of the musical's best known songs - On My Own - and are sung by one of the most fascinating characters of the novel, Eponine. Eponine's tale is an old one, one of unrequited love but it is far from cheesy. Marius describes her as an "unhappy soul" and nothing can be much more accurate. She is a sad, complex, and unfortunate character, which I suppose they all are in Les Misérables, but Eponine has a special place in my heart. But she is also far from weak. She has been toughened by life, made ugly by poverty, and she is ferociously independent. Yeah, I like her. Here they talked of revolution Here it was they lit the flame Here they sang about tomorrow And tomorrow never came. This book also chronicles the events leading up to and including the Paris uprising of 1832 and the novel includes themes of revolution. It is a deeply thoughtful story that challenged attitudes held at the time in many ways. To use one example: a court of law was ready to sentence an innocent man to life imprisonment because he was slow and uneducated and therefore couldn't speak eloquently in his defence. Perhaps this book is nothing more than an entertaining but dark story that Hugo wrote to grip and shock people, but to me this is a highly political novel that makes many statements about law and justice in France during the time period. I find it hard to dismiss Hugo's observations of the treatment of those who are poor and unintelligent as anything other than criticisms of society. But that is just me. I think I can say that you will be affected by this. Whether you will thank me for it or not, well, that depends on how easily you tolerate a depressing read. But I've saved my favourite and the most uplifting song for last: Do you hear the people sing? Singing a song of angry men? It is the music of a people who will not be slaves again! When the beating of your heart Echoes the beating of the drums There is a life about to start when tomorrow comes! youtube link] Blog, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube... Aug 07, 2010 Aubrey Human Beings Let's say that I could choose a single book with the guarantee that every man, woman, and child would read it. I would not choose my top three favorites, nor would I choose the one whose remnants are permanently inked upon me. I would choose this one. You argue, the length! The time period! The cultural barriers! It's just another long expounding by some old dead white guy whose type has suffocated literature for centuries! Women will be frustrated with poor representation, people who aren't Let's say that I could choose a single book with the guarantee that every man, woman, and child would read it. You argue, the length! The time period! The cultural barriers! It's just another long expounding by some old dead white guy whose type has suffocated literature for centuries! Women will be frustrated with poor representation, people who aren't white will be angered by no representation, and everyone will bored to tears! Alright, I see that. Now, let me explain. Human rights have not been perfected. They are as much a work in progress now as they were 150 years ago when this book was first published. If you wish to find the book that gives every variation on the theme of humanity its due, it does not exist, and in all likelihood never will. With that in mind, it is this book that I choose, as while Victor Hugo may have been limited by the era he grew up in, he did a damn good job in dreaming beyond it. He wrote what he knew, but he also wrote what he hoped, and together they form a piece of writing that can mean something to everyone, whatever their life consists of. The book is called 'The Miserables. I have a feeling that it is the blatant despair that this title provokes that has dissuaded publishers from rendering it into English, instead keeping it in that slightly prettier to the ear French form. It can even be shortened to that chic and oh so clever 'Les Mis' as is the norm whenever the play is discussed. In that light, when you say that truncated phrase it brings to mind not the triumphant book in its majestic entirety, but the abridged version, or perhaps the even more abridged play. You think of the story, but you do not think of the author's ideas, ones that he devotes full chapters to and are just as important to this tome as the characters he has sent running through it. And this is a tragedy. Is tragedy too harsh a word? I don't think so. The book itself is one where tragedy heavily outweighs every other emotional aspect, and reducing it to a pittance of itself is flat out disgraceful. You have countless flavors of human sorrow worked out here: imprisonment, ostracization, slavery, decay of health, decay of morals, decay of life through the brutality of war as well as the slow grind of societys wheels. There are also the more subtle restrictions on the human spirit, propagated by a firmness of belief that slowly stagnates into constricting bigotry, where humans substitute bias for their reality and confine themselves to a small and mean existence. These confines are more difficult to escape from than the strongest chains, which may bend and break under pressure, whereas prejudices will turn in on themselves and feed on the opposition. It is these barriers that build the barricades, it is these walls that let slip the dogs of war, it is these restrictions that make someone relish petty glories gained in the downfall of their fellow human beings. Where a difference of opinion exists, there will be conflict, and Victor Hugo was intimately familiar with the facets of this violent mechanism. He did not want this for the world. More specifically, he did not want this for his France, his Paris, his creative beacon that teems with contagious culture and ridiculous fashions to this very day, one that can be silly but is often so very, very brave. Like Gavroche the gamin, it thumbs its nose at the world and thinks it slow and stupid, but all the same it loves its fellow human beings, and lives for the times when it can lead them, striding forward towards that thing called Progress. Victor Hugo loved the concept of Progress, and he wished that everyone would love it as well. In his words: Go on, philosophers—teach, enlighten, kindle, think aloud, speak up, run joyfully toward broad daylight, fraternize in the public squares, announce the glad tidings, lavish your alphabets, proclaim human rights, sing your Marseillaises, sow enthusiasms, tear off green branches from the oak trees. Make thought a whirlwind. He sent his characters off with this dream of Progress, of finding a life for themselves, of living in a world that bettered itself by the passing day, where the future was not dreary but vibrant and brimming with unlimited potential. Many of them do not succeed. Many fall by the wayside, desiccated by sickness, shot down in wars, slain by grief and the resignation that life is not so much better than death. Some survive in miserable conditions, as restricted by their morality as by a chain around their neck. Some survive only by having stripped their morality as easily as a snake sheds its skin, and in the conditions, who can blame them? The weight of society squeezes the supports, and one is so much lighter and flexible without cumbersome thoughts of being good and kind. In all this sadness and life cut short by miserable conditions long before its time, there is still hope. Victor Hugo illustrated this in his diverging sections as thoroughly as he did in his main story, as hard as that may be to believe. It is true, though. For example, his section on the Battle of Waterloo seems no more than an endless list of casualties, pages of warfare and tactics, and death, so much death. But at the very end, he points out it is not this battle that we remember in so much detail, nor any that came before it. We remember literature. In Hugos words: Nowadays when Waterloo is merely a click of sabers, above Blücher Germany has Goethe, and above Wellington England has Byron. And what of the other sections? There are many, but two that are particularly powerful in their own subtle ways are the sections on argot and the sewers. Argot is the language of criminals disguising their speech from the ignorant and the all too interested. It is an ever-changing labyrinth of slang, idioms, innuendos, wordplay that whips itself into more contorted evolutions in its effort to escape the law. If this kind of creativity runs rampant on the street, how would it fare if given a warm place to sleep, three meals a day, and a chance to improve its station in life? And the sewers. When first described, they are dirty, desperate, despicable things that do nothing but spread filth and disease and provide a home for the equally depraved. This however was Hugos vision of how it had been in the past. In his time, they were clean and meticulous in their function, as well designed as the streets above and ten times as useful. If humans can so improve the lot of that out of sight contraption that carries their shit, imagine what they could do with the parts of life that are meant for open viewing and enjoyment. One last mention. Victor Hugos prose has been accused of excessive flouncing about, rambling sentences that quickly devolve into meaningless lists without form or function beyond the enjoyment of their own existence. I say, isnt that last part enough? Reading his sentences brings to mind a dance, an endless waltz, to a symphony that builds and builds to a final crescendo, for Hugo is very good at taking his countless paragraphs and using them to reach a final glorious message. He could have said it plainly, but it would not have been nearly as powerful without all the exposition; just as his point about the memory of Byron outliving the memory of Waterloo would not have been nearly as striking had he not gone through the motions of describing every minute detail of that terrible battle. To bring the reader to his level of understanding and to make them feel as much as he does about these things, the prose is essential. And frankly, I have yet to come across another author that is as joyous to read as he is, for even while he is going on and on about useless trivia from a time long past, his enthusiasm is contagious. He loved what he wrote about, and he wanted you to love it too, progressing sentences growing more and more triumphant much like the Progress he wished for mankind. An ideal where all, I repeat, all are allowed to flourish and grow, developing their own ideas while more importantly learning to accept those of others, where a stretch of one's limb doesn't require the injury or confinement of another's. So, read the full version, if you can. Youre welcome to the other, shorter versions, but read the full one at least once in your lifetime. Read the introduction even, for in this particular edition there is a wonderful amount of detail about Victor Hugos life that brings the book into beautiful focus. The introduction also calls the abridged version insufficient, and says: It is almost impossible to predict the individual detail, the flashing image or human quirk precisely observed, that will burn its way into a readers mind for good. I cannot agree more. And lastly, for the tl;dr'ers, a summary for what I have said above, which rests within the very first pages of the book: So long as there shall exist, by reason of law and custom, a social condemnation which, in the midst of civilization, artificially creates a hell on earth, and complicates with human fatality a destiny that is divine; so long as the three problems of the century—the degradation of man by the exploitation of his labor, the ruin of woman by starvation, and the atrophy of childhood by physical and spiritual night—are not solved; so long as, in certain regions, social asphyxia shall be possible; in other words, and from a still broader point of view, so long as ignorance and misery remain on earth, there should be a need for books such as this. –Hauteville House, 1862... I'm in the minority unfortunately. I thought the book was okay. I was hoping it would blow my mind and be a favorite like The Count Of Monte Cristo, as I was afraid of that book too, but alas, it was not. I might as well put the ole spoilers tag up on here! Oh and even though Jean's name will be changed in the book, I'm sticking with Jean so I won't get all messed up! FANTINE 1)An Upright Man 2) The Fall 3) In The Year 1817 4) To Trust Is Sometimes To Surrender 5) The Descent 6) Javert 7) The I'm in the minority unfortunately. I was hoping it would blow my mind and be a favorite like The Count Of Monte Cristo, as I was afraid of that book too, but alas, it was not. I might as well put the ole spoilers tag up on here! Oh and even though Jean's name will be changed in the book, I'm sticking with Jean so I won't get all messed up! FANTINE 1)An Upright Man 2) The Fall 3) In The Year 1817 4) To Trust Is Sometimes To Surrender 5) The Descent 6) Javert 7) The Champmathieu Affair 8) Counter-Stroke I worry at times when reading classic books because I feel I won't understand a lot of them. And some I haven't. Come to think of it, I have read books that aren't classic and never understood them and still loved them. I'm strange, I know. I felt the same way when I went into The Count of Monte Cristo. I was so worried I wouldn't get it enough to like it and uh, it's one of my favorite books to date! Les Mis has given me some trouble during the first of the book. I have felt like I'm not going to like it too much and then there would be parts that I just loved. So we shall see when I finish it awhile from now. I really liked M. Myriel, he was a very nice man. I mean just because he's a man of the cloth doesn't mean he will be nice but he was and I loved him. It was sad when he died. Jean Valjean was a prisoner of 19 years for stealing a loaf of bread to try to feed his sister and her seven children. They don't care if people or kids starve to death and going to jail for 19 years. Wow! Jean only heard of news one time of his sister and the youngest child working and going to school. No one knows what became of the rest of the children. After the 19 years Jean was let out on parole. He couldn't find a place to take him in for the night and feed him. He had money but they didn't want a criminal in their inns. But he came upon M. Myriel who was a Bishop at the church. (if I have it all correctly) He let Jean have a bed for the first time in years, gave him food and was very kind to him. In turn, Jean stole away in the night with the silverware. But being the kind man M. Myriel was he didn't press charges when the coppers dragged Jean back. He did tell something to Jean that made him change his ways. The bishop approached him and said, in a low voice. "Do not forget, ever, that you have promised me to use this silver to become an honest man. Jean Valjean, who had no recollection of any such promise, stood dumbfounded. The bishop had stressed these words as he spoke them. He continued, solemnly, Jean Valjean, my brother, you no longer belong to evil, but to good. It is your soul I am buying from you. I withdraw it from dark thoughts and from the spirit of perdition, and I give it to God! Jean was a changed man after this and it was good. Next is the story of Fantine. This broke my heart! Fantine and some of her so called friends had suitors and they all thought they were going to be together and get married, all of the wonderful things. But it was not so. The men left the woman with nothing. Fantine was left with child and her so called friends all went separate ways. Fantine had to leave little Cosette at a home until she got enough money to get her. The home was a fake and they were rude and horrible people. Fantine sent them money to keep Cosette. Year after year she sent money. She worked for Jean who had a different name and owned a business. Sadly for Fantine she was fired because of some jerk workers and Jean never knew about it. Fantine was forced to sale her hair, some of her teeth and become a whore so Cosette would be okay. One day Fantine was taken to jail for scratching a jerk man. Jean found her there and took her to the hospital. He saved her from being put in prison, but unfortunately she had a disease and would not live. He made a promise to find Cosette. It was so very sad that she had to live the life she did and never see her daughter ever again. She was thrown away. COSETTE 1) Waterloo 2) The Ship Orion 3) Fulfillment Of The Promise Made To The Departed 4) The Old Gorbeau House 5) A Dark Chase Requires A Silent Hound 6) Petit-Picpus 7) Cemeteries Take What Is Given Them Soooooooooooooooo, I wasn't feeling this one as much until it got to Jean & Cosette. Jean found Cosette carrying a heavy water bucket and asked her many questions. He found out she was the girl she promised Fantine he would take care of, her daughter. Jean watched how the couple were treating Cosette because he was staying at their Inn. He as livid and so was I at the way Cosette was treated. Jean told them he was taking her away with him, paid them money (overcharged) for his stay there. Oh, and I loved when he went out and bought her a most expensive doll for her alone because only the owners two daughters got toys to play with, it was so bitter sweet. They stayed on the run for a time. Jean was always on the run on and off as he's always wanted. He can never shake that freaking, Javert. Jean and Cosette ending up staying with a man Jean had saved awhile back. Jean worked in the little garden. Jean, who had lost all thoughts of loving anything when he was in prison. He was a hard man with no love, no anything. But then he felt a spark that grew and grew for Cosette, his daughter, for that's what she became. So sweet. His whole heart melted in gratitude and he loved more and more. Several years went by like this. Cosette was growing up. Unfortunately, I'm not liking this book as much as I would have hoped. I love the parts with Jean and Cosette and hope that there will be more and I will at least love it just enough. *The rest of the sections and books in the book I was reading. Marius 1) Paris Atomized 2) The Grand Bourgeois 3) The Grandfather And The Grandson 4) The Friends Of The ABC 5) The Excellence Of Misfortune 6) The Conjunction of Two Stars 7) Patron-Minette 8) The Noxious Poor Saint-Denis And Idyll Of The Rue Plumet 1) A Few Pages Of History 2) Eponine 3) The House On The Rue Plumet 4) Aid From Below Or From Above 5) An End Unlike The Beginning 6) Little Gavroche 7) Argot 8) Enchantments And Desolations 9) Where Are They Going? 10) June 5, 1832 11) The Atom Fraternizes With The Hurricane 12) Corinth 13) Marius Enters The Shadow 14) The Grandeur Of Despair 15) The Rue De L'Homme-Arme Jean Valjean 1) War Between Four Walls 2) The Intestine Of Leviathan 3) Much, But Soul 4) Javert Off The Track 5) Grandson And Grandfather 6) The White Night 7) The Last Drop In The Chalice 8) The Twilight Waning 9) Supreme Shadow, Supreme Dawn Afterword Selected Bibliography The story continues on with Cosette growing up, finding Marius and love. A revolution. Javert still on Jean's trail. The marriage of Cosette and Marius. And the deaths of Javert and Jean. The book did bring some tears to my eyes. It was really sweet with Cosette and Marius. They were made for each other. Even though Jean wasn't too happy about it, he did save Marius in the end so he would live for Cosette. Javert finally gave up. Jean had saved him from death and Javert threatened once again to kill him, but alas it was his own life he took. He was just tired. Jean was on his deathbed when Cosette and Marius found him. He was so happy to see his daughter and Marius. Jean had an angel watching over him and he went peacefully. Jean, you were a most wonderful man! The night was starless and very dark. Without any doubt, in the gloom, some mighty angel was standing, with outstretched wings, waiting for the soul. MY BLOG: Melissa Martin's Reading List... 873. Les Misérables, Victor Hugo Les Misérables is a French historical novel by Victor Hugo, first published in 1862, that is considered one of the greatest novels of the 19th century. In the English-speaking world, the novel is usually referred to by its original French title. However, several alternatives have been used, including The Miserables, The Wretched, The Miserable Ones, The Poor Ones, The Wretched Poor, The Victims and The Dispossessed. Beginning in 1815 and culminating in the 1832 873. Beginning in 1815 and culminating in the 1832 June Rebellion in Paris, the novel follows the lives and interactions of several characters, particularly the struggles of ex-convict Jean Valjean and his experience of redemption. عنوانها: ژان والژان؛ بینوایان؛ نویسنده: ویکتور هوگو؛ انتشاراتیها: مطبعه ایران جاویدان بدرقه جاویدان امیرکبیر توسن نگته گنینه فنون قصه جهان نما سمیر آسو افق هفت سنگ پیروز سکه اسب سفید سروش مشر قره دبیر گاج پارسه آبان مهر سپیده معراجی توسن فنون بنیاد) ادبیات فرانسه؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش: در ماه مارس سال 1966 میلادی؛ آخرین بار: در ماه ژوئن سال 2006 میلادی عنوان: بینوایان؛ نویسنده: ویکتور هوگو؛ مترجم: حسینقلی مستعان؛ تهران مطبعه ایران پاورقی 1310 سپس به صورت کتاب در ده جلد و سپس در پنج جلد؛ چاپ دیگر: تهران جاویدان 1331 در دو جلد چاپ دیگر: تهران امیرکبیر 1349؛ در دو جلد 1647 ص؛ چاپ دیگر 1363؛ چاپ چهاردهم 1370؛ شانزدهم 1382؛ شابک دوره: 9640004189؛ هفدهم 1384؛ هجدهم 1387؛ شابک دوره دوجلدی: 9789640004180؛ نوزدهم 1388؛ بیستم 1390؛ بیست و سوم 1391؛ بیست و چهارم 1392؛ چاپ دیگر: تهران بدرقه جاویدان 1386 در دو جلد موضوع: داستانهای نویسندگان فرانسوی - سده 19 م مترجمین دیگر متن کامل: نسرین تولایی و ناهید ملکوتی تهران نگاه 1393 در دو جلد شابک دوره: 9789643519568؛ عنایت الله شکیباپور در دو جلد چاپ دیگر: تهران گنینه 1362 در دو جلد؛ چاپ دیگر: تهران فنون 1368 در دو جلد؛ چاپ دیگر: تهران قصه جهان نما 1380 در دو جلد و 962 ص؛ کیومرث پارسای تهران سمیر 1389؛ در پنج جلد شابک دوره: 9789642200474؛ محمد مجلسی تهران نشر دنیای نو 1380 در چهار جلد (جلد 1 - فانتین جلد 2 - فانتین جلد 3 - ماریوس جلد 4 - ژان والژان)؛ چاپ سوم 1390؛ مرضیه صادقی زاده تهران آسو 1395 در دو جلد؛ شابک دوره: 9786007228982؛ مینا حسینی تهران فراروی 1393 در دو جلد شابک دوره: 9786005947434؛ محسن سلیمانی تهران افق 1388 در دو جلد؛ چاپ دوم 1389؛ چاپ ششم 1392؛ وحیده شکری گرگان هفت سنگ 1395 در دو جلد؛ مترجمین دیگر متن خلاصه شده: گیورگیس آقاسی تهران پیروز 1342 در 335 ص چاپ دیگر: تهران سکه 1362 در 335 ص؛ فریدون کار اسب سفید 1345 در 480 ص؛ محمدباقر پیروزی در 340 ص سروش 1368؛ بهروز غریب پور نشر قره 1385 در 208 ص؛ شابک: 9643415155؛ مهدی علوی تهران دبیر در 112 ص؛ چاپ سوم 1395؛ شایسته ابراهیمی تهران گاج 1395 در 136 ص؛ صدف محسنی تهران پارسه 1395 در 399 ص؛ مصطفی جمشیدی امیرکبیر از ترجمه مستعان در 129 ص؛ سبحان یاسی پور آبان مهر 1395 در 140 ص؛ اسماعیل عباسی تهران سپیده در 47 ص؛ الهه تیمورتاش تهران سپیده 1368 در 248 ص؛ چاپ دوم 1370؛ شهاب تهران معراجی در 184 ص؛ امیر اسماعیلی تهران توسن 1362؛ در 237 ص؛ عنایت الله شکیبا پور تهران فنون 1368 در 384 ص؛ ابراهیم رها 1382 در 64 ص؛ ابراهیم زنجانی با عنوان ژان والژان؛ ذبیح الله منصوری تهران بنیاد 1362؛ در 177 ص؛ چاپ سوم 1370؛ نمیدانم. یادم نمانده این کتاب را چندبار خوانده ام. در کودکی نسخه های کوتاه شده و خلاصه ی داستان را. و آخرین بار چند سال پیش بود باز هم ترجمه حسینعلی مستعان را خواندم. اگر بگویم مدهوش شدم راه به سوی گزافه نبرده ام. ویکتور هوگو بزرگترین شاعر فرانسه در قرن نوزدهم میلادی و شاید بیش از همین جمله باشد که بنوشتم. ایشان با بزرگواری با انقلابی بزرگ زندگی کردند و عمری طول کشید تا بینوایان را نوشتند. یادم مانده جمله ای که نمیخواهم بنویسم. بیشترش شاید از یادم رفته باشد. نیز تا فراموش نکرده ام نوشته باشم که همین داستان بینوایان نیز همچون بیشتر شاهکارهای جهان چند لایه دارد. امروز دیدم یکی از لایه هایش را جناب مهدی به بزرگواری بگشوده است. نقل از نوشتار مهدی: ژان والژان و «ژاور» دو شخصیت رمان هر دو خداباور هستند؛ اما خدایی که هر یک میپرستد غیر از خدای دیگری ست. «ژان والژان» مردی ست که بیست سال از عمرش را در زندان با اعمال شاقه بگذرانده مردی ست که قانون او را مجازات کرده و پس از آن که دوره ی مجازاتش تمام شده جامعه او را طرد نموده. در این حال است که اسقف «میریل» او را مییابد و درک میکند که والژان نیاز به امید دارد. نیاز به بازگشت دارد. پس به او امید میدهد و برش میگرداند. از آن پس «ژان والژان» مظهر خدای مسیحی میشود. مردی که در باقیمانده ی عمرش کاری جز عشق ورزیدن حتی به کسانی که از آنها بیزار است نمیکند. در برابر او «ژاور» مردی ست که به گفته ی خود در تمام عمر حتی یک قانون را هم نشکسته است. مردی ست که تمام هم و غمش اجرای قانون است. تا جایی که آنگاه که خود مرتکب جرمی میشود با سرافکندگی خود را معرفی میکند تا به سزای کارهایش برسد. این دو شخصیت یکی نماد خدای مسیحی و آن دیگری نماد خدای یهودی ست بارها باهم درگیر میشوند. یکی از درگیریها بر سر «فانتین» است. زنی روسپی که شاید شباهتی به «مریم مجدلیه» داشته باشد. «ژاور» بی آن که به گریه زاری «فانتین» گوش دهد و یا به دختر کوچک او «کوزت» اهمیتی بدهد او را محکوم به شش ماه زندان میکند؛ اما «والژان» با اینکه «فانتین» به او اهانت میکند و به رویش تف میاندازد دستور آزادی او را صادر میکند. یکی هیچ نرمشی در برابر قانون شکنی نشان نمیدهد و آن دیگری آغوشش را برای گناهکار میگشاید. یکی دیگر از تنشها در پایان داستان است. جایی که «والژان» آغوش خود را برای خود «ژاور» میگشاید. با اینکه توانایی کشتن «ژاور» را دارد او را زنده رها میکند. ژاور نمیتواند این رفتار را تاب آورد و درک کند گیج میشود. او که تا آندم همه چیز را با دیدی انعطاف ناپذیر میدید دچار تزلزل میشود. میبیند که مردی قانون شکن توانسته مرد بزرگی شود. میبیند که هم بازداشت کردن آن مرد اشتباه است و هم بازداشت نکردنش بشکستن قانون است. نهایتاً نمیتواند دوگانگی را تاب آورد و بپذیرد خود را در رودخانه ی «سن» میاندازد و خودکشی میکند و اینگونه از دیدگاه ویکتور هوگو خدای یهودیت میمیرد و خدای مسیحیت زنده و باقی میماند. ا. شربیانی... Feb 16, 2015 Fabian really liked it I chose to read the hefty Victor Hugo classic for my thirtieth birthday. let me tell you, the experience was One Biiiig Bitch. I mean, why EVEN go to the 200 + year old text when the Broadway musical exists! THAT work of art exudes all beauty and majesty in one continuous song that unites the characters through time; ultimately giving us a true theme, or feeling of genuine victory over adversity. The plot, one gorgeous telenovela of a story, replete with jailbreaks, insurrections, I chose to read the hefty Victor Hugo classic for my thirtieth birthday. let me tell you, the experience was One Biiiig Bitch. The plot, one gorgeous telenovela of a story, replete with jailbreaks, insurrections, betrayals, war, calamities multiplied & order restored is, in short, too much Muchness for one reader to possibly occupy himself with. This is the longest novel I have ever read (probably Don Quixote, which took me an entire month to read, is the closest second. as such, it is difficult- a staggering activity indeed- to maintain order in its review, much less in the colossus text itself that's just very disordered, odd, beautiful-but-not-always; it is a mixture (an irritating one at that. less than a boost toward modernism) of myriad tones & paces, a gargantuan monster from the abysmal depths of time: a list of lists, basically; a lexicon in Everything French Revolution. What is the purpose of so many compilation of details to make a heap of facts that, quite frankly, fail to make either a juicy romance or gory history. It's infuriating because it takes up so much of your time. And, bottom line, the characters, even Jean Valjean the lament-filled hero who feels guilt palpably like the feel of the guillotine, is a beacon that illuminates but also dis-illusions. Cosette is a ninny, and Fantine gets duped awful by a group of boys and girls, and Javert is a true mystery that ends up having less to do with our story than other less famous villains like M. Thenardier. It is basic Law to read this, so I did. It has not aged well, dudes, fur reels. Like some expensive wine that got rancid. A French one. just because I am very generous, these here are the top four best parts (AKA the most heartwarming) in all of Les Mis., if you wanted to know, followed by the four worst: 1) How Valjean gets Cosette from the clutches of the Thenardiers (the dude simply won't let go. 2) Gavroche's taking-in of the two Thenardier "brats" 3) Marius' self-inflicted poverty 4) the Bishop's story The worst are these girthy diatribes that provoke (gasp. some paragraph skippage: 1) on the Sewers 2) on the slang 3) on the Streets of Paris 4) on the barriacades, which reminds the reader that so many French pre-Revolutionary factoids withholds reader's pleasure, somewhat barricading the avid reader's truest delight... Jun 25, 2014 Lisa What makes a favourite book? In this case, I will have to say: one single character that broke my heart and shaped my idealism and stirred my anger: Gavroche Thénardier. "Si l'on demandait à la grande et énorme ville: Qu'est-ce que c'est que cela? elle répondrait: C'est mon petit. One of those street children that see and hear more during their childhood than most people ever experience, who carry pain and neglect with them on their daily adventures to survive in a hostile, careless What makes a favourite book? In this case, I will have to say: one single character that broke my heart and shaped my idealism and stirred my anger: Gavroche Thénardier. One of those street children that see and hear more during their childhood than most people ever experience, who carry pain and neglect with them on their daily adventures to survive in a hostile, careless environment, and still manage to find reasons to love and to live, he made me want to work with children when I was myself still only a teenager. I also wept with his sister Éponine, and with Cosette's mother Fantine, and I followed in Gavroche's tracks through the drama of Parisian 19th century history. His fight became my cause. The main characters, Jean Valjean and his adoptive daughter Cosette, left me rather cold by contrast, as they seemed too perfectly good, too beautiful, too physically strong and mentally one-dimensional to be shaped from real life, and I am not sure Les Misérables would have ranged among my most beloved books, had the novel been slimmed down to their specific plot. The story line of Javert, whose fanatic sense of justice reminds me of later Communist anti-human radicalism, was what made Jean Valjean interesting as a character, rather than his own personality. Would he be caught or not? I will also have to confess that I would have loved to see the poor, abused Éponine find happiness with Marius, as I truly couldn't find anything exciting in the doll Cosette that Jean Valjean had raised. Éponine had the potential to become a bright young woman, had she not grown up with comically bad parents in severe poverty: On sentait bien quavec dautres conditions déducation et de destinée, lallure gaie et libre de cette jeune fille eût pu être quelque chose de doux et de charmant. The neglected children of Paris - that is what Les Misérables means to me. Ever since I first read the novel during my adolescence, it has accompanied me on my adventures. Gavroche comes to my mind whenever I read about neglected children in the big cities of the world, and now that my own children read the story, and play the soundtrack of the Musical on the piano and sing along with all the pathos they remember from seeing it performed at Broadway in New York, I feel the old shiver down my spine, and I know that one of the sources of my energy as a mother and teacher is to be found in the early feeling of indignation and tenderness towards a child that deserved a better life than he got. He deserved a future. I still believe in that simple idealist dream: each child deserves a future. "Do you hear the people sing? Singing a song of angry men? It is the music of a people Who will not be slaves again! When the beating of your heart Echoes the beating of the drums There is a life about to start When tomorrow comes. Jan 17, 2018 Michael This will be another review-as-I-go! First, a thank you to Rachel for recommending the Fahnestock and MacAfee translation, which is wonderful so far! Next, a question: Why have I been so drawn lately to these 1, 500 page 19th century behemoths? War and Peace, The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment, and now this. Am I just a glutton for punishment? Or just showing off? I hope not. When I think about it, I think it has to do with the moral scope and depth of the work and the way these books This will be another review-as-I-go! First, a thank you to Rachel for recommending the Fahnestock and MacAfee translation, which is wonderful so far! Next, a question: Why have I been so drawn lately to these 1, 500 page 19th century behemoths? War and Peace, The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment, and now this. When I think about it, I think it has to do with the moral scope and depth of the work and the way these books really wear their morality on their sleeves. They're complex, yes, but they're not hiding their morality behind some veneer of "show, don't tell. They're not afraid to plumb the moral depths of the societies they depict, and I think, when I look around at the society I inhabit, that I hunger for more of this. So here I have it. Hugo certainly takes his time setting up the main action, with a long introductory section on the Bishop (Myriel) before we get to the main character, Jean Valjean. But for some reason it works, so that by the time Valjean arrives on the scene, we have a sense of the place he comes to and the reactions he'll face. Even then, Myriel stands apart from the others in his generosity and kindness, such that the other characters don't even comprehend his attitude. Which of course says as much about contemporary attitudes toward ex-convicts as it does about Myriel himself. Then the scene shifts, and we're treated to a lighthearted section of youthful fun, but there's a dark undercurrent here too- the illegitimate child born to Fantine, the child named Cosette, who's given up to another family while Fantine finds work and who soon transforms from a happy toddler to a bedraggled house servant. Oh, the heartbreak and misery we experience when she's described sweeping the sidewalk in the cold, dressed only in rags. The scene then shifts to follow Fantine, and we see her gradual decline as she tried ever more desperately to raise money to send the family housing her daughter. Eventually she sells her two front teeth and becomes a "woman of the streets. which is where she has a run-in with the police officer Javert- a character reminiscent of Angelo from Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, a stern agent of the law whose facade of righteousness conceals much. Luckily for Fantine, the mayor intercedes on her behalf. Then the two parts of the story so far- that of Valjean and that of Fantine- come together, when it's revealed that the mayor is himself Valjean, years later. Oh, the plot thickens, because Javert was an officer who knew and tried to find Valjean years ago, and suddenly declares to the mayor that Valjean was found in the distant town of Arras and will be tried. What does Valjean do? Continue to conceal his identity so that he may do more good, knowing that someone else will suffer in his place? Or declare himself and lose everything? It's quite a magnificent dramatic moment. And the drama really picks up pace when Valjean rides to Arras to the trial. Will he get there on time? And then there he is, in the courtroom: will he reveal himself? And when he does: will he be arrested right away? How can he escape? It's pure melodrama, in a way, yet fused to the deep moral quandary in the character that makes it irresistible. One of the techniques I see Hugo employing is to switch storylines suddenly, leaving the reader with no idea how they relate, until at the very end of the storyline, he reveals it: Aha! When Valjean is on his way to Cosette, Hugo makes a huge detour into the history of Waterloo and Napoleon's downfall, and you wonder for pages and pages what this has to do with the story, and then at the very end, we see that one of the haggard men stealing from corpses is the father of the family keeping Cosette, and that another officer, who thinks the haggard man has saved him, declares himself in his debt. You can feel Hugo in those lines lowering the boom for more drama to come. Hugo is really setting things up now. We get Valjean and Cosette finally ensconced in Paris, and then the scene shifts to examine a new character, Marius, the son of Pontmercy (who thought the father of the family keeping Cosette saved him. Again, you can see the giant cogs in motion, setting up the eventual collision between all these forces. Just an awesome array of characters and plot points, and I can't wait to see how it's going to come together! Not surprisingly, Marius and Cosette grow up and grow fond of each other through random meetings in Paris. If I had one critique of this book, it's that so much depends on these random meetings of the characters. They keep bumping into each other, as if there were only a few people in the city. But this is a minor critique, and the randomness might even be intentional, making the point that much of life is similarly guided by chance encounters. Now the political scene intervenes: the uprising. One of the saddest characters in the book is Epinone, the daughter of the horrible innkeeper, who acts more than once to keep Marius out of danger. She's clearly in love with him, but she's been so deformed by poverty and the demands of her harsh parents that she feels unable to express that. Anyway, the uprising is where she performs her ultimate act of bravery and self-sacrifice, and it nearly brought tears to my eyes. I can't really do the ending any justice through summary. Let me just say that Hugo brings this entire monumental project together masterfully. If Modernism is defined by ironic detachment, this is the ultimate pre-modern work. It's earnest, political, passionate, encyclopedic, and moralistic in the very best sense. Hugo clearly has a point he's trying to make about human goodness, and I deeply appreciate the project. To say it's moved me is a terrific understatement. I haven't been able to stop thinking about it and its characters since finishing reading a couple of days ago. This is an epic and almost mythical work, and it stands as one of the best novels I've read... 873. بینوایان - ویکتور هوگو (جاویدان امیرکبیر توسن) ادبیات فرانسه؛ تاریخ نخستین خوانش: ماه مارس سال 1966 میلادی بار دیگر در ماه مارس سال 2006 میلادی عنوان: بینوایان؛ نویسنده: ویکتور هوگو؛ مترجم: حسینقلی مستعان؛ تهران مطبعه ایران پاورقی 1310 سپس به صورت کتاب در ده جلد و سپس در پنج جلد؛ چاپ دیگر: تهران جاویدان 1331 در دو جلد چاپ دیگر: تهران امیرکبیر 1349؛ در دو جلد 1647 ص؛ چاپ دیگر 1363؛ چاپ چهاردهم 1370؛ شانزدهم 1382؛ شابک دوره: 9640004189؛ هفدهم 1384؛ هجدهم 1387؛ شابک دوره دوجلدی: 9789640004180؛ نوزدهم 1388؛ بیستم 1390؛ بیست و سوم 1391؛ بیست و چهارم 1392؛ چاپ دیگر: تهران بدرقه جاویدان 1386 در دو جلد موضوع: داستانهای نویسندگان فرانسوی - سده 19 م مترجمین دیگر متن کامل: نسرین تولایی و ناهید ملکوتی تهران نگاه 1393 در دو جلد شابک دوره: 9789643519568؛ عنایت الله شکیباپور در دو جلد چاپ دیگر: تهران گنینه 1362 در دو جلد؛ چاپ دیگر: تهران فنون 1368 در دو جلد؛ چاپ دیگر: تهران قصه جهان نما 1380 در دو جلد و 962 ص؛ کیومرث پارسای تهران سمیر 1389؛ در پنج جلد شابک دوره: 9789642200474؛ محمد مجلسی تهران نشر دنیای نو 1380 در چهار جلد (جلد 1 - فانتین جلد 2 - فانتین جلد 3 - ماریوس جلد 4 - ژان والژان)؛ چاپ سوم 1390؛ مرضیه صادقی زاده تهران آسو 1395 در دو جلد؛ شابک دوره: 9786007228982؛ مینا حسینی تهران فراروی 1393 در دو جلد شابک دوره: 9786005947434؛ محسن سلیمانی تهران افق 1388 در دو جلد؛ چاپ دوم 1389؛ چاپ ششم 1392؛ وحیده شکری گرگان هفت سنگ 1395 در دو جلد؛ مترجمین دیگر متن خلاصه شده: گیورگیس آقاسی تهران پیروز 1342 در 335 ص چاپ دیگر: تهران سکه 1362 در 335 ص؛ فریدون کار اسب سفید 1345 در 480 ص؛ محمدباقر پیروزی در 340 ص سروش 1368؛ بهروز غریب پور نشر قره 1385 در 208 ص؛ شابک: 9643415155؛ مهدی علوی تهران دبیر در 112 ص؛ چاپ سوم 1395؛ شایسته ابراهیمی تهران گاج 1395 در 136 ص؛ صدف محسنی تهران پارسه 1395 در 399 ص؛ مصطفی جمشیدی امیرکبیر از ترجمه مستعان در 129 ص؛ سبحان یاسی پور آبان مهر 1395 در 140 ص؛ اسماعیل عباسی تهران سپیده در 47 ص؛ الهه تیمورتاش تهران سپیده 1368 در 248 ص؛ چاپ دوم 1370؛ شهاب تهران معراجی در 184 ص؛ امیر اسماعیلی تهران توسن 1362؛ در 237 ص؛ عنایت الله شکیبا پور تهران فنون 1368 در 384 ص؛ ابراهیم رها 1382 در 64 ص؛ ابراهیم زنجانی با عنوان ژان والژان؛ ذبیح الله منصوری تهران بنیاد 1362؛ در 177 ص؛ چاپ سوم 1370؛ نمیدانم. در کودکی نسخه های کوتاه شده و خلاصه ی داستان را. آخرین بار چند سال پیش بود باز هم ترجمه حسینعلی مستعان را خواندم. ویکتور هوگو بزرگترین شاعر فرانسه در سده نوزدهم میلادی و شاید بیشتر از همین جمله باشند که بنوشتم. ایشان با بزرگواری با انقلابی بزرگ زندگی کردند و عمری طول کشید تا آن را نوشتند. نقل از متن: امپراطور گفت: کیست این مردک که مرا نگاه میکند. میری یل گفت: اعلیحصرتا شما یک مردک را نگاه میکنید و من یک مرد بزرگ را هر یک از ما میتواند استفاده کند. پایان نقل از کتاب بینوایان قسمت اول فانتین کتاب اول یک عادل - 1 - مسیو میری یل ا. شربیانی... I saw the movie version of this before reading it and I was utterly shook by the powerful nature of the story. When I read it I hoped for the same experience, instead I had one more powerful. In life there are few truly great men: there are few men that are truly and incorruptibly good. Jean Valjean is such a man; he is a paragon of goodliness: he is a superb character. At the beginning of the novel he sacrifices everything: he steals a loaf of bread knowing full well of the consequences. He I saw the movie version of this before reading it and I was utterly shook by the powerful nature of the story. He risks his freedom in order to save his starving family; he risks his mortality and his morality: he risks everything. He is a truly selfless man, a great man. And what are the consequences for trying to save a starving boy? What is the justice of the land? Imprisonment. Servitude. Pure Corruption. In this the author captures social injustice in its most brutal form; he shows the foolishness of unbending laws, of a system that refuses to open its eyes, and how the common man will always suffer under the yolk of the powerful. But, somehow, Valjean just about retains his decency and his humanity. Somehow in the face of sadistic ruling, he manages to remain Valjean; he even manages to better himself and improve the world around him. Yes, he makes a mistake that leads to the death of an innocent; yes, he was responsible for the snuffing of the life he ignored. However, he redeems himself in a truly extraordinary way, and eventually pays an even greater sacrifice. The world needs more men like Valjean. Then if that wasnt enough, Valjean even offers his nemesis forgiveness. He sees Javert for the product of society that he is; he looks at him and only sees pity rather than hatred, which would have been a much easier emotion to experience. Valjean does what few men would have the strength to do, and in the process shows his true inner-strength. Javert was fully responsible for his actions. He is a pitiable character. To his cold, singular, narrow-minded, law based logic, Valjean was a simple criminal. Nothing more, nothing less. Javert cannot look beyond the surface. He dedicated his life to preventing this villain form getting away. In this, he is as much a victim as Valjean. When he eventually realises the true errors of his ways, he is broken. He is no more. Javert is not the real villain: it is society. And this is only one aspect of this superb novel. Javert and Valjean are not the only victims of this novel. Pushed aside, forgotten about, is the miserable Fantine. She represents the tragic state of womens place in such a society. No one cares about her. She is just another woman in the street, another countless victim of misrule: someone to be trampled over. But, Valjean shows that life isnt completely dark. From such corruption, a heart can remain true to itself and continue beating... It is a couple of years since I read and reviewed this book. I asked a question in a spoiler, How come Valjean never recognised Thénardier no matter how many times he met him. And just now I had an ah-ha moment and realised it was because Victor Hugo himself might well have had prosopagnosia. How did I get to this? I reviewed Oliver Sacks' On the Move and made a point about his prosopagnosia, face blindness, I have it too. It just struck me that although it is very odd for the hero never to It is a couple of years since I read and reviewed this book. It just struck me that although it is very odd for the hero never to recognise his enemy, if the author had prosopagnosia he wouldn't think it at all strange that Valjean might have people he never recognised (as well as those he always did and those he sometimes did) because that's how it is with face blindness. Of course, I will never know for sure, but it makes more sense to me to think of it this way. I loved this book. I was expecting something somewhere between Trollope's extraordinary writing and Zola's wonderful stories - and I got it! Great literature indeed, and what a character Jean Valjean is. His story is almost biblical, one of redemption. One who travels the path from evil to good with scarcely a stumble but many an obstruction along the way. Hugo uses the book, much as Tolstoy liked to do, to expound his personal philosophy and also the condition of the peasants, les miserables. (view spoiler) Good, excellent, as the book was, I am left with one question, how come Valjean never recognised Thénardier no matter how many times he met him? hide spoiler) If you like classics and sagas, its a good holiday book. Start before you go, read it on the plane, a little by the pool and when lying on the beach, and then when you get home, there will still be more to read about these people who are your friends and family now... “They fought hand to hand, foot to foot, with pistols, with sabers, with fists, from a distance, from up close, from above, below, everywhere at once, from the roofs of houses, from the windows of the tavern, from the basement windows of the cellars that some of them had slipped down into. It was one against sixty. The façade of Corinthe, half-demolished, was hideous to behold. The window, speckled with shot, had lost both glass and frame, and was just a shapeless hole, crazily stopped up with “They fought hand to hand, foot to foot, with pistols, with sabers, with fists, from a distance, from up close, from above, below, everywhere at once, from the roofs of houses, from the windows of the tavern, from the basement windows of the cellars that some of them had slipped down into. The window, speckled with shot, had lost both glass and frame, and was just a shapeless hole, crazily stopped up with cobbles…[One man] run through with three thrusts of a bayonet to the chest just as he was lifting up a wounded soldier, only had time to look up at the sky before he breathed his last…” - Victor Hugo, Les Misérables (translated by Julie Rose) I wanted a reading challenge. This was a reading challenge. At 1, 376 pages, the Julie Rose-translated, unabridged version of Les Misérables is one of the longest single volumes I have ever read. More than sheer length, though, is that lengths composition. This is not an A-to-B type of story. This is A-to-Z, with stops along the way to ponderously scrutinize each and every other letter, describing its shape, its genealogy, and its place in the fabric of the universe. By the end, I was exhausted, hammered into submission by Victor Hugos unwillingness to use one word when an entire chapter will do. The conclusion, I recall, was absolutely beautiful; and yet, by the time I reached that endpoint, all my patience had long since disappeared (or perhaps it simply assumed a false identity and retreated to Montreuil-sur-Mer in northern France. Despite its prodigious size, summarizing Hugos famous novel is rather easy, given the fame of its derivative works. At the center of Les Misérables is Jean Valjean, imprisoned for nineteen years for stealing bread (and subsequently attempting to escape several times. Finally released, he soon realizes that society is not ready to accept him, despite paying for his crimes. He is hounded by the upright and sanctimonious bloodhound Inspector Javert. As he is chased, Jean Valjean comes into contact with Cosette, an orphan who he raises as his own. Eventually, Jean Valjean, Cosette, Inspector Javert, and a supporting cast of many dozens of others, find themselves on the cobbled streets of Paris during the June Rebellion of 1832. This story is told in inimitable fashion by an author of extraordinary talents. Say what you will about Hugo – and I shall! – the man had unique abilities. First, he has an extraordinary way with characters. Most of the individuals in Les Misérables are a mile wide and an inch deep; that is, they tend to be either white-hats or black-hats (though in some cases, the black-hats undergo near-religious conversions. Nevertheless, he imbues even the most tangential characters with some memorable detail, with some humanizing aspect. One of my favorites was Monseigneur Bienvenu, the Bishop of Digne, a man who has only one small role to play in this tale, and yet is given a full-dress biography before disappearing offstage. Second, Hugo is a master of describing a particular place at a particular time. It is not long ago that the world held its breath, transfixed, as Notre-Dame de Paris threatened to crumble before our very eyes. That event sent people rushing to The Hunchback of Notre Dame, for the reason that Hugos rapt descriptions had helped save the cathedral in the first place. While Notre-Dame is only fleetingly referenced here, Hugo still delivers a lengthy love letter to Paris, soliloquizing on the granular level, creating a written-word, street-by-street map. If you ever find yourself in a time machine heading to 1830s France, take this as a guide. Finally, Hugo knows how to create a set piece. Much of Les Misérables is given over to essays and exposition (Hugo will barely allow a character to take a step without delivering a history of the shoe. Sprinkled amidst these word-bogs, however, are some crackling scenes that Hugo carefully builds and skillfully executes. There is a slick chase, a fraught standoff, and a visceral street battle, all of which demonstrate why Les Misérables is so often adapted. Okay. So that was the good stuff. I wanted to get that out of the way so we could talk about the real issue. This book is too damn long. Les Misérables suffers from a near-fatal case of literary edema. It is swollen out of all proportion to its subject. I know what youre going to say: Abridgment. To which I reply: Gross. I dont do abridgments. Abridging a book is like kissing an eager and willing cousin. It might be easy, but it aint right. When I read a novel, I want it to be on the original terms, as mediated by author and editor. As far as I know, this is the version that Hugo wanted; thus, this is the version on which I will judge him. (I cannot judge the translation, other than to say I liked it. There were a few clunky moments and some dialogue that seemed a bit anachronistic as it tried to convey a modern flavor. Overall, I often forgot this was a translation, which is a good thing. The style employed by Hugo is digressionary to the extreme. Remember when you were young, and it took your mom and dad forever to get to the point? Well, just thank your lucky stars that you werent raised by the French romantic poet, dramatist, and novelist Victor Hugo! Because I can guarantee that it would take him a week to explain why you shouldnt be sneaking out of your room. The digressions in Les Misérables take many forms. Some are simply a function of overexplaining. For instance, as noted above, we did not need to know everything about the Bishop of Digne in order for him to perform his one crucial act. Similarly, the incidental meeting of two characters at the battle of Waterloo did not require an epic recapitulation of the famous clash. To the contrary, that intersection could have been effectuated in a sentence or – if were getting paid by the word – a paragraph. This overexplaining can be a bit taxing, but it is also ably handled and adds a sort of mythical overlay to the narrative. The other digressions, however, serve only to distract, to burden, to annoy. The essays are the worst. In contemporary times, perhaps, they might have served a purpose. Not any longer. There is, to take one example, a critique on monasticism. I will allow that when Hugo wrote this, convents might have been a great danger to the world. Now, it fails to make the list of “One Trillion Things Im Worried About. ” At page 805, the reader is treated to Hugo going meta on us, as he delivers 20 pages about the use of slang in a novel. Again, this has no present-day relevance in a world in which realistic dialogue (utilizing slang, specific speech patterns, or terms of art) are the norm. Hugos digressions are inexcusably disruptive and antithetical to all notions of pacing and flow. He is like the speedbump on the Indy 500 track, the blind dogleg on the interstate. Every time Les Misérables gets some momentum going, Hugo yanks on the leash. It almost seems an intentional act, as though he is troubled by the thought of his novel being too entertaining. I can accept, as I noted above, the idea that an author might find it necessary to explain the history of a sewer system, before a character attempts to escape through it. What I cannot accept, though, is how this history is presaged by a disquisition on poop that manages to be simultaneously unneeded, gross, and a little racist. (Yes, there is really an essay on poop. (view spoiler) I shit you not. (hide spoiler. Classic novels tend to be challenging to read. It takes a certain amount of discipline and patience and maturity to appreciate them. There was a time, I will admit, that I opened certain books by the likes of Melville, Dickens, and Tolstoy, with a sneer already on my face, ready to puncture time-honored masterpieces with snark and sarcasm (though I stand by every unkind word I uttered about Moby Dick. I opened Les Misérables cognizant of its challenges, but truly (I believe) openminded as to its quality. It therefore came as a surprise when about halfway through (or a mere 688 pages) I started to dread this. It became my anti-white-whale, a thing that obsessed me but that I wanted to avoid. A good book can lift your spirits and brighten your day; a bad one does the opposite. Of course, I am old enough now to recognize the arrogance inherent in calling a timeless work like Les Misérables “bad. ” (Though arrogance is something that Hugo had in spades. After all, he wrote an essay on poop water and convinced you it was genius. This recognition led to a bit of meditation, as I tried to separate what I liked from what I didnt, what worked from what failed. I tried to divine an answer as to why this excessive and overlong monument to protracted verbosity has endured. Ultimately, I think it has to do with the fact that there is a lean, effective tale of bracing moral clarity within these pages. When we think of Les Misérables, even if we havent read it, we conjure images of broken systems, of justice that will break a mans back, of city streets abounding with poor children; and we applaud the message of charity, kindness, and goodwill that Hugo preaches. Of course, when we think of Les Misérables, we also tend to forget that this simple and timeless message is nearly obscured by antimonarchical screeds and learned tracts on sewage... Sep 17, 2012 Jonathan Terrington Everyone! We can only suppose that its new life as a musical - and what an appropriate fate for that most operatic novelist - will help to bring Les Misérables to the attention of a new generation of readers, reminding them perhaps that the abuses Hugo catalogues are still alive elsewhere, awaiting their own chroniclers in the brave new world of the twenty first century. Peter Washington, Introduction There are few novels which one can consider true masterpieces and among the greatest pieces of writing "We can only suppose that its new life as a musical - and what an appropriate fate for that most operatic novelist - will help to bring Les Misérables to the attention of a new generation of readers, reminding them perhaps that the abuses Hugo catalogues are still alive elsewhere, awaiting their own chroniclers in the brave new world of the twenty first century. Peter Washington, Introduction There are few novels which one can consider true masterpieces and among the greatest pieces of writing ever written. The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, The Complete Sherlock Holmes and Complete Stories and Poems number among these as examples. However there are some momentous epics in terms of themes such as Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell and this great work: Les Misérables, which despite their length are well worth the investment. Les Misérables, as a novel, is far grander than its worthy adaptations (of which the 1998 film with Liam Neeson and the stageplay are the finer works. It is not the simple tale of Jean Valjean escaping from Inspector Javert. It is so much more. It is: a love story, the love story of France as well as a romance; a tragedy, a catalogue of the miserable citizens of historic France; a historical chronicle, a mapping out of the cultural landscape of one image of time; above all it is a literary masterpiece. Victor Hugo may have his failings in this novel. At times he falls into pompous verbosity, rambling on about subjects which appear to lack relevance to the story. However, what he has achieved in this novel is nothing short of remarkable. This is literature at its finest, a book recording the suffering and beauty of humanity and reflecting upon it in language which is both complex and simple despite translation. Speaking of translation, this version by Charles E. Wilbour appears quite excellent (if old fashioned. And therefore anyone interested in reading this work is encouraged to get a true unabridged version. Reading the abridged versions will only ruin the charm of the story and perhaps your understanding of the story itself. This review has been moved to my site, click this link to read the rest... This is the longest book I've ever read, and is, without a shadow of a doubt, the BEST book I've ever been privileged enough to read. I mean, WOW. Hugo had me smiling, laughing and most of the time crying, all in one chapter. This is in no way, a happy tale. Not in the slightest. The man certainly knows how to captivate the reader, and captivate, he did. The power of a glance has been so much abused in love stories, that it has come to be disbelieved in. Few people dare now to say that two This is the longest book I've ever read, and is, without a shadow of a doubt, the BEST book I've ever been privileged enough to read. Few people dare now to say that two beings have fallen in love because they have looked at each other. Yet it is in this way that love begins, and in this way only. ” The character of Jean Valjean, is somewhat of an inspiration. He shows us all, that we are only human, regardless of our past, and whatever we did. People do indeed change. I am a huge fan of the West end show of Les Miserables. It is most definitely my favourite show. Although, the show tells the story well, there is a hell of a lot missed out. The book goes into tremendous detail, and for me, made the already grim tale, even more grim! This is not a bad thing, as in my opinion, I think the realisation of everything that is happening, hits you harder. Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise. ” Yes, this is a super long book, but it really is worth the time it takes to read it. Bloody amazing! LOVE LOVE LOVE! And by the way, Monsieur Marius, I believe that I was a little bit in love with you. ” There are not enough stars in existence, in order for me to give this book it's true rating. Jan 09, 2013 Matthew I dreamed a dream of reading this book - and I accomplished it! Surprisingly easy to read - even though it did take quite some time. Hugo does go off on quite a few tangents, but the whole experience was fantastic! Oct 03, 2013 Duane I'm obsessed with everything Les Miserables. The novel, the musical, the movies, especially the latest adaptation of the musical. I actually saw the musical before I ever read the novel. It's musical score is second to none and yes I have been known to shed tears during the performance. The novel is epic, a timeless classic and described by some as "the greatest story ever told. I don't know about that but it is one of the most detailed and intricately constructed novels I have ever read. The I'm obsessed with everything Les Miserables. The length can be daunting to some readers but go slow, read a little each day. After a time you won't put it down. As a book lover you want to have this one on your resume of books read... Aug 05, 2012 Elyse Walters I noticed a few friends currently reading this masterpiece. I read the unabridged version over 20 years ago. with a class) I enjoyed reading Goodreads member, Chrissie's process with this book and the many comments. Highly recommend reading her process, followed up by what others have to say. I was blessed reading this -with a class - and with my daughter who was only in the 8th grade at the time. Her brilliant literature teacher got each parent and student involved ( my husband was too. I noticed a few friends currently reading this masterpiece. Her brilliant literature teacher got each parent and student involved ( my husband was too. After all the investment of time and discussion - plus having seen the play ( which we went to see again 2 more times while it played in SF) I concluded this has got to be one of the greatest books of all time. I don't think it's important to have to try and remember all the minor characters names. which seemed to be a concern for readers. but I think it's terrific they now have this novel in audio. What a wonderful gift. plus if a reader followed along with the novel. The audio sounds like it could be a wonderful way to engross oneself. Just my 2 cents! OH YES. AGREE! 5 stars! Plus, its still my favorite play today... Feb 10, 2015 Corinne In my vacation, over the last two weeks, I visited the birthplace of Victor Hugo in Besançon, his home in Paris where his children were born, and his grave in Pantheon. I also read his “Les Miserables” again, that is 21 years after I read it for the first time in my High School in France, and I was surprised to see how differently I reacted to this book. Then I realized the book has not changed over these 21 years, but its me who has changed! At the school, I was obliged to read this book as a In my vacation, over the last two weeks, I visited the birthplace of Victor Hugo in Besançon, his home in Paris where his children were born, and his grave in Pantheon. Then I realized the book has not changed over these 21 years, but its me who has changed! At the school, I was obliged to read this book as a part of our curriculum, and it came across as something heavy. But, now that I have been blazed a few times in my life, I could relate to this book a lot better, and, at times, even felt healed by it. The aspect that struck me the most is how Victor Hugo has constructed his characters: theyre neither entirely good, nor entirely bad; theyre humane, yet extraordinary. The police inspector Javert values his duty of keeping law and order above human beings, until he is humbled by Jean Valjean, when he saves the life of Javert, his worst enemy, during the barricade. Then Javert enters his irreconcilable internal conflict between ethics and law, that is between his moral duty to preserve a good man like Jean Valjean and his legal duty of turning him in as a fugitive, and Javert ends his life to save Jean Valjean. This comes across as a surprise, because Victor Hugo had set up all along Javert as a man of unbending principles, yet not incredible, because weve also seen Javert to be a man of good heart and conscience. Victor Hugo didnt set up Jean Valjean as a paragon of virtue either. We can see his humane side, even after his conversion into a good man, when he enters his severe inner conflict vis-a-vis the man about to be condemned in his place, for having stolen the forty sous from Petit Gervais. You can see his temptations to evade law and save his own life; you can also see traces from his life of ex-convict when he gets angry with people, and the use of his force when his personal ethics conflict with the law. And, even for a powerful man like him, you can see his fears, his anxieties, and his insecurities about Cosette. Even for the rogue Thenardier, Victor Hugo has made him humane, by letting him save the father of Marius in the battle of waterloo! Hugo also gave Thenardier a realistic end, in the sense that, in spite of all his dirty tricks, he ‘succeeds in life, from Thenardiers perspective of course. Gavroche, the son of Thenardier, earns his bread by stealing, but he also steals your heart when he saves the two kids, and gives up his life at the barricade. His sister, Eponine, is another thief and manipulator, but she sacrifices her life at the barricade too, trying to save Marius, her secret love. Marius, the closest in resemblance to Victor Hugo (whose middle name is ‘Marie by the way) is a political idealist, yet insensitive to many in life, including Jean Valjean; youre in love with him, and angry at him at the same time. Its this powerful use of contrast, in the characters and in the events of the novel, that I find absolutely fascinating in Victor Hugos work, particularly in Les Miserables. And, I think this is what makes his works so lifelike, because, just like in life, you cant really put a definite label on any of his characters or story events; thats why you can never predict anything, and you remain hooked in suspense till the end. Of course, there are his big philosophical discourses about life and love, but, if you focus on the core drama of this novel, its just absolutely gripping. The way he details the inner landscape of the characters, and the values of the society he touches upon, are as universal today, as they were during his time. Its because those details are so unique and specific that they no longer remain individual; they become us, the universal. This evening Im going to see the grave of Juliette Drouet, who was the muse of Victor Hugo, for fifty years! As a woman, I wonder what was there in her spirit that could inspire a writer like Victor Hugo, for so long. (Review updated on 29/07 for my second read... There are many books that bring up morality and the meaning of "right" and "wrong" but none capture it as well as Les Misérables. This timeless classic needs to be remembered for as long as there are people on this earth. SIDE NOTE: What's your favourite film adaptation of this book? I personally prefer the 1998 version but both versions are very well-made. Mar 01, 2010 Jason Speed readers; people who like to curl up to month-long books 1466 pages! And I've isolated the best single sentence in the whole book. It describes how you die in warfare: If anything is horrible, if there is a reality that surpasses our worst dreams, it is this: to live, to see the sun, to be in full possession of manly vigor, to have health and joy, to laugh heartily, to rush toward a glory that lures you on, to feel lungs that breathe, a heart that beats, a mind that thinks, to speak, to hope, to love; to have mother, wife, children, to have sunlight, 1466 pages! And I've isolated the best single sentence in the whole book. It describes how you die in warfare: If anything is horrible, if there is a reality that surpasses our worst dreams, it is this: to live, to see the sun, to be in full possession of manly vigor, to have health and joy, to laugh heartily, to rush toward a glory that lures you on, to feel lungs that breathe, a heart that beats, a mind that thinks, to speak, to hope, to love; to have mother, wife, children, to have sunlight, and suddenly, in less time than it takes to cry out, to plunge into an abyss, to fall, to roll, to crush, to be crushed, to see the heads of grain, the flowers, the leaves, the branches, unable to catch hold of anything, to feel your sword useless, men under you, horses over you, to struggle in vain, your bones broken by some kick in the darkness, to feel a heel gouging your eye out of their sockets, raging at the horseshoe between your teeth, to stifle, to howl, to twist, to be under all this, and to say, Just then I was a living man. p. 355) Wow. How do you review a 1466-paged complete and unabridged uber-classic? The book has the rectilinear dimensions of a fire-baked brick. It's a doorstop. Les Miserables is a successful, sweeping epic. It follows several interrelated characters throughout their lives, and philosophizes on religion, language, warfare, science, etc. I'm sure it's much more poignant, more beautiful in its original language, but this was a satisfactory translation. Nevertheless, I can't award more than 4 stars, and here's why. The unabridged version is just too much book; it's too slow-moving; it's too expansive; it's too overwrought; it's too circumlocutious. Near the end of the book ( by page 1150) I quickly started losing the motivation to finish it, despite that I was still interested in each character. When I was finished, I felt the release of 1 month/40 hours of reading being lifted pleasantly off my shoulders, like removing a fire-baked brick from my scapula and clavicles- definitely not a 5-star characteristic. This is not to say it's poorly-written. On the contrary, I think Hugo, more than any other writer besides Shakespeare, has the most memorable, thought provoking one-liners. He'll write an entire paragraph on a single thought, then sum it up in one profound, euphonic sentence. Nothing is so dismal as the brightness of deserted streets. A man without a woman is a pistol without a hammer. The ground in summer is as quick to dry as a child's cheek. Nothing is so beautiful as greenery washed by the rain and wiped by the sunbeam; it is warm freshness. He who does not weep, does not see. Unhappy is he who surrenders himself to the changing heart of woman! Stop! I could list 100 of these aphorisms simply by rifling through the book and randomly pulling one from each page. They're there, on every page, and they're all profound, take a look. Hugo also blithely diverges for 20-50 pages on war, language, religion, revolution, love, science, the Paris sewer system. In this unabridged version, Hugo's diversions act as an antecedent, merely establishing what at first seems like an unnecessary diatribe, but actually provides the background (or milieu) for a subsequent storyline involving the main characters. For example, Hugo waxes for almost 60 pages about the Battle of Waterloo, with absolutely no reference to the main story, except at the end- the last paragraph of the diatribe- where he provides the critical link back to the story. I'm not an editor, but these diatribes, these philosophical meanderings, makes it absurdly easy to edit Les Miserables into a successful abridged work. Cut out these diversions, and you have quite a driving story of only 600 pages. The 'Complete and Unabridged' version has its place; it exposes the reader to the wonderful expanses of Victor Hugo's polymathic mind. However, as a final recommendation, I can only tell you to read the abridged version! I feel horrible saying that, but as Hugo would quip, wherever you go, there you are. New words: euphony, antonomasia, sutler, chilblain, anchylosis, afflatus, demiurge, argot, ochlocracy... I don't believe I've ever been this ambivalent about a book. I don't remember having ever read anything that I loved and hate the way I do this. Okay, it got four stars, so maybe there are more loveable than loathsome parts, but still, thinking about it tugs my heart in both directions. When it's good it's excellent, and completely deserves 5 stars - more even. The descriptions of the moral complexities a man is faced with are spectacular and Jean Valjean's internal struggles are always a wonder I don't believe I've ever been this ambivalent about a book. The descriptions of the moral complexities a man is faced with are spectacular and Jean Valjean's internal struggles are always a wonder to witness. Hugo really nails large parts of the human condition in much of the book; the compassion, the cruelty, the greed, the forgiveness, the love. He presents us with some memorable characters, who each possess qualities and flaws that we're all familiar with. Enjolras and Grantaire are great examples of this, of two men who, in their contrast, fulfill each other somehow, and both together and apart help describe a part of human life. It's brilliant, I loved it. I want to go into detail with all the major characters, and some of the minor, but I'll refrain. I'll have nothing new to say anyway. But the characters are the best part about this book, no doubt. Unfortunately, when this book turns bad, it turns goddamned awful. Before that, however, let me address the length and version of the book I read. I read a fourth of this unabridged before I gave up and got an abridged version. I both regret and don't regret this decision (there it is again, the fucking ambivalence. The unabridged version simply had too much ridiculous filler chapters in it. Yes, the battle of Waterloo is interesting, no I don't want 6 effing chapters of it. That's not what the book is about. However, the abridged version meant you lost some of the details and character descriptions and I regret not getting that. There was one hilarious moment in this particular edition, after Marius sent Cosette his love letter, it shows us one and a half page of his lovesick rambling, and then goes something like "The letter goes on like this for another 4 pages. 4 PAGES! YOU HAVE NEVER EVEN SPOKEN TO HER YOU CREEP! in actuality the letter is described as being 15 pages, but maybe he just has terrible hand writing. Which cleverly brings me back to what is so awful about this book. The love story. Holy. Shit. No. Get it away from me. I know how you all love to say Edward and Bella have an abusive relationship and Edward is a shady stalker, but guys? He has fucking nothing on Marius. A year he follows Cosette around. A YEAR. He sends her a 15 page long love letter, without having spoken a word to her. How did he get her address? He asked someone to track her down. But, you know, okay. Fine. People like what they like and times were different back then. I could have forgiven it somewhat if that was it, but it isn't. Before her marriage and before her ridiculous infatuation with Marius, Cosette actually seemed to have real character, she could stand on her own, but then Marius enters and she slowly evaporates. She lets her entire soul and being be overtaken by Marius. It's worst after their marriage. She turns into a pretty, shallow shadow of her husband. It is absolutely despicable. I wanted to throw the fucking book through a window, I was so mad. That, ladies and gentlemen, is not a healthy relationship and it irked the hell out of me. Unforgivable, Hugo, I don't care how much you thought you couldn't write women, that's no excuse for not even trying. And for this reason I also feel a wonderful kinship with Enjolras as he sings to Marius in the musical: Who cares about your lonely soul. Because indeed, who cares? Not me. Marius is a pawn in this book and probably one of the least interesting characters. In contrast, I love the story of Jean Valjean - it's breathtaking and immensely moving - and I love the story of the barricades and the revolution. I just also absolutely despise the story of Marius and Cosette. The great thing is that my anger toward that one part hasn't tainted my love of the other part. It simply makes it difficult for me to love the book as a whole. This got very long, I apologize. I urge you all to read it. It has some amazing philosophy in it - another part I regret about reading it abridged; a lot of Hugo's own musings were gone. I'd love to have someone collect and organize of his thoughts on various things as they are presented throughout this book and make into a separate book. That'd be very interesting... I put off tackling this novel for more years than I can remember. This was mostly because I wanted to read it in French and the length of the book daunted me somewhat. That, and the fact that every time I was in the local foreign language bookstore they didnt seem to have all of the volumes. The fact that I was relying on a local bookstore rather than the Internet to obtain a book in French indicates how many years its been since I gave reading the novel any serious thought. The last two I put off tackling this novel for more years than I can remember. The last two months have been a Les Misérables immersion experience as I listened to the audiobook downloaded for free from this site. The narrator, who goes by the name of “Pomme”, is superb. Although she doesnt use different accents or create obviously different voices for the characters, she renders emotions quite beautifully and is a pleasure to listen to. I can now understand why so many people consider Les Misérables to be the great French novel and, for that matter, one of the greatest novels of all time. The plot is well known to anyone who has seen the musical. However, the novel is so much more than the story of Jean Valjeans redemption, than his pursuit by the determined Inspector Javert, than the love story of Marius and Cosette, than the world of the villainous Thénardiers. Rather, it is the recreation of the world of Victor Hugos youth, with vivid and detailed descriptions of Paris in the 1820s and 1830s, with digressions on topics as varied as the Battle of Waterloo, the manufacture of jet jewellery, French politics, the difference between a riot and a revolution and the Parisian sewerage system. For some readers, Hugos essays on these and other topics get in the way of the story. For me, they are the story. Or at least they make the story so much more than the elements of the plot which form the basis for the stage adaptation. This is a vast, sprawling, hugely digressive, powerful, sentimental monster of a novel. It is by no means flawless. Hugo suffers from the failing of so many male writers of the 19th century, that is, an unhealthy preoccupation with the virginity and purity of nice young women. This means that he makes the adult Cosette not only dull in her perfection, but stupid as well. She is infinitely less interesting than the brave Eponine, the frightening Madame Thénardier or the tragic Fantine. However, Cosettes blandness is easy enough to deal with in a novel otherwise populated with such wonderful characters. Of them, Jean Valjean and Inspector Javert are of course the standouts. Hugo creates intensely detailed psychological portraits of these two fascinating men, who have such different philosophies of life. I sorely regret not reading the novel sooner, because the number of times I will be able to re-read it is so much more limited than it would have been otherwise. Listening to the novel over the past few weeks has been a fabulous literary experience. I appreciate that not all readers will appreciate its length, its language or its digressive nature, but for total immersion in a different world there can be nothing more satisfying. For anyone interested in the geographical locations described in the novel and planning a trip to France, a blogger has written a great account of travelling through France while reading the novel. He has also created a fabulous interactive map which shows the locations of various events in the novel. The blog can be found here and the map can be found here... Feb 17, 2014 Lazaros everyone, really “Teach the ignorant as much as you can; society is culpable in not providing a free education for all and it must answer for the night which it produces. If the soul is left in darkness sins will be committed. The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but he who causes the darkness. ” A literary masterpiece. This is truly one of the best books I've ever read and I'm glad I took my time with it. So many characters, so many stories woven into one; a powerful & soulful book. Victor Hugo is “Teach the ignorant as much as you can; society is culpable in not providing a free education for all and it must answer for the night which it produces. ” A literary masterpiece. Victor Hugo is wordy, not in a bad way but in the way you want to read and read and read because this author had a talent for taking the smallest of things and creating something beautiful & amazing out of it without ever creating that feeling of unneeded information. There were historical details, many historical details and although I'm not a big fan of history, I enjoyed reading how Victor Hugo perceived several historical milestones, such as the battle of Waterloo and more importantly the French Revolution. He gave his own personal note to these events, more so to the French Revolution where he put characters and events and gave us every single feeling of how it was to living through something like that, something so important to the nation of France. The story follows many characters. Protagonist of it, is Jean Valjean, a convict who were for 19 years in the galleys for stealing a piece of bread because he was too hungry. We can see Jean changing throughout the book, changing to become the man he always was supposed to be but life got in the way and prevented him from becoming the good, kind and loving man he was to become. We can see the struggles of living in post-Revolution France and how dire the situation for everyone who wasn't rich was. Jean Valjean, we cannot exactly say he was a man who regretted for stealing that bread although he definitely was sorry for losing all those years from his life. But if he hadn't stolen that bread, then maybe nothing of all the things that followed would have happened and maybe he never would have grown to known love & care like he did. I do not wish to write about all of the characters, Jean Valjean is enough I think. I think he is the core of the book, the one character we all awaited greatness from. He is a frank man, who makes honest mistakes and will give you all of his love if you're worthy of it. We can see what happens when you're too far from the truth and finally that truth catches up to you. The lies, the fear of being denied the very thing that we were born to give and receive, love. Mr. Hugo did an excellent work of captivating moments, of explaining situations in a way no else can. I just simply wish I spoke French just so that I could have read this book in its prototype & not a translation of it. I believe that the feelings would have been more magnified and more tense. If you decide to read this, do it because you want to not just because someone told you to. Be conscious of your decision and when you do read it make sure you take your time with it, savor every moment and cherish every second of this book. Don't be hasty, don't read it in the heat of the moment, keep at it slowly and let it speak to you and let yourself get lost in this tale of pain, hate, obsession, redemption, pride & lastly, the lesson of love this book will teach you. Jun 28, 2017 emma 4. 5 stars. This book is a masterpiece. I dont even know how to review something so beautiful and complex, so Im just gonna list a few of the MANY amazing quotes from this work of art. Teach the ignorant as much as you can; society is culpable in not providing a free education for all and it must answer for the night which it produces. I have been loving you a 4. I have been loving you a little more every minute since this morning. What Is love? I have met in the streets a very poor young man who was in love. His hat was old, his coat worn, the water passed through his shoes and the stars through his soul. Diamonds are to be found only in the darkness of the earth, and truth in the darkness of the mind. There is one spectacle grander than the sea, that is the sky; there is one spectacle grander than the sky, that is the interior of the soul. (minus. 5 stars just because Cosette is annoying af... Mar 05, 2017 Chris_P Love and Revolution. Two words so closely related to each other that the one shouldn't exist even as a notion without the other. Love (not just the caring, Jesus-kind of love, but eros) this primitive angel, old as mankind and subject to all human flaws, is the fuel that ignites the all-embracing, all-changing Revolution, the flame of which is merely destructive without any will to create when devoid of Love. I could write pages upon pages about Les Miserables but I don't think there's any Love and Revolution. I could write pages upon pages about Les Miserables but I don't think there's any point in that. 1200 pages (unabridged greek edition) and I enjoyed every single one of them. It took me 15 days to read this gigantic master of masterpieces and I feel like I could read it again right away. Now, I think I could die smiling. P. S. I've never craved for a happy ending so much in my whole life. 2: Love and Revolution, folks... Jan 15, 2008 Tom People who can read or listen to audio cd's or a combination of the two. Most people are familiar with the story of Les Mis because of the theatrical version which is itself a masterpiece, but most people don't bother to read the book. I read the unabridged novel and consider it among the most influential books of my life. (If you decide to read the unabridged version be warned; it holds hundreds of boring pages dedicated to subjects not directly related to the plot- such as the history of the Paris sewer system, the rules of convents, and battlefield strategy. Les Most people are familiar with the story of Les Mis because of the theatrical version which is itself a masterpiece, but most people don't bother to read the book. Les Miserables is incredible. As I read it, it evolved into much more than just an exciting story, it became something spiritual. No other book, probably not even the Bible has taught me as much about the atonement of Jesus Christ as Les Miserables. Hugo carefully patterned the priest and Jean Val Jean as Christ-figures to show his readers why God's 'miserable' children need a Savior to meet the demands of justice and what man is capable of if he accepts the atonement. Les Miserables is one of those books to which I can say I have a very personal relationship. I will always remember turning the last page as I sat on a curb under a streetlamp in front of my office building waiting for my wife to pick me up after work. I closed the book, sighed, and said out loud, wow. I didn't even want to talk to my wife on the ride home. I just wanted to sit back and think about Jean Val Jean and what he stood for. Like a painting, each book means something different to each beholder; this book was a gem for me... This is one of the most beautiful and best books ever written about human suffering; a true masterpiece. It is no exaggeration on my part to say so, and those who have read and liked it would agree with me. I have seen the musical and a miniseries, but the book surpasses them all. In my opinion, nothing can be compared with the book. Reading this was such a rewarding experience. While many areas including politics, progress, religion, morals are discussed in this lengthy work, the story as we This is one of the most beautiful and best books ever written about human suffering; a true masterpiece. While many areas including politics, progress, religion, morals are discussed in this lengthy work, the story as we all know is the story of Jean Val Jean, a victim of human injustice. Val Jean is an unorthodox hero – a social outcast. Through his story, Hugo brings to life the immense suffering the underprivileged class goes through. This is the central theme of the story. The physical suffering, the mental agonies, the moral dilemmas the people of this class go through is heartbreaking. Poverty, lack of education, ignorance, and negligence of the rulers have heavily contributed to the dreary lives and living conditions of this deprived class. Hugo penetrates deep into their lives and captures sincerely and sympathetically their misery. His compassion for them flows through his heart-touching writing. The background to the story runs from the eve of the battle of Waterloo to the Paris insurgency of June 1833. Hugo presents an account of these turning points of French history to the readers while entwining his story well with them. The chosen background in which the story is set gives Hugo the freedom to freely express his political and social perspective. Jean Val Jean, Fantine, and Cosette are the main characters Hugo creates to portray human suffering. Hugo covers all classes with them. There are other minor characters too, but these three characters stand out in the story for the unaccountable miseries they go through. Jean Val Jean, as was said above, is the hero. He is constantly persecuted by society and by the law. The early encounter with the bishop Bienvenu, helps him to replace his hatred with love; love for the god and mankind. He starts a new life and becomes successful, and remembering the kindness and guidance of the Bishop is generous and benevolent. Society reaps all the benefits and law respects him, only till his identity is revealed. When his identity is exposed, both law and society become his pursuers, feigning a blind eye to his virtues. This cruelty is shocking and heartbreaking. The despair he goes through of being a social outcast all his life no matter how reformed and close to god he has become is very strongly portrayed. Hugo accuses the society of its cruelty, condemns their actions, and shows that in spite of the stones cast at Val Jean, his faith in God and his righteousness is never impaired. He suffers yet forgives and loves. Hugo brings out a Christ-like hero in him. One shouldnt, however, think that Les Misérables is only about misery and suffering. There is also love and happiness. There is fatherly love between Val Jean and Cosette, and love and perfect bliss between Cosette and Marius. These happy relations pour sunshine to the story amidst the heavy, dark clouds. Hugos writing is beautifully descriptive, poetic, passionate, dramatic and emotionally arousing. I cannot recall a book that broke my heart as much as this book did. There were many moments that I cried over. And there were certain parts which were too painful to read. These include two heart-stricken moments concerning Val Jean in revealing his true identity at Champmathieu case and to Marius, and when the insurgency is described where many innocent and youthful lives were lost fighting for an ideal. I have read certain criticisms on its too detailed historical accounts. Perhaps they are too detailed, but for my part, I found them informative and helpful to fully understand the backdrop in which the story is written. The story, apart from historical details, was emotionally exhausting, but at the same time rewarding. I absolutely loved the read, although it mercilessly broke my heart. Thank you, Hugo, for leaving with us this remarkable and unique treasure... It feels like sacrilege to say as much, but I think I may have enjoyed reading an abridged version of this book more! If I were rating the story of Jean Valjean, Cosette, Javert and Marius, I would definitely give this a 5 star rating. Its a fabulous story of redemption, full of wonderfully drawn characters, a gentle humour and some amazingly emotionally wrenching scenes. But, for me, the frequent, lengthy and occasionally eye wateringly boring transgressions detracted from my enjoyment of the It feels like sacrilege to say as much, but I think I may have enjoyed reading an abridged version of this book more! If I were rating the story of Jean Valjean, Cosette, Javert and Marius, I would definitely give this a 5 star rating. But, for me, the frequent, lengthy and occasionally eye wateringly boring transgressions detracted from my enjoyment of the story itself, hence the 4 stars. I read the Julie Rose translation of Les Miserables and whilst it did flow well, I found that occasionally the use of very modern (American) English jarred, and dragged me away from the setting and time of the book. It is certainly a very readable translation though... Dec 16, 2011 David liked it Grisettes, Jondrettes, Cosettes Oh. Hugo. Damn you are wordy! I mean, Charles Dickens can go on, but read Victor Hugo and you will come to appreciate Chuck's brevity. Such being the case, and a convent having happened to be on our road, it has been our duty to enter it. Why? Because the convent, which is common to the Orient as well as to the Occident, to antiquity as well as to modern times, to paganism, to Buddhism, to Mahometanism, as well as to Christianity, is one of the optical apparatuses applied by man to the Infinite. Oh. Why? Because the convent, which is common to the Orient as well as to the Occident, to antiquity as well as to modern times, to paganism, to Buddhism, to Mahometanism, as well as to Christianity, is one of the optical apparatuses applied by man to the Infinite. This is not the place for enlarging disproportionately on certain ideas; nevertheless, while absolutely maintaining our reserves, our restrictions, and even our indignations, we must say that every time we encounter man in the Infinite, either well or ill understood, we feel ourselves overpowered with respect. There is, in the synagogue, in the mosque, in the pagoda, in the wigwam, a hideous side which we execrate, and a sublime side, which we adore. What a contemplation for the mind, and what endless food for thought, is the reverberation of God upon the human wall! So that part above where Hugo says "This is not the place for enlarging disproportionately on certain ideas" He will go on to enlarge disproportionately on certain ideas for several chapters, because a convent happens to be on our road. I mean, seriously, a disquisition on monasticism, and a history of the Parisian sewers, in the middle of chase scenes. So, I finally finished this monster. I listened to it on CD. 60 hours, and I think I checked it out about eight times from the library because I just could not keep listening to it day after day. Hence it took me over six months to finish it. I think I need to throw myself a party or something for getting through it. I know, you are recoiling in horror. Only 3 stars? For one of the greatest works in the history of literature? Look, I rate things on two factors: how "objectively" good I think they are, and how much I enjoyed them. Now, I can sink into a big, long, wordy book. And I was actually hoping to like this one more, because I loved The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which a lot of people also think is wordy and dry. And which also meanders away from the plot for entire chapters for Hugo to show off his research and ramble. But Les Mis. just did not connect with me for all that it is an epic tale of human pettiness, nobility, compassion, foolishness, spite, bravado, love, tragedy, and every other human emotion, virtuous and base, on display. Possibly because at times I felt like the characters were too much puppets who were there to act out Victor Hugo's themes, not enough actual flesh and blood people. And somehow, the wry, ironic humor I found in Notre Dame de Paris was missing in Les Miserables. I will not bother to summarize the plot. Surely you've seen at least one of the umpteen film adaptations, if not the musical. The plot, after all, contrary to what so many people who haven't actually read the book think, is not about the French Revolution (either of them. No, it's about a minor student uprising that was crushed futilely. Marius and his friends were the Occupy protesters of 1830s France, and did about as much good. Oh, but it's about so much more. It's about the power of the state, and the meaning of family, and whether men can change or are fixed in their natures. You cannot help but be moved by Jean Valjean's arc, and by Inspector Javert, a man so remorselessly, unbendingly straight that he literally cannot conceive of there being more than one correct action in any situation — this inability being ultimately the cause of his death. Forced to choose between justice and the law, which have been one and the same to him his entire life, his mind breaks. The deaths of Éponine and Gavroche (who provided the only spot of humor in the book) were also genuinely tragic, the denouement of genuinely tragic lives, even more so than tragically disposable Fantine in the first part of the book. So yes, there were parts that moved me. And yet. Jean Valjean was a plot puppet. Javert more so — he illustrated a moral principle more than a human soul. And dear god did I get tired of Hugo waxing on about beautiful, innocent, pure, perfect, virginal, indefatigable, sunny, delightful, naive, precious blessed little lamb Cosette. I mean, the kid spent the first few years of her life as a house-elf for the Thénardiers. It's gonna take more than a nunnery to undo all that. Hugo was a genius with a social conscience. Of his own book he said: So long as there shall exist, by reason of law and custom, a social condemnation, which, in the face of civilization, artificially creates hells on earth, and complicates a destiny that is divine with human fatality; so long as the three problems of the age—the degradation of man by poverty, the ruin of women by starvation, and the dwarfing of childhood by physical and spiritual night—are not solved; so long as, in certain regions, social asphyxia shall be possible; in other words, and from a yet more extended point of view, so long as ignorance and misery remain on earth, books like this cannot be useless. And from the misery of the Cour de miracles slum to the brave futility of the anti-monarchist uprising to the brutal grinding wheels of justice that turned a man into a lifelong felon for stealing a loaf of bread, Hugo hammers his themes eloquently and grandly. But. Gads did it grind on. And so. I'm sorry. 3 stars. Definitely a book everyone should read before they die. But for me, once was enough... Sometimes you realise that there is a gulf of taste between yourself and other people. With me that realisation comes from Les Miserables. There are masses of reviews on Goodreads from people who give every appearance of honestly loving this book, personally I find it ridiculous. Obviously this an issue of perspective, as a non-church goer I find it natural that a bishop, a senior Christian, would model Christian qualities (view spoiler. specifically positive ideal qualities, as opposed to Sometimes you realise that there is a gulf of taste between yourself and other people. Obviously this an issue of perspective, as a non-church goer I find it natural that a bishop, a senior Christian, would model Christian qualities (view spoiler. specifically positive ideal qualities, as opposed to those typical of many Christians throughout the ages (hide spoiler. people with more direct experience of the Church perhaps are inclined to find his behaviour remarkable. Surely this is a novel crying out to be made into an epic long running children's cartoon in the spirit of Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds (view spoiler. and if you haven't seen it, why not? hide spoiler. It is enjoyable, completely totally over the top and melodramatic right up until the final section which features a character that Hugo based on himself. A character such of puffed up self-importance lacking reasonable human sympathy as to spoil an otherwise fairly harmless, if silly, piece of entertainment. It seems to me that the book's argument runs counter to itself, the waters rushing in opposite directions. On the one hand Valjean is a hero of redemption who moves from selfishness to living for others, equally we understand that his initial 'crime' was the impersonal working out of a typically inhuman socio-economic system, then the Victor Hugo character pushes him down and kicks him in the gut as he on account of said 'crime' is inherently too polluting a presence to have in Hugo's bride's life - there is no redemption for the original sin. Can Javert recognising Jean Valjean by his unique ability to lift a cart be signalling anything other than a tongue being firmly in cheek? The alternative, that it is meant to be taken seriously is a little disturbing. And indeed the only worthy ending apparently for Cosette is to marry narrative Victor Hugo, not to return the favour to her adoptive father Valjean and provide for him in his old age, nor even to be inspired by his example and open a factory with child care facilities and a worker's canteen, no instead in the narrative she should lie back on the marital bed and be grateful. I feel that women don't really exist in Hugo's prose, or rather they do but it is like in Maths the men are the numbers, while the women are those odd signs that describe the relationships between them. Then again the Valjean-Cosette-Marius triangle is pre-mathematical (even pre-pythagorian) something out of folklore, one of the stories of the type in which when the husband gets his bride her father dies. This for me is the clearest link between this novel and Toilers of the Sea, elements of the epic and the fairy tale dressed up in nineteenth century clothes... Victor Hugo, in full Victor-Marie Hugo, poet, playwrighter, novelist, dramatist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights campaigner, and perhaps the most influential exponent of the Romantic movement in France, who was the most important of the French Romantic writers. Though regarded in France as one of that countrys greatest poets, he is better known abroad for such novels as Victor Hugo, in full Victor-Marie Hugo, poet, playwrighter, novelist, dramatist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights campaigner, and perhaps the most influential exponent of the Romantic movement in France, who was the most important of the French Romantic writers. Though regarded in France as one of that countrys greatest poets, he is better known abroad for such novels as Notre-Dame de Paris (1831) and Les Misérables (1862. “He never went out without a book under his arm, and he often came back with two. ” — 6706 likes “Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise. ” 4445 likes More quotes… Welcome back. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account.

From Wikisource Jump to navigation Jump to search sister projects: Wikipedia article, Commons gallery, Commons category, quotes, Wikidata item. Les Misérables (1862) one of the most well known novels of the 19th century follows the lives and interactions of several French characters over a twenty year period in the early 19th century that includes the Napoleonic wars and subsequent decades. Principally focusing on the struggles of the protagonist—ex-convict Jean Valjean—to redeem himself through good works, the novel examines the impact of Valjean's actions as social commentary. — Excerpted from Les Misérables on Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Translated from the original French by Isabel F. Hapgood Author's Preface Volume I ( Fantine. edit] Book First - A Just Man Book Second - The Fall Book Third - In the Year 1817 Book Fourth - To Confide is Sometimes to Deliver into a Person's Power Book Fifth - The Descent Book Sixth - Javert Book Seventh - The Champmathieu Affair Book Eighth - A Counter-Blow Volume II ( Cosette. edit] Book First - Waterloo Book Second - The Ship Orion Book Third - Accomplishment of the Promise Made to a Dead Woman Book Fourth - The Gorbeau Hovel Book Fifth - For a Black Hunt, a Mute Pack Book Sixth - Le Petit-Picpus Book Seventh - Parenthesis Book Eighth - Cemetaries Take That Which is Commited Them Volume III ( Marius. edit] Book First - Paris Studied in Its Atom Book Second - The Great Bourgeois Book Third - The Grandfather and the Grandson Book Fourth - The Friends of the ABC Book Fifth - The Excellence of Misfortune Book Sixth - The Conjunction of Two Stars Book Seventh - Patron Minette Book Eighth - The Wicked Poor Man Volume IV ( Saint Denis. edit] Book First - A Few Pages of History Book Second - Eponine Book Third - The House in the Rue Plumet Book Fourth - Succor From Below May Turn Out To Be Succor From On High Book Fifth - The End of Which does not Resemble the Beginning Book Sixth - Little Gavroche Book Seventh - Slang Book Eighth - Enchantments and Desolations Book Ninth - Whither are They Going? Book Tenth - The 5th of June, 1832 Book Eleventh - The Atom Fraternizes with the Hurricane Book Twelfth - Corinthe Book Thirteenth - Marius Enters the Shadow Book Fourteenth - The Grandeurs of Despair Book Fifteenth - The Rue de L'Homme Arme Volume V ( Jean Valjean. edit] Book First - The War Between Four Walls Book Second - The Intestine of the Leviathan Book Third - Mud But the Soul Book Fourth - Javert Derailed Book Fifth - Grandson and Grandfather Book Sixth - The Sleepless Night Book Seventh - The Last Draught from the Cup Book Eighth - Fading away of the Twilight Book Ninth - Supreme Shadow, Supreme Dawn.

Les Misérables Jean Valjean as Monsieur Madeleine. Illustration by Gustave Brion Author Victor Hugo Illustrator Emile Bayard Country Belgium Language French Genre Epic novel, historical fiction Publisher A. Lacroix, Verboeckhoven & Cie. Publication date 1862 Les Misérables. 1] French: le mizeʁabl(ə. is a French historical novel by Victor Hugo, first published in 1862, that is considered one of the greatest novels of the 19th century. In the English-speaking world, the novel is usually referred to by its original French title. However, several alternatives have been used, including The Miserables, The Wretched, The Miserable Ones, The Poor Ones, The Wretched Poor, The Victims and The Dispossessed. [2] Beginning in 1815 and culminating in the 1832 June Rebellion in Paris, the novel follows the lives and interactions of several characters, particularly the struggles of ex-convict Jean Valjean and his experience of redemption. [3] Examining the nature of law and grace, the novel elaborates upon the history of France, the architecture and urban design of Paris, politics, moral philosophy, antimonarchism, justice, religion, and the types and nature of romantic and familial love. Les Misérables has been popularized through numerous adaptations for film, television and the stage, including a musical. Novel form Upton Sinclair described the novel as "one of the half-dozen greatest novels of the world" and remarked that Hugo set forth the purpose of Les Misérables in the Preface: 4] So long as there shall exist, by reason of law and custom, a social condemnation, which, in the face of civilization, artificially creates hells on earth, and complicates a destiny that is divine with human fatality; so long as the three problems of the age—the degradation of man by poverty, the ruin of women by starvation, and the dwarfing of childhood by physical and spiritual night—are not solved; so long as, in certain regions, social asphyxia shall be possible; in other words, and from a yet more extended point of view, so long as ignorance and misery remain on earth, books like this cannot be useless. Towards the end of the novel, Hugo explains the work's overarching structure: 5] The book which the reader has before him at this moment is, from one end to the other, in its entirety and details. a progress from evil to good, from injustice to justice, from falsehood to truth, from night to day, from appetite to conscience, from corruption to life; from bestiality to duty, from hell to heaven, from nothingness to God. The starting point: matter, destination: the soul. The hydra at the beginning, the angel at the end. The novel contains various subplots, but the main thread is the story of ex-convict Jean Valjean, who becomes a force for good in the world but cannot escape his criminal past. The novel is divided into five volumes, each volume divided into several books, and subdivided into chapters, for a total of 48 books and 365 chapters. Each chapter is relatively short, commonly no longer than a few pages. The novel as a whole is one of the longest ever written, 6] with 655, 478 words in the original French. Hugo explained his ambitions for the novel to his Italian publisher: 7] I don't know whether it will be read by everyone, but it is meant for everyone. It addresses England as well as Spain, Italy as well as France, Germany as well as Ireland, the republics that harbour slaves as well as empires that have serfs. Social problems go beyond frontiers. Humankind's wounds, those huge sores that litter the world, do not stop at the blue and red lines drawn on maps. Wherever men go in ignorance or despair, wherever women sell themselves for bread, wherever children lack a book to learn from or a warm hearth, Les Misérables knocks at the door and says: open up, I am here for you. Digressions More than a quarter of the novel—by one count 955 of 2, 783 pages—is devoted to essays that argue a moral point or display Hugo's encyclopedic knowledge, but do not advance the plot, nor even a subplot, a method Hugo used in such other works as The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Toilers of the Sea. One biographer noted that "the digressions of genius are easily pardoned. 8] The topics Hugo addresses include cloistered religious orders, the construction of the Paris sewers, argot, and the street urchins of Paris. The one about convents he titles "Parenthesis" to alert the reader to its irrelevance to the story line. [9] Hugo devotes another 19 chapters (Volume II, Book I) to an account of—and a meditation on the place in history of—the Battle of Waterloo, the battlefield which Hugo visited in 1861 and where he finished writing the novel. It opens volume 2 with such a change of subject as to seem the beginning of an entirely different work. The fact that this 'digression' occupies such a large part of the text demands that it be read in the context of the 'overarching structure' discussed above. Hugo draws his own personal conclusions, taking Waterloo to be a pivot-point in history, but definitely not a victory for the forces of reaction. Waterloo, by cutting short the demolition of European thrones by the sword, had no other effect than to cause the revolutionary work to be continued in another direction. The slashers have finished; it was the turn of the thinkers. The century that Waterloo was intended to arrest has pursued its march. That sinister victory was vanquished by liberty. One critic has called this "the spiritual gateway" to the novel, as its chance encounter of Thénardier and Colonel Pontmercy foreshadows so many of the novel's encounters "blending chance and necessity" a "confrontation of heroism and villainy. 10] Even when not turning to other subjects outside his narrative, Hugo sometimes interrupts the straightforward recitation of events, his voice and control of the story line unconstrained by time and sequence. The novel opens with a statement about the bishop of Digne in 1815 and immediately shifts: Although these details in no way essentially concern that which we have to tell. Only after 14 chapters does Hugo pick up the opening thread again, In the early days of the month of October, 1815. to introduce Jean Valjean. [11] Hugo's sources Eugène Vidocq, whose career provided a model for the character of Jean Valjean An incident Hugo witnessed in 1829 involved three strangers and a police officer. One of the strangers was a man who had stolen a loaf of bread, similar to Jean Valjean. The officer was taking him to the coach. The thief also saw the mother and daughter playing with each other which would be an inspiration for Fantine and Cosette. Hugo imagined the life of the man in jail and the mother and daughter taken away from each other. [12] Valjean's character is loosely based on the life of the ex-convict Eugène François Vidocq. Vidocq became the head of an undercover police unit and later founded France's first private detective agency. He was also a businessman and was widely noted for his social engagement and philanthropy. Vidocq also inspired Hugo as he wrote Claude Gueux and Le Dernier jour d'un condamné ( The Last Day of a Condemned Man. 13] In 1828, Vidocq, already pardoned, saved one of the workers in his paper factory by lifting a heavy cart on his shoulders as Valjean does. [14] Hugo's description of Valjean rescuing a sailor on the Orion drew almost word for word on a Baron La Roncière's letter describing such an incident. [15] Hugo used Bienvenu de Miollis (1753–1843) the Bishop of Digne during the time in which Valjean encounters Myriel, as the model for Myriel. [16] 29 Hugo had used the departure of prisoners from the Bagne of Toulon in one of his early stories, Le Dernier Jour d'un Condamné. He went to Toulon to visit the Bagne in 1839 and took extensive notes, though he did not start writing the book until 1845. On one of the pages of his notes about the prison, he wrote in large block letters a possible name for his hero: JEAN TRÉJEAN. When the book was finally written, Tréjean became Valjean. [17] In 1841, Hugo saved a prostitute from arrest for assault. He used a short part of his dialogue with the police when recounting Valjean's rescue of Fantine in the novel. [18] On 22 February 1846, when he had begun work on the novel, Hugo witnessed the arrest of a bread thief while a duchess and her child watched the scene pitilessly from their coach. [19] 16] 29–30 He spent several vacations in Montreuil-sur-Mer. [16] 32 During the 1832 revolt, Hugo walked the streets of Paris, saw the barricades blocking his way at points, and had to take shelter from gunfire. [20] 173–174 He participated more directly in the 1848 Paris insurrection, helping to smash barricades and suppress both the popular revolt and its monarchist allies. [20] 273–276 Victor Hugo drew his inspiration from everything he heard and saw, writing it down in his diary. In December 1846, he witnessed an altercation between an old woman scavenging through rubbish and a street urchin who might have been Gavroche. [21] He also informed himself by personal inspection of the Paris Conciergerie in 1846 and Waterloo in 1861, by gathering information on some industries, and on working-class people's wages and living standards. He asked his mistresses, Léonie d'Aunet and Juliette Drouet, to tell him about life in convents. He also slipped personal anecdotes into the plot. For instance Marius and Cosettes wedding night (Part V, Book 6, Chapter 1) takes place on 16 February 1833, which is also the date when Hugo and his lifelong mistress Juliette Drouet made love for the first time. [22] Plot Volume I: Fantine The story begins in 1815 in Digne, as the peasant Jean Valjean, just released from 19 years' imprisonment in the Bagne of Toulon —five for stealing bread for his starving sister and her family and fourteen more for numerous escape attempts—is turned away by innkeepers because his yellow passport marks him as a former convict. He sleeps on the street, angry and bitter. Digne's benevolent Bishop Myriel gives him shelter. At night, Valjean runs off with Myriel's silverware. When the police capture Valjean, Myriel pretends that he has given the silverware to Valjean and presses him to take two silver candlesticks as well, as if he had forgotten to take them. The police accept his explanation and leave. Myriel tells Valjean that his life has been spared for God, and that he should use money from the silver candlesticks to make an honest man of himself. Valjean broods over Myriel's words. When opportunity presents itself, purely out of habit, he steals a 40- sous coin from 12-year-old Petit Gervais and chases the boy away. He quickly repents and searches the city in panic for Gervais. At the same time, his theft is reported to the authorities. Valjean hides as they search for him, because if apprehended he will be returned to the galleys for life as a repeat offender. Six years pass and Valjean, using the alias Monsieur Madeleine, has become a wealthy factory owner and is appointed mayor of Montreuil-sur-Mer. Walking down the street, he sees a man named Fauchelevent pinned under the wheels of a cart. When no one volunteers to lift the cart, even for pay, he decides to rescue Fauchelevent himself. He crawls underneath the cart, manages to lift it, and frees him. The town's police inspector, Inspector Javert, who was an adjutant guard at the Bagne of Toulon during Valjean's incarceration, becomes suspicious of the mayor after witnessing this remarkable feat of strength. He has known only one other man, a convict named Jean Valjean, who could accomplish it. Years earlier in Paris, a grisette named Fantine was very much in love with Félix Tholomyès. His friends, Listolier, Fameuil, and Blachevelle were also paired with Fantine's friends Dahlia, Zéphine, and Favourite. The men abandon the women, treating their relationships as youthful amusements. Fantine must draw on her own resources to care for her and Tholomyès' daughter, Cosette. When Fantine arrives at Montfermeil, she leaves Cosette in the care of the Thénardiers, a corrupt innkeeper and his selfish, cruel wife. Fantine is unaware that they are abusing her daughter and using her as forced labor for their inn, and continues to try to meet their growing, extortionate and fictitious demands. She is later fired from her job at Jean Valjean's factory, because of the discovery of her daughter, who was born out of wedlock. Meanwhile, the Thénardiers' monetary demands continue to grow. In desperation, Fantine sells her hair and two front teeth, and she resorts to prostitution to pay the Thénardiers. Fantine is slowly dying from an unspecified disease. A dandy named Bamatabois harasses Fantine in the street, and she reacts by striking him. Javert arrests Fantine. She begs to be released so that she can provide for her daughter, but Javert sentences her to six months in prison. Valjean (Mayor Madeleine) intervenes and orders Javert to release her. Javert resists but Valjean prevails. Valjean, feeling responsible because his factory turned her away, promises Fantine that he will bring Cosette to her. He takes her to a hospital. Javert comes to see Valjean again. Javert admits that after being forced to free Fantine, he reported him as Valjean to the French authorities. He tells Valjean he realizes he was wrong, because the authorities have identified someone else as the real Jean Valjean, have him in custody, and plan to try him the next day. Valjean is torn, but decides to reveal himself to save the innocent man, whose real name is Champmathieu. He travels to attend the trial and there reveals his true identity. Valjean returns to Montreuil to see Fantine, followed by Javert, who confronts him in her hospital room. After Javert grabs Valjean, Valjean asks for three days to bring Cosette to Fantine, but Javert refuses. Fantine discovers that Cosette is not at the hospital and fretfully asks where she is. Javert orders her to be quiet, and then reveals to her Valjean's real identity. Weakened by the severity of her illness, she falls back in shock and dies. Valjean goes to Fantine, speaks to her in an inaudible whisper, kisses her hand, and then leaves with Javert. Later, Fantine's body is unceremoniously thrown into a public grave. Volume II: Cosette Valjean escapes, is recaptured, and is sentenced to death. The king commutes his sentence to penal servitude for life. While imprisoned in the Bagne of Toulon, Valjean, at great personal risk, rescues a sailor caught in the ship's rigging. Spectators call for his release. Valjean fakes his own death by allowing himself to fall into the ocean. Authorities report him dead and his body lost. Valjean arrives at Montfermeil on Christmas Eve. He finds Cosette fetching water in the woods alone and walks with her to the inn. He orders a meal and observes how the Thénardiers abuse her, while pampering their own daughters Éponine and Azelma, who mistreat Cosette for playing with their doll. Valjean leaves and returns to make Cosette a present of an expensive new doll which, after some hesitation, she happily accepts. Éponine and Azelma are envious. Madame Thénardier is furious with Valjean, while her husband makes light of Valjean's behaviour, caring only that he pay for his food and lodging. The next morning, Valjean informs the Thénardiers that he wants to take Cosette with him. Madame Thénardier immediately accepts, while Thénardier pretends to love Cosette and be concerned for her welfare, reluctant to give her up. Valjean pays the Thénardiers 1, 500 francs, and he and Cosette leave the inn. Thénardier, hoping to swindle more out of Valjean, runs after them, holding the 1, 500 francs, and tells Valjean he wants Cosette back. He informs Valjean that he cannot release Cosette without a note from the child's mother. Valjean hands Thénardier Fantine's letter authorizing the bearer to take Cosette. Thénardier then demands that Valjean pay a thousand crowns, but Valjean and Cosette leave. Thénardier regrets that he did not bring his gun and turns back toward home. Valjean and Cosette flee to Paris. Valjean rents new lodgings at Gorbeau House, where he and Cosette live happily. However, Javert discovers Valjean's lodgings there a few months later. Valjean takes Cosette and they try to escape from Javert. They soon find shelter in the Petit-Picpus convent with the help of Fauchelevent, the man whom Valjean once rescued from being crushed under a cart and who has become the convent's gardener. Valjean also becomes a gardener and Cosette becomes a student at the convent school. Volume III: Marius Eight years later, the Friends of the ABC, led by Enjolras, are preparing an act of anti- Orléanist civil unrest (ie. the Paris uprising on 5–6 June 1832, following the death of General Lamarque, the only French leader who had sympathy towards the working class. Lamarque was a victim of a major cholera epidemic that had ravaged the city, particularly its poor neighborhoods, arousing suspicion that the government had been poisoning wells. The Friends of the ABC are joined by the poor of the Cour des miracles, including the Thénardiers' eldest son Gavroche, who is a street urchin. One of the students, Marius Pontmercy, has become alienated from his family (especially his royalist grandfather M. Gillenormand) because of his Bonapartism views. After the death of his father, Colonel Georges Pontmercy, Marius discovers a note from him instructing his son to provide help to a sergeant named Thénardier who saved his life at Waterloo — in reality Thénardier was looting corpses and only saved Pontmercy's life by accident; he had called himself a sergeant under Napoleon to avoid exposing himself as a robber. At the Luxembourg Garden, Marius falls in love with the now grown and beautiful Cosette. The Thénardiers have also moved to Paris and now live in poverty after losing their inn. They live under the surname "Jondrette" at Gorbeau House (coincidentally, the same building Valjean and Cosette briefly lived in after leaving the Thénardiers' inn. Marius lives there as well, next door to the Thénardiers. Éponine, now ragged and emaciated, visits Marius at his apartment to beg for money. To impress him, she tries to prove her literacy by reading aloud from a book and by writing "The Cops Are Here" on a sheet of paper. Marius pities her and gives her some money. After Éponine leaves, Marius observes the "Jondrettes" in their apartment through a crack in the wall. Éponine comes in and announces that a philanthropist and his daughter are arriving to visit them. In order to look poorer, Thénardier puts out the fire and breaks a chair. He also orders Azelma to punch out a window pane, which she does, resulting in cutting her hand (as Thénardier had hoped. The philanthropist and his daughter enter — actually Valjean and Cosette. Marius immediately recognizes Cosette. After seeing them, Valjean promises them he will return with rent money for them. After he and Cosette leave, Marius asks Éponine to retrieve her address for him. Éponine, who is in love with Marius herself, reluctantly agrees to do so. The Thénardiers have also recognized Valjean and Cosette, and vow their revenge. Thénardier enlists the aid of the Patron-Minette, a well-known and feared gang of murderers and robbers. Marius overhears Thénardier's plan and goes to Javert to report the crime. Javert gives Marius two pistols and instructs him to fire one into the air if things get dangerous. Marius returns home and waits for Javert and the police to arrive. Thénardier sends Éponine and Azelma outside to look out for the police. When Valjean returns with rent money, Thénardier, with Patron-Minette, ambushes him and he reveals his real identity to Valjean. Marius recognizes Thénardier as the man who saved his father's life at Waterloo and is caught in a dilemma. He tries to find a way to save Valjean while not betraying Thénardier. Valjean denies knowing Thénardier and tells him that they have never met. Valjean tries to escape through a window but is subdued and tied up. Thénardier orders Valjean to pay him 200, 000 francs. He also orders Valjean to write a letter to Cosette to return to the apartment, and they would keep her with them until he delivers the money. After Valjean writes the letter and informs Thénardier of his address, Thénardier sends out Mme. Thénardier to get Cosette. Mme. Thénardier comes back alone, and announces the address is a fake. It is during this time that Valjean manages to free himself. Thénardier decides to kill Valjean. While he and Patron-Minette are about to do so, Marius remembers the scrap of paper that Éponine wrote on earlier. He throws it into the Thénardiers' apartment through the wall crack. Thénardier reads it and thinks Éponine threw it inside. He, Mme. Thénardier and Patron-Minette try to escape, only to be stopped by Javert. He arrests all the Thénardiers and Patron-Minette (except Claquesous, who escapes during his transportation to prison, and Montparnasse, who stops to run off with Éponine instead of joining in on the robbery. Valjean manages to escape the scene before Javert sees him. Volume IV: The Idyll in the Rue Plumet and the Epic in the Rue St. Denis Éponine prevents the robbery at Valjean's house After Éponine's release from prison, she finds Marius at "The Field of the Lark" and sadly tells him that she found Cosette's address. She leads him to Valjean's and Cosette's house on Rue Plumet, and Marius watches the house for a few days. He and Cosette then finally meet and declare their love for one another. Thénardier, Patron-Minette and Brujon manage to escape from prison with the aid of Gavroche (a rare case of Gavroche helping his family in their criminal acitivities. One night, during one of Marius's visits with Cosette, the six men attempt to raid Valjean's and Cosette's house. However, Éponine, who has been sitting by the gates of the house, threatens to scream and awaken the whole neighbourhood if the thieves do not leave. Hearing this, they reluctantly retire. Meanwhile, Cosette informs Marius that she and Valjean will be leaving for England in a week's time, which greatly troubles the pair. The next day, Valjean is sitting in the Champ de Mars. He is feeling troubled about seeing Thénardier in the neighbourhood several times. Unexpectedly, a note lands in his lap, which says "Move Out. He sees a figure running away in the dim light. He goes back to his house, tells Cosette they will be staying at their other house on Rue de l'Homme Arme, and reconfirms to her that they will be moving to England. Marius tries to get permission from M. Gillenormand to marry Cosette. His grandfather seems stern and angry, but has been longing for Marius's return. When tempers flare, he refuses his assent to the marriage, telling Marius to make Cosette his mistress instead. Insulted, Marius leaves. The following day, the students revolt and erect barricades in the narrow streets of Paris. Gavroche spots Javert and informs Enjolras that Javert is a spy. When Enjolras confronts him about this, he admits his identity and his orders to spy on the students. Enjolras and the other students tie him up to a pole in the Corinth restaurant. Later that evening, Marius goes back to Valjean's and Cosette's house on Rue Plumet, but finds the house no longer occupied. He then hears a voice telling him that his friends are waiting for him at the barricade. Distraught to find Cosette gone, he heeds the voice and goes. When Marius arrives at the barricade, the revolution has already started. When he stoops down to pick up a powder keg, a soldier comes up to shoot Marius. However, a man covers the muzzle of the soldier's gun with his hand. The soldier fires, fatally wounding the man, while missing Marius. Meanwhile, the soldiers are closing in. Marius climbs to the top of the barricade, holding a torch in one hand, a powder keg in the other, and threatens to the soldiers that he will blow up the barricade. After confirming this, the soldiers retreat from the barricade. Marius decides to go to the smaller barricade, which he finds empty. As he turns back, the man who took the fatal shot for Marius earlier calls Marius by his name. Marius discovers this man is Éponine, dressed in men's clothes. As she lies dying on his knees, she confesses that she was the one who told him to go to the barricade, hoping they would die together. She also confesses to saving his life because she wanted to die before he did. The author also states to the reader that Éponine anonymously threw the note to Valjean. Éponine then tells Marius that she has a letter for him. She also confesses to have obtained the letter the day before, originally not planning to give it to him, but decides to do so in fear he would be angry at her about it in the afterlife. After Marius takes the letter, Éponine then asks him to kiss her on the forehead when she is dead, which he promises to do. With her last breath, she confesses that she was "a little bit in love" with him, and dies. Marius fulfills her request and goes into a tavern to read the letter. It is written by Cosette. He learns Cosette's whereabouts and he writes a farewell letter to her. He sends Gavroche to deliver it to her, but Gavroche leaves it with Valjean. Valjean, learning that Cosette's lover is fighting, is at first relieved, but an hour later, he puts on a National Guard uniform, arms himself with a gun and ammunition, and leaves his home. Volume V: Jean Valjean Valjean in the sewers with the wounded Marius (US edition, 1900) Valjean arrives at the barricade and immediately saves a man's life. He is still not certain if he wants to protect Marius or kill him. Marius recognizes Valjean at first sight. Enjolras announces that they are almost out of cartridges. When Gavroche goes outside the barricade to collect more ammunition from the dead National Guardsmen, he is shot dead. Valjean volunteers to execute Javert himself, and Enjolras grants permission. Valjean takes Javert out of sight, and then shoots into the air while letting him go. Marius mistakenly believes that Valjean has killed Javert. As the barricade falls, Valjean carries off the injured and unconscious Marius. All the other students are killed. Valjean escapes through the sewers, carrying Marius's body. He evades a police patrol, and reaches an exit gate but finds it locked. Thénardier emerges from the darkness. Thénardier recognizes Valjean, but not Marius. Thinking Valjean a murderer lugging his victim's corpse, Thénardier offers to open the gate for money. As he searches Valjean and Marius's pockets, he surreptitiously tears off a piece of Marius's coat so he can later find out his identity. Thénardier takes the thirty francs he finds, opens the gate, and allows Valjean to leave, expecting Valjean's emergence from the sewer will distract the police who have been pursuing him. Upon exiting, Valjean encounters Javert and requests time to return Marius to his family before surrendering to him. Surprisingly Javert agrees, assuming that Marius will be dead within minutes. After leaving Marius at his grandfather's house, Valjean asks to be allowed a brief visit to his own home, and Javert agrees. There, Javert tells Valjean he will wait for him in the street, but when Valjean scans the street from the landing window he finds Javert has gone. Javert walks down the street, realizing that he is caught between his strict belief in the law and the mercy Valjean has shown him. He feels he can no longer give Valjean up to the authorities but also cannot ignore his duty to the law. Unable to cope with this dilemma, Javert commits suicide by throwing himself into the Seine. Marius slowly recovers from his injuries. As he and Cosette make wedding preparations, Valjean endows them with a fortune of nearly 600, 000 francs. As their wedding party winds through Paris during Mardi Gras festivities, Valjean is spotted by Thénardier, who then orders Azelma to follow him. After the wedding, Valjean confesses to Marius that he is an ex-convict. Marius is horrified, assumes the worst about Valjean's moral character, and contrives to limit Valjean's time with Cosette. Valjean accedes to Marius' judgment and his separation from Cosette. Valjean loses the will to live and retires to his bed. Thénardier approaches Marius in disguise, but Marius recognizes him. Thénardier attempts to blackmail Marius with what he knows of Valjean, but in doing so, he inadvertently corrects Marius's misconceptions about Valjean and reveals all of the good he has done. He tries to convince Marius that Valjean is actually a murderer, and presents the piece of coat he tore off as evidence. Stunned, Marius recognizes the fabric as part of his own coat and realizes that it was Valjean who rescued him from the barricade. Marius pulls out a fistful of notes and flings it at Thénardier's face. He then confronts Thénardier with his crimes and offers him an immense sum to depart and never return. Thénardier accepts the offer, and he and Azelma travel to America where he becomes a slave trader. As they rush to Valjean's house, Marius tells Cosette that Valjean saved his life at the barricade. They arrive to find Valjean near death and reconcile with him. Valjean tells Cosette her mother's story and name. He dies content and is buried beneath a blank slab in Père Lachaise Cemetery. Characters Major Jean Valjean (also known as Monsieur Madeleine, Ultime Fauchelevent, Monsieur Leblanc, and Urbain Fabre) – The protagonist of the novel. Convicted for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his sister's seven starving children and sent to prison for five years, he is paroled from prison nineteen years later (after four unsuccessful escape attempts added twelve years and fighting back during the second escape attempt added two extra years. Rejected by society for being a former convict, he encounters Bishop Myriel, who turns his life around by showing him mercy and encouraging him to become a new man. While sitting and pondering what Bishop Myriel had said, he puts his shoe on a forty-sou piece dropped by a young wanderer. Valjean threatens the boy with his stick when the boy attempts to rouse Valjean from his reverie and recover his money. He tells a passing priest his name, and the name of the boy, and this allows the police to charge him with armed robbery – a sentence that, if he were caught again, would return him to prison for life. He assumes a new identity (Monsieur Madeleine) in order to pursue an honest life. He introduces new manufacturing techniques and eventually builds two factories and becomes one of the richest men in the area. By popular acclaim, he is made mayor. He confronts Javert over Fantine's punishment, turns himself in to the police to save another man from prison for life, and rescues Cosette from the Thénardiers. Discovered by Javert in Paris because of his generosity to the poor, he evades capture for the next several years in a convent. He saves Marius from imprisonment and probable death at the barricade, reveals his true identity to Marius and Cosette after their wedding, and is reunited with them just before his death, having kept his promise to the bishop and to Fantine, the image of whom is the last thing he sees before dying. Javert – A fanatic police inspector in pursuit to recapture Valjean. Born in the prisons to a convict father and a fortune teller mother, he renounces both of them and starts working as a guard in the prison, including one stint as the overseer for the chain gang of which Valjean is part (and here witnesses firsthand Valjean's enormous strength and just what he looks like. Eventually he joins the police force in Montreuil-sur-Mer. He arrests Fantine and comes into conflict with Valjean/Madeleine, who orders him to release Fantine. Valjean dismisses Javert in front of his squad and Javert, seeking revenge, reports to the Police Inspector that he has discovered Jean Valjean. He is told that he must be incorrect, as a man mistakenly believed to be Jean Valjean was just arrested. He requests of M. Madeline that he be dismissed in disgrace, for he cannot be less harsh on himself than on others. When the real Jean Valjean turns himself in, Javert is promoted to the Paris police force where he arrests Valjean and sends him back to prison. After Valjean escapes again, Javert attempts one more arrest in vain. He then almost recaptures Valjean at Gorbeau house when he arrests the Thénardiers and Patron-Minette. Later, while working undercover behind the barricade, his identity is discovered. Valjean pretends to execute Javert, but releases him. When Javert next encounters Valjean emerging from the sewers, he allows him to make a brief visit home and then walks off instead of arresting him. Javert cannot reconcile his devotion to the law with his recognition that the lawful course is immoral. After composing a letter to the prefect of police outlining the squalid conditions that occur in prisons and the abuses that prisoners are subjected to, he takes his own life by jumping into the Seine. Fantine – A beautiful Parisian grisette abandoned with a small child by her lover Félix Tholomyès. Fantine leaves her daughter Cosette in the care of the Thénardiers, innkeepers in the village of Montfermeil. Thénardier spoils her own daughters and abuses Cosette. Fantine finds work at Monsieur Madeleine's factory. Illiterate, she has others write letters to the Thénardiers on her behalf. A female supervisor discovers that she is an unwed mother and dismisses her. To meet the Thénardiers' repeated demands for money, she sells her hair and two front teeth, and turns to prostitution. She becomes ill. Valjean learns of her plight when Javert arrests her for attacking a man who called her insulting names and threw snow down her back, and sends her to a hospital. As Javert confronts Valjean in her hospital room, because her illness has made her so weak, she dies of shock after Javert reveals that Valjean is a convict and hasn't brought her daughter Cosette to her (after the doctor encouraged that incorrect belief that Jean Valjean's recent absence was because he was bringing her daughter to her. Cosette (formally Euphrasie, also known as "the Lark" Mademoiselle Lanoire, Ursula) – The illegitimate daughter of Fantine and Tholomyès. From approximately the age of three to the age of eight, she is beaten and forced to work as a drudge for the Thénardiers. After her mother Fantine dies, Valjean ransoms Cosette from the Thénardiers and cares for her as if she were his daughter. Nuns in a Paris convent educate her. She grows up to become very beautiful. She falls in love with Marius Pontmercy and marries him near the novel's conclusion. Marius Pontmercy – A young law student loosely associated with the Friends of the ABC. He shares the political principles of his father and has a tempestuous relationship with his royalist grandfather, Monsieur Gillenormand. He falls in love with Cosette and fights on the barricades when he believes Valjean has taken her to London. After he and Cosette marry, he recognizes Thénardier as a swindler and pays him to leave France. Éponine (the Jondrette girl) – The Thénardiers' elder daughter. As a child, she is pampered and spoiled by her parents, but ends up a street urchin when she reaches adolescence. She participates in her father's crimes and begging schemes to obtain money. She is blindly in love with Marius. At Marius' request, she finds Valjean and Cosette's house for him and sadly leads him there. She also prevents her father, Patron-Minette, and Brujon from robbing the house during one of Marius' visits there to see Cosette. After disguising herself as a boy, she manipulates Marius into going to the barricades, hoping that she and Marius will die there together. Wanting to die before Marius, she reaches out her hand to stop a soldier from shooting at him; she is mortally wounded as the bullet goes through her hand and her back. As she is dying, she confesses all this to Marius, and gives him a letter from Cosette. Her final request to Marius is that once she has passed, he will kiss her on the forehead. He fulfills her request not because of romantic feelings on his part, but out of pity for her hard life. Monsieur Thénardier and Madame Thénardier (also known as the Jondrettes, M. Fabantou, M. Thénard. Some translations identify her as the Thenardiess) – Husband and wife, parents of five children: two daughters, Éponine and Azelma, and three sons, Gavroche and two unnamed younger sons. As innkeepers, they abuse Cosette as a child and extort payment from Fantine for her support, until Valjean takes Cosette away. They become bankrupt and relocate under the name Jondrette to a house in Paris called the Gorbeau house, living in the room next to Marius. The husband associates with a criminal group called "the Patron-Minette. and conspires to rob Valjean until he is thwarted by Marius. Javert arrests the couple. The wife dies in prison. Her husband attempts to blackmail Marius with his knowledge of Valjean's past, but Marius pays him to leave the country and he becomes a slave trader in the United States. Enjolras – The leader of Les Amis de l'ABC (Friends of the ABC) in the Paris uprising. He is passionately committed to republican principles and the idea of progress. He and Grantaire are executed by the National Guards after the barricade falls. Gavroche – The unloved middle child and eldest son of the Thénardiers. He lives on his own as a street urchin and sleeps inside an elephant statue outside the Bastille. He briefly takes care of his two younger brothers, unaware they are related to him. He takes part in the barricades and is killed while collecting bullets from dead National Guardsmen. Bishop Myriel – The Bishop of Digne (full name Charles-François-Bienvenu Myriel, also called Monseigneur Bienvenu) – A kindly old priest promoted to bishop after a chance encounter with Napoleon. After Valjean steals some silver from him, he saves Valjean from being arrested and inspires Valjean to change his ways. Grantaire – Grantaire (Also known as "R" was a student revolutionary with little interest in the cause. He reveres Enjolras, and his admiration is the main reason that Grantaire spends time with Les Amis de l'ABC (Friends of the ABC) despite Enjolras's occasional scorn for him. Grantaire is often drunk and is unconscious for the majority of the June Rebellion. He and Enjolras are executed by the National Guards after the barricade falls. Friends of the ABC A revolutionary student club. In French, the letters "ABC" are pronounced identically to the French word abaissés, the abased. Bahorel – A dandy and an idler from a peasant background, who is known well around the student cafés of Paris. Combeferre – A medical student who is described as representing the philosophy of the revolution. Courfeyrac – A law student who is described as the centre of the group of Friends. He is honorable and warm and is Marius' closest companion. Enjolras – The leader of the Friends. A resolute and charismatic youth, devoted to progress. Feuilly – An orphaned fan maker who taught himself to read and write. He is the only member of the Friends who is not a student. Grantaire – A drunk with little interest in revolution. Despite his pessimism, he eventually declares himself a believer in the Republic, and dies alongside Enjolras. Jean Prouvaire (also Jehan) – A Romantic with knowledge of Italian, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and an interest in the Middle Ages. Joly – A medical student who has unusual theories about health. He is a hypochondriac and is described as the happiest of the Friends. Lesgle (also Lègle, Laigle, L'Aigle [ The Eagle] or Bossuet) – The oldest member of the group. Considered notoriously unlucky, Lesgle begins balding at the age of twenty-five. It is Lesgle who introduces Marius to the Friends. Minor Azelma – The younger daughter of the Thénardiers. Like her sister Éponine, she is spoiled as a child, impoverished when older. She abets her father's failed robbery of Valjean. On Marius and Cosette's wedding day, she tails Valjean on her father's orders. She travels to America with her father at the end of the novel. Bamatabois – An idler who harasses Fantine. Later a juror at Champmathieu's trial. (Mlle) Baptistine Myriel – Bishop Myriel's sister. She loves and venerates her brother. Blachevelle – A wealthy student in Paris originally from Montauban. He is a friend of Félix Tholomyès and becomes romantically involved with Fantine's friend Favourite. Bougon, Madame (called Ma'am Burgon) – Housekeeper of Gorbeau House. Brevet – An ex-convict from Toulon who knew Valjean there; released one year after Valjean. In 1823, he is serving time in the prison in Arras for an unknown crime. He is the first to claim that Champmathieu is really Valjean. He used to wear knitted, checkered suspenders. Brujon – A robber and criminal. He participates in crimes with M. Thénardier and the Patron-Minette gang (such as the Gorbeau Robbery and the attempted robbery at the Rue Plumet. The author describes Brujon as being "a sprightly young fellow, very cunning and very adroit, with a flurried and plaintive appearance. " Champmathieu – A vagabond who is misidentified as Valjean after being caught stealing apples. Chenildieu – A lifer from Toulon. He and Valjean were chain mates for five years. He once tried to unsuccessfully remove his lifer's brand TFP ( travaux forcés à perpetuité. forced labour for life" by putting his shoulder on a chafing dish full of embers. He is described as a small, wiry but energetic man. Cochepaille – Another lifer from Toulon. He used to be a shepherd from the Pyrenees who became a smuggler. He is described as stupid and has a tattoo on his arm, 1 Mars 1815. Colonel Georges Pontmercy – Marius's father and an officer in Napoleon's army. Wounded at Waterloo, Pontmercy erroneously believes M. Thénardier saved his life. He tells Marius of this great debt. He loves Marius and although M. Gillenormand does not allow him to visit, he continually hid behind a pillar in the church on Sunday so that he could at least look at Marius from a distance. Napoleon made him a baron, but the next regime refused to recognize his barony or his status as a colonel, instead referring to him only as a commandant. The book usually calls him "The colonel. Dahlia – A young grisette in Paris and member of Fantine's group of seamstress friends along with Favourite and Zéphine. She becomes romantically involved with Félix Tholomyès' friend Listolier. Fameuil – A wealthy student in Paris originally from Limoges. He is a friend of Félix Tholomyès and becomes romantically involved with Fantine's friend Zéphine. Fauchelevent – A failed businessman whom Valjean (as M. Madeleine) saves from being crushed under a carriage. Valjean gets him a position as gardener at a Paris convent, where Fauchelevent later provides sanctuary for Valjean and Cosette and allows Valjean to pose as his brother. Favourite – A young grisette in Paris and leader of Fantine's group of seamstress friends (including Zéphine and Dahlia. She is independent and well versed in the ways of the world and had previously been in England. Although she cannot stand Félix Tholomyès' friend Blachevelle and is in love with someone else, she endures a relationship with him so she can enjoy the perks of courting a wealthy man. Listolier – A wealthy student in Paris originally from Cahors. He is a friend of Félix Tholomyès and becomes romantically involved with Fantine's friend Dahlia. Mabeuf – An elderly churchwarden, friend of Colonel Pontmercy, who after the Colonel's death befriends his son Marius and helps Marius realize his father loved him. Mabeuf loves plants and books, but sells his books and prints in order to pay for a friend's medical care. When Mabeuf finds a purse in his yard, he takes it to the police. After selling his last book, he joins the students in the insurrection. He is shot dead raising the flag atop the barricade. Mademoiselle Gillenormand – Daughter of M. Gillenormand, with whom she lives. Her late half-sister (M. Gillenormand's daughter from another marriage) was Marius' mother. Madame Magloire – Domestic servant to Bishop Myriel and his sister. Magnon – Former servant of M. Gillenormand and friend of the Thénardiers. She had been receiving child support payments from M. Gillenormand for her two illegitimate sons, who she claimed were fathered by him. When her sons died in an epidemic, she had them replaced with the Thénardiers' two youngest sons so that she could protect her income. The Thénardiers get a portion of the payments. She is incorrectly arrested for involvement in the Gorbeau robbery. Monsieur Gillenormand – Marius' grandfather. A monarchist, he disagrees sharply with Marius on political issues, and they have several arguments. He attempts to keep Marius from being influenced by his father, Colonel Georges Pontmercy. While in perpetual conflict over ideas, he holds his grandson in affection. Mother Innocente (a. k. a. Marguerite de Blemeur) – The prioress of the Petit-Picpus convent. Patron-Minette – A quartet of bandits who assist in the Thénardiers' ambush of Valjean at Gorbeau House and the attempted robbery at the Rue Plumet. The gang consists of Montparnasse, Claquesous, Babet, and Gueulemer. Claquesous, who escaped from the carriage transporting him to prison after the Gorbeau Robbery, joins the revolution under the guise of "Le Cabuc" and is executed by Enjolras for firing on civilians. Petit Gervais – A travelling Savoyard boy who drops a coin. Valjean, still a man of criminal mind, places his foot on the coin and refuses to return it. Sister Simplice – A famously truthful nun who cares for Fantine on her sickbed and lies to Javert to protect Valjean. Félix Tholomyès – Fantine's lover and Cosette's biological father. A wealthy, self-centered student in Paris originally from Toulouse, he eventually abandons Fantine when their daughter is two years old. Toussaint – Valjean and Cosette's servant in Paris. She has a slight stutter. Two little boys – The two unnamed youngest sons of the Thénardiers, whom they send to Magnon to replace her two dead sons. Living on the streets, they encounter Gavroche, who is unaware they are his siblings but treats them like they are his brothers. After Gavroche's death, they retrieve bread tossed by a bourgeois man to geese in a fountain at the Luxembourg Garden. Zéphine – A young grisette in Paris and member of Fantine's group of seamstress friends along with Favourite and Dahlia. She becomes romantically involved with Félix Tholomyès' friend Fameuil. The narrator Hugo does not give the narrator a name and allows the reader to identify the narrator with the novel's author. The narrator occasionally injects himself into the narrative or reports facts outside the time of the narrative to emphasize that he is recounting historical events, not entirely fiction. He introduces his recounting of Waterloo with several paragraphs describing the narrator's recent approach to the battlefield: Last year (1861) on a beautiful May morning, a traveller, the person who is telling this story, was coming from Nivelles. 23] The narrator describes how " a]n observer, a dreamer, the author of this book" during the 1832 street fighting was caught in crossfire: All that he had to protect him from the bullets was the swell of the two half columns which separate the shops; he remained in this delicate situation for nearly half an hour. At one point he apologizes for intruding—"The author of this book, who regrets the necessity of mentioning himself"—to ask the reader's understanding when he describes "the Paris of his youth. as though it still existed. This introduces a meditation on memories of past places that his contemporary readers would recognize as a self-portrait written from exile: you have left a part of your heart, of your blood, of your soul, in those pavements. He describes another occasion when a bullet shot "pierced a brass shaving-dish suspended. over a hairdresser's shop. This pierced shaving-dish was still to be seen in 1848, in the Rue du Contrat-Social, at the corner of the pillars of the market. As evidence of police double agents at the barricades, he writes: The author of this book had in his hands, in 1848, the special report on this subject made to the Prefect of Police in 1832. " Contemporary reception The appearance of the novel was a highly anticipated event as Victor Hugo was considered one of France's foremost poets in the middle of the nineteenth century. The New York Times announced its forthcoming publication as early as April 1860. [24] Hugo forbade his publishers from summarizing his story and refused to authorize the publication of excerpts in advance of publication. He instructed them to build on his earlier success and suggested this approach: What Victor H. did for the Gothic world in Notre-Dame of Paris [ The Hunchback of Notre Dame] he accomplishes for the modern world in Les Miserables. 25] A massive advertising campaign [26] preceded the release of the first two volumes of Les Misérables in Brussels on 30 or 31 March and in Paris on 3 April 1862. [27] The remaining volumes appeared on 15 May 1862. Critical reactions were wide-ranging and often negative. Some critics found the subject matter immoral, others complained of its excessive sentimentality, and others were disquieted by its apparent sympathy with the revolutionaries. L. Gauthier wrote in Le Monde of 17 August 1862: One cannot read without an unconquerable disgust all the details Monsieur Hugo gives regarding the successful planning of riots. 28] The Goncourt brothers judged the novel artificial and disappointing. [29] Flaubert found "neither truth nor greatness" in it. He complained that the characters were crude stereotypes who all "speak very well – but all in the same way. He deemed it an "infantile" effort and brought an end to Hugo's career like "the fall of a god. 30] In a newspaper review, Charles Baudelaire praised Hugo's success in focusing public attention on social problems, though he believed that such propaganda was the opposite of art. In private he castigated it as "repulsive and inept. immonde et inepte. 31] The Catholic Church placed it on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum. [32] The work was a commercial success and has been a popular book ever since it was published. [33] 34] Translated the same year it appeared into several foreign languages, including Italian, Greek, and Portuguese, it proved popular not only in France, but across Europe and abroad. English translations Charles E. Wilbour. New York: Carleton Publishing Company, June 1862. The first English translation. The first volume was available for purchase in New York beginning 7 June 1862. [35] Also New York and London: George Routledge and Sons, 1879. Lascelles Wraxall. London: Hurst and Blackett, October 1862. The first British translation. [35] Translator identified as "A. F. Richmond, Virginia, 1863. Published by West and Johnston publishers. The Editor's Preface announces its intention of correcting errors in Wilbour's translation. It said that some passages "exclusively intended for the French readers of the book" were being omitted, as well as " a] few scattered sentences reflecting on slavery" because "the absence of a few antislavery paragraphs will hardly be complained of by Southern readers. Because of paper shortages in wartime, the passages omitted became longer with each successive volume. [35] Isabel Florence Hapgood. Published 1887, this translation is available at Project Gutenberg. [36] Norman Denny. Folio Press, 1976. A modern British translation later re-published in paperback by Penguin Books, ISBN   0-14-044430-0. The translator explains in an introduction that he has placed two of the novel's longer digressive passages into appendices and made some minor abridgements in the text. Lee Fahnestock and Norman McAfee. Signet Classics. 3 March 1987. An unabridged edition based on the Wilbour translation with its language modernized. Paperback ISBN   0-451-52526-4 Julie Rose. 2007. Vintage Classics, 3 July 2008. A new translation of the full work, with a detailed biographical sketch of Victor Hugo's life, a chronology, and notes. ISBN   978-0-09-951113-7 Christine Donougher. Penguin Classics, 7 November 2013. ISBN   978-0141393599 Adaptations Since its original publication, Les Misérables has been the subject of a large number of adaptations in numerous types of media, such as books, films, musicals, plays and games. Notable examples of these adaptations include: The 1935 film directed by Richard Boleslawski, starring Fredric March and Charles Laughton. The film was nominated for Best Picture, Best Film Editing, Best Assistant Director at 8th Academy Awards. The 1937 radio adaptation by Orson Welles. [37] The 1952 film adaptation directed by Lewis Milestone, starring Michael Rennie and Robert Newton. The 1958 film adaptation directed by Jean-Paul Le Chanois, with an international cast starring Jean Gabin, Bernard Blier, and Bourvil. [38] Called "the most memorable film version" it was filmed in East Germany and was overtly political. [39] The 1978 television film adaptation, starring Richard Jordan and Anthony Perkins. The 1980 musical, by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg. [40] The 1982 film adaptation, directed by Robert Hossein, starring Lino Ventura and Michel Bouquet. The 1995 film, by Claude Lelouch, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo [41] The 1998 film, starring Liam Neeson and Geoffrey Rush. [42] The 2000 TV miniseries, starring Gérard Depardieu and John Malkovich. [43] The 2007 TV anime adaptation, by Studio Nippon Animation. The 2012 film of the musical, starring Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway and Amanda Seyfried. [44] The film received eight Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, Best Actor for Jackman, and won three, for Best Sound Mixing, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, and Best Supporting Actress for Hathaway. A 2013 Japanese manga adaptation by Takahiro Arai, to be published in Shogakukan 's Monthly Shonen Sunday magazine from September 2013. [45] A 2018 TV miniseries by Andrew Davies, starring Dominic West, David Oyelowo and Lily Collins. [46] Sequels Laura Kalpakian 's Cosette: The Sequel to Les Misérables was published in 1995. It continues the story of Cosette and Marius, but is more a sequel to the musical than to the original novel. In 2001, two French novels by François Cérésa that continue Hugo's story appeared: Cosette ou le temps des illusions and Marius ou le fugitif. The former has been published in an English translation. Javert appears as a hero who survived his suicide attempt and becomes religious; Thénardier returns from America; Marius is unjustly imprisoned. [47] The works were the subject of an unsuccessful lawsuit brought by Hugo's great-great-grandson. [48] 49] See also Fex urbis lex orbis Jean Val Jean, abridged version in English (1935) References ^ Les Misérables. Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. Longman. Retrieved 16 August 2019. ^ Novelist Susanne Alleyn has argued that "the phrase “les misérables”, which has a whole range of subtly shaded meanings in French, is much better translated into English as “the dispossessed” or even as “the outsiders” — which can describe every major character in the novel in one way or another — than simply as “the miserable ones” / “the wretched ones. ” No, Its Not Actually the French Revolution: Les Misérables and History. ^ BBC News – Bon anniversaire! 25 facts about Les Mis. BBC Online. 1 October 2010. Retrieved 1 October 2010. ^ Sinclair, Upton (1915. The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest. Charles Rivers Editors. ISBN   978-1-247-96345-7. ^ Alexander Welsh, Opening and Closing Les Misérables. in Harold Bloom, ed., Victor Hugo: Modern Critical Views (NY: Chelsea House, 1988) 155; Vol. 5, Book 1, Chapter 20 ^ Read the Ten Longest Novels Ever Written. Retrieved 31 December 2012. ^ Behr, Complete Book, 39–42 ^ A. Davidson, Victor Hugo: His Life And Work (J. B. Lippincott, 1929) Kindle Location 4026, 4189 ^ Victor Brombert. Les Misérables: Salvation from Below" in Harold Bloom, ed., Modern Critical Views: Victor Hugo (Chelsea House, 1988) 195 ^ Brombert, Salvation from Below. 195–97 ^ Alexander Welsh, Opening and Closing Les Misérables. in Harold Bloom, ed., Modern Critical Views: Victor Hugo (Chelsea House, 1988) 151–52 ^ Day, Anonymous (15 August 2014. About the Novel" PDF. The Official Les Miserables Website Times. ^ Guyon, Loïc Pierre (2002. Un aventurier picaresque au XIXe siècle: Eugène-François Vidocq. In Glaser, Albert; Kleine-Roßbach, Sabine (eds. Abenteurer als Helden der Literatur (in French. Springer. doi: 10. 1007/978-3-476-02877-8. ISBN   978-3-476-02877-8. ^ Morton, James (2004. The First Detective: The Life and Revolutionary Times of Vidocq, Criminal, Spy and Private Eye. New York: Overlook Press. ^ Hugo, Victor, Les Misérables (Preface by A. Rosa) Laffont, 1985, ISBN   2-221-04689-7, p. IV. ^ a b c Edward Behr, The Complete Book of Les Misérables (Arcade, 1993) Le Bagne de Toulon (1748–1873) Académie du Var, Autres Temps Editions (2010) ISBN   978-2-84521-394-4 ^ Victor Hugo, Things Seen, vol. 1 (Glasgow and New York: George Routledge and Sons, 1887) 49–52. The chapter is title "1841. Origin of Fantine. Behr quotes this passage at length in Behr, Complete Book, 32–36. ^ Victor Hugo, Choses vues: nouvelle série (Paris: Calman Lévy, 1900) 129–130 ^ a b Robb, Graham (1997. Victor Hugo: A Biography. New York: W. W. Norton. ^ Rosa, Annette, Introduction to Les Misérables, Laffont, 1985, ISBN   2-221-04689-7 ^ Robb, Graham (1999. Norton. ISBN   978-0393318999. ^ Victor Brombert. Les Misérables: Salvation from Below" in Harold Bloom, ed., Victor Hugo: Modern Critical Views (NY: Chelsea House, 1988) 198–99; Vol. 2, Book 1, Chapter 1 ^ Personalities. New York Times. 10 April 1860. Retrieved 3 January 2013. ^ Behr, Compete Book, 38 ^ La réception des Misérables en 1862 – Max Bach – PMLA, Vol. 77, No. 5 (December 1962) "les miserables, victor hugo, First Edition, 1862. ABE Books. Retrieved 21 January 2013. ^ PDF) Goncourt, Edmond et Jules, Journal, Vol. I, Laffont, 1989, ISBN   2-221-05527-6, April 1862, pp. 808–09 ^ Letter of G. Flaubert to Madame Roger des Genettes – July 1862 Archived 27 November 2006 at the Wayback Machine ^ Hyslop, Lois Bee (October 1976. Baudelaire on Les Misérables. The French Review. 41 (1) 23–29. ^ Turner, David Hancock (18 January 2013. Les Misérables and Its Critics. Jacobin. Retrieved 14 June 2016. ^ Marguerite Yourcenar. "Réception des Misérables en Grèce" PDF. ^ Réception des Misérables au Portugal Archived 29 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine ^ a b c Moore, Olin H. (March 1959. Some Translations of Les Miserables. Modern Language Notes. 74 (3) 240–46. JSTOR   3040282. ^ Les Misérables by Victor Hugo – Project Gutenberg. 22 June 2008. Retrieved 15 October 2009. ^ Radio Programs Scheduled for this Week, The New York Times, 25 July 1937 ^ Les Misérables on IMDb ^ Behr, Edward (1989. The Complete Book of Les Misérables. NY: Arcade. pp. 152–53. ^ The Broadway League. "The official source for Broadway Information. IBDB. Retrieved 31 December 2012. ^ AlloCine, Les Misérables, retrieved 23 September 2015 ^ Cirque du Freak's Arai Launches Manga of Les Misérables Novel. ^ Otterson, Joe (9 January 2018. David Oyelowo, Dominic West, Lily Collins to Star in BBC's 'Les Misérables' Miniseries. Variety. ^ Riding, Alan (29 May 2001. Victor Hugo Can't Rest in Peace, As a Sequel Makes Trouble. The New York Times. Retrieved 4 January 2013... Les Misérables: la suite rejugée en appel. Le nouvel observateur. 30 January 2007. Retrieved 4 January 2013. ^ Van Gelder, Lawrence (1 February 2007. French Court Says Yes to Misérables Sequels. Retrieved 4 January 2013. External links Les Misérables at Les Misérables at the Internet Movie Database French text of Les Misérables, scroll down to see the links to the five volumes Les Misérables at Project Gutenberg – English translation. Review by Edwin Percy Whipple The Atlantic Monthly. July 1862. Les Miserables public domain audiobook at LibriVox.

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Les misÃrables. Cest pas un film anti-flic car il y a en un pitoyable mais aussi un bon. The first 90 minutes of this film is a quite impressive multiple viewpoint drama showing the difficult interactions in a rundown Paris immigrant neighborhood between an ethically challenged three member police unit, the impoverished immigrant residents (largely Moslem and African) and assorted adolescents. The presentation is quite realistic. I was moved.
If the movie had ended there, I might rate it a 9. Unfortunately it did not. Instead the film is marred by its violent not credible ending. Hence my rating of 7.
On one day, while investigating a case concerning the theft of a lion cub, the three policemen are set upon by the adolescent thief's teen age friends. The children threaten the police. They throw rocks. The police overreact, seriously injuring the thief as he tries to escape. Various consequences ensue, but in the end a level of calm is apparently restored.
Alas, in revenge the next day the three police and several other adults are ambushed by a highly organized gang of young men wearing black hoodies. Garbage cans and shopping carts are thrown at the police down flights of stairs. Flares and fireworks are shot at the police. The police behave stupidly. Rather than wait for back-up, they put themselves into a situation of extreme life-threatening danger. The adolescents, instead of behaving as a disorganized gang of delinquents, suddenly show an almost military level of tactics and organization and a lethal rage.
Frightening and as disturbing as this violence is, intellectually I simply could not buy into it. Sorry, but a group of socially marginalized boys cannot be transformed in a single day into an almost military level combat unit.

Les misÃrables download page. On my own les miserables download. All that we are here relating slowly and successively took place at once in all points of the city in the midst of a vast tumult, like the multitude of flashes in a single peal of thunder. Les Misérables ( 1862) is a novel by Victor Hugo which many consider to be one of the greatest works of world literature. It tells of the interwoven lives of its characters over several decades of the early 19th Century, focusing to a great extent on the conflicts between the hero Jean Valjean, a fugitive who spent nearly 20 years of his life as prisoner " 24601 " and police inspector Javert who hunts for him. Others who feature prominently are Cosette the orphaned girl who Valjean raises as a daughter, Marius the revolutionary who loves her, and the villain Thenardier who had horribly exploited Cosette until she was rescued by Valjean. It was originally published in five volumes, four named after some of the primary characters within it. The primary translation used in creating this collection of quotations was that of Charles E. Wilbour. So long as ignorance and misery remain on earth, books like this cannot be useless. See also: Les Misérables (the theatrical musical by Boublil and Schonberg) Preface [ edit] Tant quil existera, par le fait des lois et des mœurs, une damnation sociale créant artificiellement, en pleine civilisation, des enfers, et compliquant dune fatalité humaine la destinée qui est divine; tant que les trois problèmes du siècle, la dégradation de lhomme par le prolétariat, la déchéance de la femme par la faim, latrophie de lenfant par la nuit, ne seront pas résolus; tant que, dans de certaines régions, lasphyxie sociale sera possible; en dautres termes, et à un point de vue plus étendu encore, tant quil y aura sur la terre ignorance et misère, des livres de la nature de celui-ci pourront ne pas être inutiles. So long as there shall exist, by reason of law and custom, a social condemnation, which, in the face of civilisation, artificially creates hells on earth, and complicates a destiny that is divine, with human fatality; so long as the three problems of the age — the degradation of man by poverty, the ruin of woman by starvation, and the dwarfing of childhood by physical and spiritual night — are not solved; so long as, in certain regions, social asphyxia shall be possible; in other words, and from a yet more extended point of view, so long as ignorance and misery remain on earth, books like this cannot be useless. Volume One: FANTINE [ edit] Book I - An Upright Man [ edit] Vrai ou faux, ce quon dit des hommes tient souvent autant de place dans leur vie et souvent dans leur destinée que ce quils font. Be it true or false, what is said about men often has as much influence upon their lives, and especially upon their destinies, as what they do. Chapter I: M. Myriel Sire, dit M. Myriel, vous regardez un bonhomme, et moi je regarde un grand homme. Chacun de nous peut profiter. Sire, said M. Myriel, you behold a good man, and I a great man. May each of us profit by it. M. Myriel to Napoleon Il y a beaucoup de bouches qui parlent et fort peu de têtes qui pensent. There are many tongues to talk, and but few heads to think. Voilà monsieur Géborand qui achète pour un sou de paradis. See Monsieur Geborand, buying a pennyworth of paradise. Chapter IV: Works Answer Words Voilà les hypocrisies effarées qui se dépêchent de protester. How frightened hypocrisy hastens to defend itself. Cette âme est pleine d'ombre, le péché s'y commet. Le coupable n'est pas celui qui y fait le péché, mais celui qui y a fait l'ombre. If the soul is left in darkness, sins will be committed. The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but he who causes the darkness. Dailleurs qui est-ce qui atteint son idéal? But who ever does attain to his ideal? Chapter VI: How He Protected His House Je ne suis pas au monde pour garder ma vie, mais pour garder les âmes. I am not in the world to care for my life, but for souls. Chapter VII: Cravatte M. Myriel in disregarding dangers to his life. "Let us never fear robbers nor murderers. Those are dangers from without, petty dangers. Let us fear ourselves. Prejudices are the real robbers; vices are the real murderers. The great dangers lie within ourselves. What matters it what threatens our head or our purse! Let us think only of that which threatens our soul. " Personne ne pourrait dire que le passage de cet esprit devant le sien et le reflet de cette grande conscience sur la sienne ne fût pas pour quelque chose dans son approche de la perfection. No one could say that the passage of that soul before his own, and the reflection of that grand conscience upon his own had not had its effect upon his approach to perfection. Chapter X: The Bishop in the presence of an Unknown Light Le général. avait poursuivi lempereur comme quelquun quon veut laisser échapper. The general. pursued the emperor as if he wished to let him escape. Chapter XI: A Qualification Book II - The Fall [ edit] You have promised me to become an honest man. I am purchasing your soul, I withdraw it from the spirit of perversity and I give it to God Almighty. Jean Valjean était entré au bagne sanglotant et frémissant; il en sortit impassible. Il y était entré désespéré; il en sortit sombre. Que sétait-il passé dans cette âme? Jean Valjean entered the galleys sobbing and shuddering: he went out hardened; he entered in despair: he went out sullen. What had happened within this soul? Chapter VI: Jean Valjean Ainsi, pendant ces dix-neuf ans de torture et desclavage, cette âme monta et tomba en même temps. Il y entra de la lumière dun côté et des ténèbres de lautre. Thus, during those nineteen years of torture and slavery, did this soul rise and fall at the same time. Light entered on the one side, and darkness on the other. Chapter VII: The Depths of Despair Le propre des peines de cette nature, dans lesquelles domine ce qui est impitoyable, cest-à-dire ce qui est abrutissant, cest de transformer peu à peu, par une sorte de transfiguration stupide, un homme en une bête fauve, quelquefois en une bête féroce. The peculiarity of punishment of this kind, in which what is pitiless, that is to say, what is brutalizing, predominates, is to transform little be little, by a slow stupefactions, a man into an animal, sometimes into a wild beast. Le point de départ comme le point darrivée de toutes ses pensées était la haine de la loi humaine; cette haine qui, si elle nest arrêtée dans son développement par quelque incident providentiel, devient, dans un temps donné, la haine de la société, puis la haine du genre humain, puis la haine de la création, et se traduit par un vague et incessant et brutal désir de nuire, nimporte à qui, à un être vivant quelconque. The beginning as well as then end of all his thoughts was hatred of human law; that hatred which, if it be not checked in its growth by some providential event, becomes, in a certain time, hatred of society, then hatred of the human race, and then hatred of creation, and reveals itself by a vague, brutal desire to injure some living being, it matters not who. La nuit nétait pas très obscure; cétait une pleine lune sur laquelle couraient de larges nuées chassées par le vent. Cela faisait au dehors des alternatives dombre et de clarté, des éclipses, puis des éclaircies, et au dedans une sorte de crépuscule. Ce crépuscule, suffisant pour quon pût se guider, intermittent à cause des nuages, ressemblait à lespèce de lividité qui tombe dun soupirail de cave devant lequel vont et viennent des passants. The night was not very dark; there was a full moon, across which large clouds were driving before the wind. This produced alternations of light and shade, out-of-doors eclipses and illuminations, and in-doors a kind of twilight. This twilight, enough to enable him to find his way, changing with the passing clouds, resembled that sort of livid light which falls through the window of a dungeon before which men are passing. Chapter X: The Man Awakes Depuis près dune demi-heure un grand nuage couvrait le ciel. Au moment où Jean Valjean sarrêta en face du lit, ce nuage se déchira, comme sil leût fait exprès, et un rayon de lune, traversant la longue fenêtre, vint éclairer subitement le visage pâle de lévêque. Toute sa face silluminait dune vague expression de satisfaction, despérance et de béatitude. Cétait plus quun sourire et presque un rayonnement. Il y avait sur son front linexprimable réverbération dune lumière quon ne voyait pas. For nearly a half hour a great cloud had darkened the sky. At the moment when Jean Valjean paused before the bed the cloud broke as if purposely, and a ray of moonlight crossing the high window, suddenly lighted up the bishops pale face…His entire countenance was lit up with a vague expression of content, hope, and happiness. It was more than a smile and almost a radiance. On his forehead rested the indescribable reflection of an unseen light. Chapter XI: What He Does Jusque-là il avait reçue avec assez dadresse tout entière sur le dos de sa main. Cette fois la pièce de quarante sous lui échappa, et vint rouler vers la broussaille jusquà Jean Valjean. Until this time he had skillfully caught the whole of them upon the back of his hand. This time the forty-sous coin got away from him, and rolled towards the thicket, near Jean Valjean. Chapter XIII: Petit Gervais Il se roidissait contre laction angélique et contre les douces paroles du vieillard. "Vous mavez promis de devenir honnête homme. Je vous achète votre âme. Je la retire à lesprit de perversité et je la donne au bon Dieu. Cela lui revenait sans cesse. Il opposait à cette indulgence céleste lorgueil, qui est en nous comme la forteresse du mal. Il sentait indistinctement que le pardon de ce prêtre était le plus grand assaut et la plus formidable attaque dont il eût encore été ébranlé; que son endurcissement serait définitif sil résistait à cette clémence; que, sil cédait, il faudrait renoncer à cette haine dont les actions des autres hommes avaient rempli son âme pendant tant dannées, et qui lui plaisait; que cette fois il fallait vaincre ou être vaincu, et que la lutte, une lutte colossale et définitive, était engagée entre sa méchanceté à lui et la bonté de cet homme. He set himself stubbornly in opposition to the angelic deeds and the gentle words of the old man, you have promised me to become an honest man. I am purchasing your soul, I withdraw it from the spirit of perversity and I give it to God Almighty. This came back to him incessantly. To this celestial tenderness, he opposed pride, which is the fortress of evil in man. He felt dimly that the pardon of the priest was the hardest assault, and the most formidable attack which he had yet sustained; that the hardness of heart would be complete, if it resisted this kindness; that if he yielded, he must renounce that hatred with which he found satisfaction; that, this time, he must conquer or be conquered, and that the struggle, a gigantic and decisive struggle, had begun between his own wickedness, and the goodness of man. Une voix lui disait-elle à loreille quil venait de traverser lheure solennelle de sa destinée, quil ny avait plus de milieu pour lui, que si désormais il nétait pas le meilleur des hommes il en serait le pire. Did a voice whisper in his ear that he had just passed through the decisive hour of his destiny, that there was no longer a middle course for him, that if, thereafter, he should not be the best of men, he would be the worst. Pendant quil pleurait, le jour se faisait de plus en plus dans son cerveau, un jour extraordinaire, un jour ravissant et terrible à la fois. Tout cela lui revint et lui apparut, clairement, mais dans une clarté quil navait jamais vue jusque-là. Cependant un jour doux était sur cette vie et sur cette âme. Il lui semblait quil voyait Satan à la lumière du paradis. While he wept, the light grew brighter and brighter in his mind — an extraordinary light, a light at once ravishing and terrible. all returned and appeared to him, clearly, but in a light that he had never seen before. There was, however, a softened light upon that life and upon that soul. It seemed to him that he was looking upon Satan by the light of Paradise. Book III - The Year 1817 [ edit] Propos de table et propos damour; les uns sont aussi insaisissables que les autres; les propos damour sont des nuées, les propos de table sont des fumées. Table talk and lovers' talk equally elude the grasp; lovers' talk is clouds, table talk is smoke. Chapter VI: A Chapter of Self-Admiration Une discussion est bonne. une querelle vaut mieux. A discussion is good. a quarrel is better. Chapter VIII: Death of a Horse Book IV - To Entrust is Sometimes to Abandon [ edit] She would have softened a heart of granite; but you cannot soften a heart of wood. Ces êtres appartenaient à cette classe bâtarde composée de gens grossiers parvenus et de gens intelligents déchus, qui est entre la classe dite moyenne et la classe dite inférieure, et qui combine quelques-uns des défauts de la seconde avec presque tous les vices de la première, sans avoir le généreux élan de louvrier ni lordre honnête du bourgeois. They belonged to that bastard class formed of low people who has risen, and intelligent people who have fallen, which lies between the classes called middle and lower, and which unites some of the faults of the latter with nearly all the vices of the former, without possessing the generous impulses of the workman, or the respectability of the bourgeois. Chapter II: First Sketch of Two Equivocal Faces Said of the Thenardiers Elle y noyait ce quelle avait de cervelle. She drowned what little brain she had in them. Said about Madame Thenardier and her reading of cheap novels Il ne suffit pas dêtre méchant pour prospérer. La gargote allait mal. To be wicked does not insure prosperity — for the inn did not succeed well. Chapter III: The Lark About the Thenardier's Inn Book V - The Descent [ edit] Un bon maire, cest utile. Est-ce quon recule devant du bien quon peut faire? A good mayor is a good thing. Are you afraid of the good you can do? Chapter II: Madeleine Said by an old woman to Father Madeleine, urging him to run for mayor. Le suprême bonheur de la vie, cest la conviction quon est aimé. The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved. Chapter IV: M. Madeleine in Mourning Il ny a rien de tel pour épier les actions des gens que ceux quelles ne regardent pas. For prying into any human affairs, none are equal to those whom it does not concern. Chapter VIII: Madame Victurnien Spends Thirty Francs on Morality Cest une erreur de simaginer quon épuise le sort et quon touche le fond de quoi que ce soit. Hélas! quest-ce que toutes ces destinées ainsi poussées pêle-mêle? où vont-elles? pourquoi sont-elles ainsi? Celui qui sait cela voit toute lombre. Il est seul. Il sappelle Dieu. It is a mistake to imagine that man can exhaust his destiny, or can reach the bottom of anything whatever. Alas! what are all these destinies thus driven pell-mell? whither go they? why are they so? He who knows that, sees all the shadow. He is alone. His name is God. Chapter XI: Christus Nos Liberavit Elle eût attendri un cœur de granit, mais on nattendrit pas un cœur de bois. Chapter XIII: Solution of Some Questions of Municipal Police Of Fantine and Javert La grande douleur est un rayon divin et terrible qui transfigure les misérables. Great grief is a divine and terrible radiance which transfigures the wretched. Chapter XIII: The Solution of Some Questions connected with the Municipal Police Book VII - The Champmathieu Affair [ edit] Faire le poème de la conscience humaine, ne fût-ce quà propos dun seul homme, ne fût-ce quà propos du plus infime des hommes, ce serait fondre toutes les épopées dans une épopée supérieure et définitive. To write the poem of the human conscience, were it only of a single man, were it only of the most infamous of men, would be to swallow up all epics in a superior and final epic. Chapter III: A Tempest in a Brain On nempêche pas plus la pensée de revenir à une idée que la mer de revenir à un rivage. Pour le matelot, cela sappelle la marée; pour le coupable, cela sappelle le remords. 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. Les bleuets sont bleus, les roses sont roses. Violets are blue. Roses are red. Chapter VI: Sister Simplice Put to the Proof Quand on lavait jugé, Dieu était absent. When he was tried, God was not there. Chapter IX: A Place for Arriving at Convictions Vous êtes bien malins de me dire où je suis né. Moi, je lignore. Tout le monde na pas des maisons pour y venir au monde. Ce serait trop commode. You must be very sharp to tell me where I was born. I don't know myself. Everybody can't have houses to be born in; that would be too handy. Chapter X: The System of Denegations Book VIII - The Counter-Stroke [ edit] Heureusement Dieu sait où retrouver lâme. Happily, God knows where to find her soul. Chapter V: A Fitting Tomb Volume Two: COSETTE [ edit] Book I - Waterloo [ edit] Napoléon. immense somnambule de ce rêve écroulé. Napoleon. mighty somnambulist of a vanished dream. Chapter XIII: The Catastrophe Waterloo est une bataille du premier ordre gagnée par un capitaine du second. Waterloo is a battle of the first rank won by a captain of the second. Chapter XVI: Quot Libras in Duce? Voulez-vous vous rendre compte de ce que cest que la révolution, appelez-la Progrès; et voulez-vous vous rendre compte de ce que cest que le progrès, appelez-le Demain. Would you realize what Revolution is, call it Progress; and would you realize what Progress is, call it Tomorrow. Chapter XVII: Is Waterloo to be considered Good? Quimporte à linfini? What is that to the Infinite? Chapter XVIII: A Recrudescence of Divine Right Book II - The Ship Orion [ edit] Sur un signe affirmatif de lofficier, il avait rompu dun coup de marteau la chaîne rivée à la manille de son pied, puis il avait pris une corde, et il sétait élancé dans les haubans. Personne ne remarqua en cet instant-là avec quelle facilité cette chaîne fut brisée. Ce ne fut que plus tard quon sen souvint. A sign of assent being given, with one blow of a hammer he broke the chain riveted to the iron ring at his ankle, then took a rope in his hand, and flung himself into the shrouds. Nobody, at the moment, noticed with what ease the chain was broken. It was only some time afterwards that anybody remembered it. Chapter III: The Chain Of The Iron Ring Must Needs Have Undergone A Certain Preparation To Be Thus Broken By One Blow Of The Hammer Book III - Fulfillment of the Promise to the Departed [ edit] He caught glimpses of everything, but saw nothing. Il entrevoyait tout, et ne voyait rien. Chapter IX: Thenardier Maneuvering Book V - A Dark Chase Requires a Silent Hound [ edit] Cherché, oui; suivi, non. Sought for, he might be, but followed he was not. Chapter II: It is Fortunate that Vehicles Can Cross the Bridge of Austerlitz Jean Valjean avait cela de particulier quon pouvait dire quil portait deux besaces; dans lune il avait les pensées dun saint, dans lautre les redoutables talents dun forçat. Il fouillait dans lune ou dans lautre, selon loccasion. Jean Valjean had this peculiarity, that he might be said to carry two knapsacks; in one he had the thoughts of a saint, in the other the formidable talents of a convict. He helped himself from one or the other as occasion required. Chapter V: Which would be Impossible were the Streets Lighted with Gas. Certes, en cet instant-là, si Jean Valjean avait eu un royaume, il leût donné pour une corde. Truly at that instant, if Jean Valjean had had a kingdom, he would have given it for a rope. Les fortes sottises sont souvent faites, comme les grosses cordes, dune multitude de brins. Great blunders are often made, like large ropes, of a multitude of fibers. Chapter X: In Which it is explained how Javert lost the Game Book VI - Petite Picpus [ edit] Sur le premier gobelet on lisait cette inscription: vin de singe, sur le deuxième: vin de lion, sur le troisième: vin de mouton, sur le quatrième: vin de cochon. Ces quatre légendes exprimaient les quatre degrés que descend livrogne; la première ivresse, celle qui égaye; la deuxième, celle qui irrite; la troisième, celle qui hébète; la dernière enfin, celle qui abrutit. Upon the first goblet he read this inscription, monkey wine; upon the second, lion wine; upon the third, sheep wine; upon the fourth, swine wine. These four inscriptions expressed the four descending degrees of drunkenness: the first, that which enlivens; the second, that which irritates; the third, that which stupefies; finally the last, that which brutalizes. Chapter IX: A Century under a Guimpe Nous ne comprenons pas tout, mais nous ninsultons rien. We do not comprehend everything, but we insult nothing. Chapter XI: End of the Petit Picpus Motto of the convent Petit Picpus Il est nécessaire de les connaître, ne fût-ce que pour les éviter. It is necessary to understand them, were it only to avoid them. On the study of "the things which are no more" Book VII - A Parenthesis [ edit] Chapter VIII - Faith - Law [ edit] Nous blâmons lÉglise quand elle est saturée dintrigue, nous méprisons le spirituel âpre au temporel; mais nous honorons partout lhomme pensif. We blame the Church when it is saturated with intrigues; we despise the spiritual when it is harshly austere to the temporal; but we honour everywhere the thoughtful man. Nous saluons qui sagenouille. We bow to the man who kneels. Une foi; cest là pour lhomme le nécessaire. Malheur à qui ne croit rien! A faith is a necessity to man. Woe to him who believes nothing. On nest pas inoccupé parce quon est absorbé. Il y a le labeur visible et le labeur invisible. A man is not idle, because he is absorbed in thought. There is a visible labour and there is an invisible labour. Contempler, cest labourer; penser, cest agir. Les bras croisés travaillent, les mains jointes font. Le regard au ciel est une œuvre. To meditate is to labour; to think is to act. Folded arms work, closed hands perform, a gaze fixed on heaven is a toil. Thalès resta quatre ans immobile. Il fonda la philosophie. Thales remained motionless for four years. He founded philosophy. Pour nous les cénobites ne sont pas des oisifs, et les solitaires ne sont pas des fainéants. In our eyes, cenobites are not idlers, nor is the recluse a sluggard. Songer à lOmbre est une chose sérieuse. To think of the Gloom is a serious thing. Sans rien infirmer de ce que nous venons de dire, nous croyons quun perpétuel souvenir du tombeau convient aux vivants. Sur ce point le prêtre et le philosophe sont daccord. Il faut mourir. Without at all invalidating what we have just said, we believe that a perpetual remembrance of the tomb is proper for the living. On this point, the priest and the philosopher agree: We must die. Mêler à sa vie une certaine présence du sépulcre, cest la loi du sage; et cest la loi de lascète. Sous ce rapport lascète et le sage convergent. To mingle with one's life a certain presence of the sepulchre is the law of the wise man, and it is the law of the ascetic. In this relation, the ascetic and the sage tend towards a common centre. Il y a la croissance matérielle; nous la voulons. Il y a aussi la grandeur morale; nous y tenons. There is a material advancement; we desire it. There is, also, a moral grandeur; we hold fast to it. Les esprits irréfléchis et rapides disent: — À quoi bon ces figures immobiles du côté du mystère? À quoi servent-elles? quest-ce quelles font? Hélas! en présence de lobscurité qui nous environne et qui nous attend, ne sachant pas ce que la dispersion immense fera de nous, nous répondons: Il ny a pas dœuvre plus sublime peut-être que celle que font ces âmes. Et nous ajoutons: Il ny a peut-être pas de travail plus utile. Unreflecting, headlong minds say: Of what use are those motionless figures by the side of mystery? What purpose do they serve? What do they effect. Alas! in the presence of that obscurity which surrounds us and awaits us, not knowing what the vast dispersion of all things will do with us, we answer: There is, perhaps, no work more sublime than that which is accomplished by these souls; and we add, There is no labour, perhaps, more useful. Il faut bien ceux qui prient toujours pour ceux qui ne prient jamais. Pour nous, toute la question est dans la quantité de pensée qui se mêle à la prière. Leibniz priant, cela est grand; Voltaire adorant, cela est beau. Deo erexit Voltaire. Those who pray always are necessary to those who never pray. In our view, the whole question is in the amount of thought that is mingled with prayer. Leibnitz, praying, is something grand; Voltaire, worshipping, is something beautiful. Deo erexit Voltaire. Nous sommes pour la religion contre les religions. We are for religion against the religions. Nous sommes de ceux qui croient à la misère des oraisons et à la sublimité de la prière. We are of those who believe in the pitifulness of orisons, and in the sublimity of prayer. Book VIII - Cemeteries Take What is Given Them [ edit] Impossible! dit-il. Père Fauchelevent, mettez que je suis tombé de là-haut. "Impossible. he said. "Father Fauchelevent, let it go that I fell from on high. " Chapter I: Which Treat of the Manner of Entering the Convent Nêtre pas écouté, ce nest pas une raison pour se taire. Not being heard is no reason for silence. Celui qui sévade ne tousse pas et néternue pas. He who is escaping never coughs and never sneezes. Chapter IV: In Which Jean Valjean has Quite the Appearance of Having Read Austin Castillejo Ce conscrit était chez lui, occupé à chercher sa carte, et bien empêché de la trouver dans son logis puisquelle était dans la poche de Fauchelevent. That recruit was at home, hunting up his "card. and rather unlikely he was to find it, as it was in Fauchelevent's pocket. Chapter VII: In Which will be Found the Origin of the Saying: Don't Lose Your Card Personne ne garde un secret comme un enfant. No one ever keeps a secret so well as a child. Chapter VIII: Successful Examination Le rire, cest le soleil; il chasse lhiver du visage humain. Laughter is sunshine; it chases winter from the human face. Chapter IX: The Close Volume Three: MARIUS [ edit] The father of a woman that we love is never a stranger to us. Marius felt proud of this unknown man. Book I - Paris Atomised [ edit] Donnez à un être linutile et ôtez-lui le nécessaire, vous aurez le gamin. Give to a being the useless, and deprive him of the needful, and you have the gamin. Chapter III: He is Agreeable Ce vil sable que vous foulez aux pieds, quon le jette dans la fournaise, quil y fonde et quil y bouillonne, il deviendra cristal splendide, et cest grâce à lui que Galilée et Newton découvriront les astres. This lowly sand which you trample beneath your feet, if you cast it into the furnace, and let it melt and seethe, shall become resplendent crystal, and by means of such as it a Galileo and a Newton shall discover stars. Chapter XII: The Future Latent In the People About the lower classes of France Book II - The Grand Bourgeois [ edit] Ce frère. se croyait obligé de faire laumône aux pauvres quil rencontrait, mais il ne leur donnait jamais que des monnerons ou des sous démonétisés, trouvant ainsi moyen daller en enfer par le chemin du paradis. This brother. felt obliged to give alms to the poor whom he met, but never gave them anything more than coppers or worn-out sous, finding thus the means of going to Hell by the road to Paradise. Chapter VI: In Which We See La Magnon and Her Two Little Ones Toutes deux avaient des ailes, lune comme un ange, lautre comme une oie. Both had wings, one like angel, the other like a goose. Chapter VIII: Two Do Not Make a Pair About two sisters Book III - The Grandfather and the Grandson [ edit] Il nallait nulle part quà la condition dy dominer. He went nowhere save on condition of ruling there. Chapter I: An Old Salon On M. Gillenormand, Grandfather of Marius Un voleur y est admis, pourvu quil soit dieu. A thief is admitted, provided he be a lord. Les années finissent par faire autour dune tête un échevellement vénérable. Years place at last a venerable crown upon a head. Je ne sais point si cest moi qui nentends plus le français, ou si cest vous qui ne le parlez plus, mais le fait est que je ne comprends pas. I do not know whether it is that I no longer understand French, or you no longer speak it; but the fact is I do not understand you. Chapter II: One of the Red Spectres of that Time George Pontmercy's response to his being told he could no longer wear a medal that he had earned fighting in Bonaparte's army Monsieur le procureur du roi, mest-il permis de porter ma balafre? Monsieur procurer du roi, am I allowed to wear my scar? En deux jours le colonel avait été enterré, et en trois jours oublié. In two days the colonel had been buried, and in three days forgotten. Chapter IV: The End of the Brigand Il était plein de regrets, et de remords, et il songeait avec désespoir que tout ce quil avait dans lâme, il ne pouvait plus le dire maintenant quà un tombeau! He was full of regret and remorse, and he thought with despair that all he had in his soul he could say now only to a tomb. Chapter VI: What It Is to have Met a Churchwarden Marius vit en Bonaparte le spectre éblouissant qui se dressera toujours sur la frontière et qui gardera lavenir. Despote, mais dictateur; despote résultant dune République et résumant une révolution. Napoléon devint pour lui lhomme-peuple comme Jésus est lhomme-Dieu. On le voit, à la façon de tous les nouveaux venus dans une religion, sa conversion lenivrait, il se précipitait dans ladhésion et il allait trop loin. Sa nature était ainsi: une fois sur une pente, il lui était presque impossible denrayer. Le fanatisme pour lépée le gagnait et compliquait dans son esprit lenthousiasme pour lidée. Il ne sapercevait point quavec le génie, et pêle-mêle, il admirait la force, cest-à-dire quil installait dans les deux compartiments de son idolâtrie, dun côté ce qui est divin, de lautre ce qui est brutal. À plusieurs égards, il sétait mis à se tromper autrement. Il admettait tout. Il y a une manière de rencontrer lerreur en allant à la vérité. Il avait une sorte de bonne foi violente qui prenait tout en bloc. Dans la voie nouvelle où il était entré, en jugeant les torts de lancien régime comme en mesurant la gloire de Napoléon, il négligeait les circonstances atténuantes. Marius saw in Bonaparte the flashing spectre which will always rise upon the frontier, and which will guard the future. Despot, but dictator; despot resulting from a republic and summing up a revolution. Napoleon became to him the people-man as Jesus is the God-man. We see, like all new converts to a religion, his conversion intoxicated him, he plunged headlong into adhesion, and he went too far. His nature was such; once upon a descent it was almost impossible for him to hold back. Fanaticism for the sword took possession of him, and became complicated in his mind with enthusiasm for the idea. He did not perceive that along with genius, and indiscriminately, he was admiring force, that is to say that he was installing in the two compartments of his idolatry, on one side what is divine, and on the other what is brutal. In several respects he began to deceive himself in other matters. He admitted everything. There is a way of meeting error while on the road of truth. He had a sort of willful implicit faith which swallowed everything in mass. On the new path upon which he had entered, in judging the crimes of the ancient regime as well as in measuring the glory of Napoleon, he neglected the attenuating circumstances. Ne pas voir les gens, cela permet de leur supposer toutes les perfections. Not seeing people permits us to imagine in them every perfection. Chapter VII: Some Petticoat Mon père. cétait un homme humble et héroïque qui a glorieusement servi la République et la France, qui a été grand dans la plus grande histoire que les hommes aient jamais faite, qui a vécu un quart de siècle au bivouac, le jour sous la mitraille et sous les balles, la nuit dans la neige, dans la boue, sous la pluie, qui a pris deux drapeaux, qui a reçu vingt blessures, qui est mort dans loubli et dans labandon, et qui na jamais eu quun tort, cest de trop aimer deux ingrats, son pays et moi! My father. was a humble and heroic man, who served the republic and France gloriously, who was great in the greatest history that men have made, who lived a quarter of a century in the camp, by day under grape and under balls, by night in the snow, in the mud, and in the rain, who captured colours, who received twenty wounds, who died forgotten and abandoned, and who had but one fault; that was in loving too dearly two ingrates, his country and me. Chapter VIII: Marble Against Granite Book IV - The Friends of the A B C [ edit] A fire would cause a dawn, undoubtedly, but why not wait for the break of day? Il ne semblait pas savoir quil y eût sur la terre un être appelé la femme. He did not seem to know that there was on the earth a being called woman. Chapter I: A Group Which Almost Became Historic About Enjolras Un incendie peut faire une aurore sans doute, mais pourquoi ne pas attendre le lever du jour? Sa spécialité était de ne réussir à rien. Par contre, il riait de tout. Il était pauvre, mais son gousset de bonne humeur était inépuisable. Il arrivait vite à son dernier sou, jamais à son dernier éclat de rire. Quand ladversité entrait chez lui, il saluait cordialement cette ancienne connaissance, il tapait sur le ventre aux catastrophes; il était familier avec la Fatalité au point de lappeler par son petit nom. His specialty was to succeed in nothing. He was poor, but his fund of good humor was inexhaustible. He soon reached the last sou but never the last burst of laughter. When met by adversity, he saluted that acquaintance cordially, he patted catastrophes on the back; he was so familiar with fatality as to call it by its nick-name. About L'Aigle [the eagle] aka Lesgueules, Lesgle, or Bossuet Cest dommage que je sois un ignorant, car je vous citerais une foule de choses; mais je ne sais rien. It is a pity that I am ignorant, for I would quote you a crowd of things, but I don't know anything. Chapter IV: The Back Room of the Cafe Musain Grantaire speaking of himself Ce sera avaler une langue bien vite ou une pièce de cent sous bien lentement. That will be swallowing a language very rapidly or a hundred-sous piece very slowly. Chapter VI: Res Angusta Marius must learn German and English to get a job: he only has a hundred sous left and states that this money will last until he learns the languages. His friend, Courfeyrac, remarks that either he will learn fast, or spend slow. Book V - The Excellence of Misfortune [ edit] Voulant toujours être en deuil, il se vêtissait de la nuit. Desiring always to be in mourning, he clothed himself with night. Chapter I: Marius Needy Ses créanciers lavaient cherché aussi, avec moins damour que Marius, mais avec autant dacharnement, et navaient pu mettre la main sur lui. His creditors had sought for him, also, with less love than Marius but with as much zeal, and had not been able to put their hands on him. Chapter II: Marius Poor Marius is looking for Thenardier because he believes his father's life had been saved by Thenardier. Il se gardait fort dêtre inutile; avoir des livres ne lempêchait pas de lire, être botaniste ne lempêchait pas dêtre jardinier. He took good care not to be useless; having books did not prevent him from reading, being a botanist did not prevent him from being a gardener. Chapter IV: M. Mabeuf Il allait à la messe plutôt par douceur que par dévotion, et puis parce quaimant le visage des hommes, mais haïssant leur bruit, il ne les trouvait quà léglise réunis et silencieux. He went to mass rather from good-feeling than from devotion, and because he loved the faces of men, but hated their noise and he found them, at church only, gathered together and silent. Il navait jamais réussi à aimer aucune femme autant quun oignon de tulipe ou aucun homme autant quun elzevir. Finally, he had never succeeded in loving any woman as much as a tulip bulb, or any man as much as an Elzevir. Une horloge ne sarrête pas court au moment précis où lon en perd la clef. A clock does not stop at the very moment you lose the key. Il avait fini par ne plus guère regarder que le ciel, seule chose que la vérité puisse voir du fond de son puits. He had finally come hardly to look at nothing but the sky, the only thing that truth can see from the bottom of her well. Chapter V: Poverty A Good Neighbor of Misery On jugerait bien plus sûrement un homme daprès ce quil rêve que daprès ce quil pense. We should judge a man much more surely from what he dreams than from what he thinks. Book VI - The Conjunction of Two Stars [ edit] Je viens de rencontrer le chapeau neuf et lhabit neuf de Marius et Marius dedans. Il allait sans doute passer un examen. Il avait lair tout bête. I have just met Marius' new hat and coat, with Marius inside. Probably he was going to an examination. He looked stupid enough. Chapter IV: Commencement of a Great Distemper Courfeyrac about Marius Book VII - Patron Minette [ edit] Babet était maigre et savant. Il était transparent, mais impénétrable. On voyait le jour à travers les os, mais rien à travers la prunelle. Babet was thin and shrewd. He was transparent, but impenetrable. You could see the light through his bones, but nothing through his eye. Chapter III: Babet, Gueulemer, Claquesous, and Montparnasse Babet is a bandit Book VIII - The Noxious Poor [ edit] Pauvres mères! pensa-t-il. Il y a une chose plus triste que de voir ses enfants mourir; cest de les voir mal vivre. Poor mothers, he thought. There is one thing sadder than to see their children die — to see them lead evil lives. Chapter II: A Waif Ils sont rares, ceux qui sont tombés sans être dégradés; dailleurs il y a un point où les infortunés et les infâmes se mêlent et se confondent dans un seul mot, mot fatal, les misérables. Those are rare who fall without becoming degraded; there is a point, moreover, at which the unfortunate and the infamous are associated and confounded in a single word, a fatal word, Les Misérables. Chapter V: The Judas of Providence Vous parlez là comme un homme brave et comme un homme honnête. Le courage ne craint pas le crime, et lhonnêteté ne craint pas lautorité. You speak now like a brave man and an honest man. Courage does not fear crime, and honesty does not fear authority. Chapter XIV: In Which a Police Officer Gives a Lawyer Two Fisticuffs Javert speaking to Marius Bossuet! sécria Courfeyrac, aigle de Meaux! vous êtes une prodigieuse brute. Suivre un homme qui suit un homme! Bossuet. Courfeyrac exclaimed. "Eagle of Meaux! you are a prodigious fool. Follow a man who is following a man! Chapter XV: Jondrette Makes his Purchase Le bouge ainsi éclairé ressemblait plutôt à une forge quà une bouche de lenfer, mais Jondrette, à cette lueur, avait plutôt lair dun démon que dun forgeron. The room thus lighted up seemed rather a smithy than the mouth of hell; but Jondrette, in that glare, had rather the appearance of a demon than of a blacksmith. Chapter XVII: Use of Marius' Five-Franc Piece "Jondrette" is Thenardier Chapter XX - The Ambuscade [ edit] Ce vieillard, si ferme et si brave devant un tel danger, semblait être de ces natures qui sont courageuses comme elles sont bonnes, aisément et simplement. Le père dune femme quon aime nest jamais un étranger pour nous. Marius se sentit fier de cet inconnu. This old man, so firm and so brave before so great a peril, seemed to be one of those natures who are courageous as they are good, simply and naturally. The father of a woman that we love is never a stranger to us. Marius felt proud of this unknown man. Je ne mappelle pas Fabantou, je ne mappelle pas Jondrette, je me nomme Thénardier! je suis laubergiste de Montfermeil! entendez-vous bien? Thénardier! Maintenant me reconnaissez-vous? My name is not Fabantou, my name is not Jondrette, my name is Thenardier! I am the innkeeper of Montfermeil! do you understand me? Thenardier! now do you know me? Au moment où Jondrette avait dit: Je me nomme Thénardier, Marius avait tremblé de tous ses membres et sétait appuyé au mur comme sil eût senti le froid dune lame dépée à travers son cœur. When Jondrette had said: My name is Thenardier, Marius had trembled in every limb, and supported himself against the wall as if he had felt the chill of a sword-blade through his heart. Pardon, monsieur, répondit M. Leblanc avec un accent de politesse qui avait en un pareil moment quelque chose détrange et de puissant, je vois que vous êtes un bandit. "Pardon me, monsieur. answered M. Leblanc, with a tone of politeness which, at such a moment, had a peculiarly strange and powerful effect, I see that you are a bandit. " M. Leblanc" is Valjean Le prisonnier nétait plus attaché au lit que par une jambe. Avant que les sept hommes eussent eu le temps de se reconnaître et de sélancer, lui sétait penché sous la cheminée, avait étendu la main vers le réchaud, puis sétait redressé, et maintenant Thénardier, la Thénardier et les bandits, refoulés par le saisissement au fond du bouge, le regardaient avec stupeur élevant au-dessus de sa tête le ciseau rouge doù tombait une lueur sinistre, presque libre et dans une attitude formidable. The prisoner was no longer fastened to the bed save by one leg. Before the seven men had had time to recover themselves and spring upon him, he had bent over to the fireplace, reached his hand towards the furnace, then rose up, and now Thenardier, the Thenardiess, and the bandits, thrown by the shock into the back part of the room, beheld him with stupefaction, holding above his head the glowing chisel, from which fell an ominous light, almost free and in a formidable attitude. Vous êtes des malheureux, mais ma vie ne vaut pas la peine dêtre tant défendue. Quant à vous imaginer que vous me feriez parler, que vous me feriez écrire ce que je ne veux pas écrire, que vous me feriez dire ce que je ne veux pas dire… Il releva la manche de son bras gauche et ajouta: — Tenez. En même temps il tendit son bras et posa sur la chair nue le ciseau ardent quil tenait dans sa main droite par le manche de bois. On entendit le frémissement de la chair brûlée, lodeur propre aux chambres de torture se répandit dans le taudis. Marius chancela éperdu dhorreur, les brigands eux-mêmes eurent un frisson, le visage de létrange vieillard se contracta à peine, et, tandis que le fer rouge senfonçait dans la plaie fumante, impassible et presque auguste, il attachait sur Thénardier son beau regard sans haine où la souffrance sévanouissait dans une majesté sereine. "You are pitiable, but my life is not worth the trouble of so long a defence. As to your imagining that you could make me speak, that you could make me write what I do not wish to write, that you could make me say what I do not wish to say —" He pulled up the sleeve of his left arm, and added: Here. At the same time he extended his arm, and laid upon the naked flesh the glowing chisel, which he held in his right hand, by the wooden handle. They heard the hissing of the burning flesh; the odour peculiar to chambers of torture spread through the den. Marius staggered, lost in horror; the brigands themselves felt a shudder; the face of the wonderful old man hardly contracted, and while the red iron was sinking into the smoking, impassable, and almost august wound, he turned upon Thenardier his fine face, in which there was no hatred, and in which suffering was swallowed up in a serene majesty. Volume Four: ST. DENIS [ edit] Full title: Saint Denis and Idyl of the Rue Plumet Book I - A Few Pages of History [ edit] La logique ignore là peu près; absolument comme le soleil ignore la chandelle. Logic ignores the Almost, just as the sun ignores the candle. Chapter II: Badly Sewed Prospérité sociale, cela veut dire lhomme heureux, le citoyen libre, la nation grande. Social prosperity means man happy, the citizen free, the nation great. Chapter IV: Cracks beneath the Foundation Book II - Eponine [ edit] Rien nest plus dangereux que le travail discontinué; cest une habitude qui sen va. Habitude facile à quitter, difficile à reprendre. Nothing is more dangerous than discontinued labor; it is habit lost. A habit easy to abandon, difficult to resume. Chapter I: The Field of the Lark La pensée est le labeur de lintelligence, la rêverie en est la volupté. Thought is the labor of the intellect, reverie is its pleasure. Heureux, même dans les angoisses, celui à qui Dieu a donné une âme digne de lamour et du malheur! Qui na pas vu les choses de ce monde et le cœur des hommes à cette double lumière na rien vu de vrai et ne sait rien. Happy, even in anguish, is he to whom God has given a soul worthy of love and of grief! He who has not seen the things of this world, and the hearts of men by this double light, has seen nothing, and know nothing of the truth. Non, répondit-elle, je suis le diable, mais ça mest égal. No. I am the devil, but that is all the same to me. Chapter III: An Apparition to Father Mabeuf Eponine responding to F. Mabeuf, who had just said to her "you are an angel, since you care for flowers. " Book III - The House in the Rue Plumet [ edit] En 93, un chaudronnier avait acheté la maison pour la démolir, mais nayant pu en payer le prix, la nation le mit en faillite. De sorte que ce fut la maison qui démolit le chaudronnier. In '93, a coppersmith bought the house to pull it down, but not being able to pay the price for it, the nation sent him into bankruptcy. So that it was the house that pulled down the coppersmith. Chapter I: The Secret House Où finit le télescope, le microscope commence. Lequel des deux a la vue la plus grande? Where the telescope ends, the microscope begins. Which of the two has the grander view? Chapter III: Requiescant Il se disait quil navait vraiment pas assez souffert pour mériter un si radieux bonheur, et il remerciait Dieu, dans les profondeurs de son âme, davoir permis quil fût ainsi aimé, lui misérable, par cet être innocent. He said to himself that he really had not suffered enough to deserve such radiant happiness, and he thanked God, in the depths of his soul, for having permitted that he, a miserable man, should be so loved by this innocent being. Chapter IV: Change of Grating Valjean about Cosette Les femmes jouent avec leur beauté comme les enfants avec leur couteau. Elles sy blessent. Women play with their beauty as children do with their knives. They wound themselves with it. Chapter VI: The Battle Commences Le premier symptôme de lamour vrai chez un jeune homme, cest la timidité, chez une jeune fille, cest la hardiesse. The first symptom of true love in a young man is timidity; in a young girl it is boldness. Chapter VI: The Battle Commences. Trans. Isabel Hapgood. Dante eût cru voir les sept cercles de lenfer en marche. Dante would have thought he saw the seven circles of Hell on their passage. Chapter VIII: The Chain Valjean and Cosette watch a procession of seven wagons of men who are condemned to the galleys pass by Book IV - Aid from Below May be Aid from Above [ edit] Un soir le petit Gavroche navait point mangé; il se souvint quil navait pas non plus dîné la veille; cela devenait fatigant. Il prit la résolution dessayer de souper. One evening little Gavroche had had no dinner; he remembered that he had had no dinner also the day before; this was becoming tiresome. He resolved that he would try for some supper. Chapter II: Mother Plutarch is not Embarrassed on the Explanation of a Phenomenon Book V - An End Unlike the Beginning [ edit] You who suffer because you love, love still more. To die of love is to live by it. Love! A dark and starry transfiguration is mingled with that torment. There is ecstacy in the agony. Chapter IV: A Heart Beneath A Stone Book VI - Little Gavroche [ edit] Le plus terrible des motifs et la plus indiscutable des réponses: Parce que. The most terrible of motives and the most unanswerable of responses: Because. Chapter I: A Malevolent Trick of the Wind. Le barbier, dans sa boutique chauffée dun bon poêle, rasait une pratique et jetait de temps en temps un regard de côté à cet ennemi, à ce gamin gelé et effronté qui avait les deux mains dans ses poches, mais lesprit évidemment hors du fourreau. The barber in his shop, warmed by a good stove, was shaving a customer and casting from time to time a look towards this enemy, this frozen and brazen gamin, who had both hands in his pockets, but his wits evidently out of their sheath. Chapter II: In Which Little Gavroche Takes Advantage of Napoleon the Great. Le bureau est fermé, dit Gavroche, je ne reçois plus de plaintes. "The bureau is closed. said Gavroche. "I receive no more complaints. " Said by Gavroche to someone who complained when Gavroche splashed his polished boots with mud. À un certain degré de détresse, le pauvre, dans sa stupeur, ne gémit plus du mal et ne remercie plus du bien. At a certain depth of distress, the poor, in their stupor, groan no longer over evil, and are no longer thankful for good. Ah çà! sécria Gavroche, quest-ce que cela signifie? Il repleut! Bon Dieu, si cela continue, je me désabonne. "Ah. cried Gavroche, what does this mean? It rains again! Good God, if this continues, I withdraw my subscription. " Gavroche has just given his coat to a girl when the storm starts to worsen. Book VII - Argot [ edit] Les esprits réfléchis usent peu de cette locution: les heureux et les malheureux. Dans ce monde, vestibule dun autre évidemment, il ny a pas dheureux. La vraie division humaine est celle-ci: les lumineux et les ténébreux. Diminuer le nombre des ténébreux, augmenter le nombre des lumineux, voilà le but. Cest pourquoi nous crions: enseignement! science! Thoughtful persons seldom speak of happiness or unhappiness. In this world, which is so plainly the antechamber of another, there are no happy men. The true division of humanity is between those who live in light and those who live in darkness. Our aim must be to diminish the number of the latter and increase the number of the former. That is why we demand education and knowledge. Chapter I: Origin. Norman Denny Ce quon peut faire dans un sépulcre, ils agonisaient, et ce quon peut faire dans un enfer, ils chantaient. Car où il ny a plus lespérance, le chant reste. What can be done in a sepulcher, they agonised, and what can be done in a hell, they sang. For where there is no more hope, song remains. Chapter II: Roots Vous aurez beau faire, vous nanéantirez pas cet éternel reste du cœur de lhomme, lamour. The endeavor is vain, you cannot annihilate that eternal relic of the human heart, love. Plaignons, à légal des estomacs, les esprits qui ne mangent pas. Sil y a quelque chose de plus poignant quun corps agonisant faute de pain, cest une âme qui meurt de la faim de la lumière. Let us lament as over stomachs, over minds which do not eat. If there is anything more poignant than a body agonising for want of bread, it is a soul which is dying of hunger for light. Chapter IV The Two Duties: To Watch and to Hope Il ny a quune manière de refuser Demain, cest de mourir. There is but one way of refusing To-morrow, that is to die. Chapter IV: The Two Duties: To Watch and to Hope Faut-il continuer de lever les yeux vers le ciel? le point lumineux qu'on y distingue est-il de ceux qui s'éteignent? L'idéal est effrayant à voir, ainsi perdu dans les profondeurs, petit, isolé, imperceptible, brillant, mais entouré de toutes ces grandes menaces noires monstrueusement amoncelées autour de lui; pourtant pas plus en danger qu'une étoile dans les gueules des nuages. Should we continue to look upwards? Is the light we can see in the sky one of those which will presently be extinguished? The ideal is terrifying to behold, lost as it is in the depths, small, isolated, a pin-point, brilliant but threatened on all sides by the dark forces that surround it: nevertheless, no more in danger than a star in the jaws of the clouds. Book VIII - Enchantments and Desolations [ edit] Le compliment, c'est quelque chose comme le baiser à travers le voile. A compliment is something like a kiss through a veil. Chapter I: Marius, while seeking a Girl in a Bonnet encounters a Man in a Cap Quand on est à la fin de la vie, mourir, cela veut dire partir; quand on est au commencement, partir, cela veut dire mourir. When we are at the end of life, to die means to go away; when we are at the beginning, to go away means to die. Chapter VI: Marius Becomes so Real as to Give Cosette his Address Book IX - Where are They Going. edit] Il y a des moments où lon a une fournaise sous le crâne. Marius était dans un de ces moments-là. There are moments when a man has a furnace in his brain. Marius was in one of those moments. Chapter II: Marius Book X - June 5th, 1832 [ edit] Le vent des révolutions nest pas maniable. The wind of revolutions is not tractable. Chapter IV: The Ebullitions of Former Times Book XI - The Atom Fraternises with the Hurricane [ edit] Ses frères le soir, son père le matin; voilà quelle avait été sa nuit. His brothers in the evening, his father in the morning; such had been his night. Chapter I: Some Insight into the Origin of Gavroche's Poetry — Influence of an Academician upon that Poetry. In the evening, Gavroche had found food and shelter for two boys without knowing that they were his brothers. Early the next morning he helped in his father's escape from jail and was not even recognized by him. La rue est libre, les pavés sont à tout le monde. The road is free; the streets belong to everybody. Chapter VI: Recruits Book XII - Corinth [ edit] Ce que vous autres appelez le progrès marche par deux moteurs, les hommes et les événements. Mais, chose triste, de temps en temps, lexceptionnel est nécessaire. Pour les événements comme pour les hommes, la troupe ordinaire ne suffit pas; il faut parmi les hommes des génies, et parmi les événements des révolutions. Les grands accidents sont la loi; lordre des choses ne peut sen passer; et, à voir les apparitions de comètes, on serait tenté de croire que le ciel lui-même a besoin dacteurs en représentation. Au moment où lon sy attend le moins, Dieu placarde un météore sur la muraille du firmament. Quelque étoile bizarre survient, soulignée par une queue énorme. Et cela fait mourir César. Brutus lui donne un coup de couteau, et Dieu un coup de comète. What you fellows call progress moves by two springs, men and events. But sad to say, from time to time the exceptional is necessary. For events as well as for men, the stock company is not enough; geniuses are needed among men, and revolutions among events. Great accidents are the law; the order of things cannot get along without them; and, to see the apparitions of comets, one would be tempted to believe that Heaven itself is in need of star actors. At the moment you least expect it, God placards a meteor on the wall of the firmament. Some strange star comes along, underlined by an enormous tail. And that makes Caesar die. Brutus strikes him with a knife, and God with a comet. Chapter II: Preliminary Gaiety Les grands périls ont cela de beau quils mettent en lumière la fraternité des inconnus. Great perils have this beauty, that they bring to light the fraternity of strangers. Chapter IV: Attempt at Consolation upon the Widow Hucheloup Cest la souris qui a pris le chat. The mouse has caught the cat. Chapter VII: The Man Recruited in the Rue Des Billettes Said by Gavroche to Javert after revealing him to be a police spy Sa vie avait été ténèbres; sa fin fut nuit. His life had been darkness, his end was night. Chapter VIII: Several Interrogation Points Concerning One Le Cabuc, Who Perhaps was Not Le Cabuc Book XIII - Marius Enters the Shadow [ edit] La guerre civile? quest-ce à dire? Est-ce quil y a une guerre étrangère? Est-ce que toute guerre entre hommes nest pas la guerre entre frères? La guerre ne se qualifie que par son but. Il ny a ni guerre étrangère, ni guerre civile; il ny a que la guerre injuste et la guerre juste. Civil war? What does this mean? Is there any foreign war? Is not every war between men, war between brothers? War is modified only by its aim. There is neither foreign war, nor civil war; there is only unjust war and just war. Chapter III: The Extreme Limit Book XIV - The Grandeurs of Despair [ edit] Marius avait trop peu vécu encore pour savoir que rien nest plus imminent que limpossible, et que ce quil faut toujours prévoir, cest limprévu. Marius had lived too little as yet to know that nothing is more imminent than the impossible, and that what we must always forsee is the unforseen. Chapter V: End of Jean Prouvaire's Rhyme Tes amis viennent de te fusiller. Your friends have just shot you. Said by Enjolras to Javert after Prouvaire's execution. Book XV - The Rue De L'Homme Armé [ edit] À de certaines heures, tout semble impossible; à dautres heures, tout paraît aisé; Jean Valjean était dans une de ces bonnes heures. At certain hours, everything seems impossible; at other hours, everything appears easy; Jean Valjean was in one of those happy hours. Chapter I: Blotter, Blabber Lâme ne se rend pas au désespoir sans avoir épuisé toutes les illusions. The soul does not give itself up to despair until it has exhausted all illusions. On prend la charrette pour la République et on laisse lAuvergnat à la monarchie. We take the cart for the republic and we leave the Auvergnat to the monarchy. Chapter IV: The Excess of Gavroche's Zeal Gavroche, leaving a note about a cart he has stolen for the barricades Vous parlez gentiment. Vrai, on ne vous donnerait pas votre âge. Vous devriez vendre tous vos cheveux cent francs la pièce. Cela vous ferait cinq cents francs. You talk genteelly. Really, nobody would guess your age. You ought to sell all your hairs at a hundred francs apiece. That would make you five hundred francs. Gavroche talking to the National Guard Se sauver par ce qui vous a perdu, cest là le chef-dœuvre des hommes forts. To save yourself by means of that which has ruined you is the masterpiece of great men. Volume Five: JEAN VALJEAN [ edit] Book I - The War Between Four Walls [ edit] Jamais on ne me voit avec des habits chamarrés dor et de pierreries; je laisse ce faux éclat aux âmes mal organisées. Never am I seen with coats bedizened with gold and gems; I leave this false splendour to badly organized minds. Chapter XVI: How Brother Becomes Father Les peuples comme les astres ont le droit déclipse. Et tout est bien, pourvu que la lumière revienne et que léclipse ne dégénère pas en nuit. Aube et résurrection sont synonymes. La réapparition de la lumière est identique à la persistance du moi. A people, like a star, has the right of eclipse. And all is well, provided the light return and the eclipse does not degenerate into night. Dawn and resurrection are synonyms. The reappearance of the light is identical with the persistence of the Me. Chapter XX: The Dead are Right and the Living are not Wrong Charles E. Wilbour translation (1862) Peoples, like planets, possess the right to an eclipse. And all is well, provided that the light returns and that the eclipse does not degenerate into night. Dawn and resurrection are synonymous. The reappearance of the light is identical with the persistence of the I. Isabel F. Hapgood translation (1887) Nations, like stars, are entitled to eclipse. All is well, provided the light returns and the eclipse does not become endless night. The reappearance of the light is the same as the survival of the soul. Norman Denny translation (1976) A people, like a star, has the right of eclipse. And all is well, provided the light returns and the eclipse does not degenerate into night. The reappearance of the light is identical with the persistence of the self. Lee Fahnestock and Norman MacAfee translation, based upon that of Wilbour. (1987) Hélas! être monté, cela nempêche pas de tomber. On voit ceci dans lhistoire plus souvent quon ne voudrait. Alas! to have risen does not prevent falling. We see this in history oftener than we would wish. Il y a des gens qui observent les règles de lhonneur comme on observe les étoiles, de très loin. There are people who observe the rules of honour as we observe the stars, from afar off. Chapter XXI: The Heroes Les assaillants avaient le nombre; les insurgés avaient la position. Ils étaient au haut dune muraille, et ils foudroyaient à bout portant les soldats trébuchant dans les morts et les blessés et empêtrés dans lescarpement. Cette barricade, construite comme elle létait et admirablement contrebutée, était vraiment une de ces situations où une poignée dhommes tient en échec une légion. The assailants had the numbers; the insurgents the position. They were on the top of a wall, and they shot down the soldiers at the muzzles of their muskets, as they stumbled over the dead and wounded and became entangled in the escarpment. This barricade, built as it was, and admirably supported, was really one of those positions in which a handful of men hold a legion in check. Les assauts se succédèrent. Lhorreur alla grandissant. There was assault after assault. The horror continued to increase. Pour se faire une idée de cette lutte, il faudrait se figurer le feu mis à un tas de courages terribles, et quon regarde lincendie. Ce nétait pas un combat, cétait le dedans dune fournaise; les bouches y respiraient de la flamme; les visages y étaient extraordinaires, la forme humaine y semblait impossible, les combattants y flamboyaient, et cétait formidable de voir aller et venir dans cette fumée rouge ces salamandres de la mêlée. Les scènes successives et simultanées de cette tuerie grandiose, nous renonçons à les peindre. To form an idea of this struggle, imagine fire applied to a mass of terrible valour, and that you are witnessing the conflagration. It was not a combat, it was the interior of a furnace; there mouths breathed flame; there faces were wonderful. There the human form seemed impossible, the combatants flashed flames, and it was terrible to see going and coming in that lurid smoke these salamanders of the fray. The successive and simultaneous scenes of this grand slaughter, we decline to paint. Que lun combatte pour son drapeau, et que lautre combatte pour son idéal, et quils simaginent tous les deux combattre pour la patrie; la lutte sera colossale. Let the one fight for his flag, and the other for his ideal, and let them both imagine that they are fighting for the country; the strife will be colossal... On veut mourir pourvu quon tue. They are willing to die, provided they kill. Chapter XXII: Foot to Foot Book II - The Intestine of the Leviatha [ edit] La philosophie est le microscope de la pensée. Philosophy is the microscope of thought. Chapter II: Ancient History of the Sewer Book III - Mire, But Soul [ edit] Jean Valjean had fallen from one circle of Hell to another. Jean Valjean était tombé dun cercle de lenfer dans lautre. Chapter I: The Cloaca and its Surprises La pupille se dilate dans la nuit et finit par y trouver du jour, de même que lâme se dilate dans le malheur et finit par y trouver Dieu. The pupil dilates in the night, and at last finds day in it, even as the soul dilates in misfortune, and at last finds God in it. Quand un homme habillé par lÉtat poursuit un homme en guenilles, cest afin den faire aussi un homme habillé par lÉtat. Seulement la couleur est toute la question. Être habillé de bleu, cest glorieux; être habillé de rouge, cest désagréable. When a man clad by the state pursues a man in rags, it is in order to make of him also a man clad by the state. Only the colour is the whole question. To be clad in blue is glorious; to be clad in red is disagreeable. Chapter III: The Man Spun Book IX - Supreme Shadow, Supreme Dawn [ edit] Ch. IV - A Bottle Of Ink Which Serves Only To Whiten [ edit] Vous êtes un infâme! vous êtes un menteur, un calomniateur, un scélérat. Vous veniez accuser cet homme, vous lavez justifié; vous vouliez le perdre, vous navez réussi quà le glorifier. Et cest vous qui êtes un voleur! Et cest vous qui êtes un assassin! Je vous ai vu, Thénardier Jondrette, dans ce bouge du boulevard de lHôpital. Jen sais assez sur vous pour vous envoyer au bagne, et plus loin même, si je voulais. You are a wretch! you are a liar, a slanderer, a scoundrel. You came to accuse this man, you have justified him; you wanted to destroy him, you have succeeded only in glorifying him. And it is you who are a robber! and it is you who are an assassin! I saw you Thenardier, Jondrette, in that den on the Boulevard de l'Hopital. I know enough about you to send you to the galleys, and further even, if I wished. Marius to Thenardier Ch. V - Night Behind Which Is Dawn [ edit] Cosette, entends-tu? il en est là! il me demande pardon. Et sais-tu ce quil ma fait, Cosette? Il ma sauvé la vie. Il a fait plus. Il ta donnée à moi. Et après mavoir sauvé et après tavoir donnée à moi, Cosette, qua-t-il fait de lui-même? il sest sacrifié. Voilà lhomme. Et, à moi lingrat, à moi loublieux, à moi limpitoyable, à moi le coupable, il me dit: Merci! Cosette, toute ma vie passée aux pieds de cet homme, ce sera trop peu. Cette barricade, cet égout, cette fournaise, ce cloaque, il a tout traversé pour moi, pour toi, Cosette! Il ma emporté à travers toutes les morts quil écartait de moi et quil acceptait pour lui. Tous les courages, toutes les vertus, tous les héroïsmes, toutes les saintetés, il les a! Cosette, cet homme-là, cest lange! Chut! chut! dit tout bas Jean Valjean. Pourquoi dire tout cela? Mais vous! sécria Marius avec une colère où il y avait de la vénération, pourquoi ne lavez-vous pas dit? Cest votre faute aussi. Vous sauvez la vie aux gens, et vous le leur cachez! Vous faites plus, sous prétexte de vous démasquer, vous vous calomniez. Cest affreux. La vérité, cest toute la vérité; et vous ne lavez pas dite. Vous étiez monsieur Madeleine, pourquoi ne pas lavoir dit? Vous aviez sauvé Javert, pourquoi ne pas lavoir dit? Je vous devais la vie, pourquoi ne pas lavoir dit? Cosette, do you hear? that is the way with him! he begs my pardon, and do you know what he has done for me, Cosette? he has saved my life. He has done more. He has given you to me. And, after having saved me, and after having given you to me, Cosette, what did he do with himself? he sacrificed himself. There is the man. And, to me the ungrateful, to me the forgetful, to me the pitiless, to me the guilty, he says: Thanks! Cosette, my whole life passed at the feet of this man would be too little. That barricade, that sewer, that furnace, that cloaca, he went through everything for me, for you, Cosette! He bore me through death in every form which he put aside from me, and which he accepted for himself. All courage, all virtue, all heroism, all sanctity, he has it all, Cosette, that man is an angel! Hush! hush. said Jean Valjean in a whisper. "Why tell all that. Why have not you told it? It is your fault, too. You save people's lives, and you hide it from them! You do more, under pretence of unmasking yourself, you calumniate, yourself. It is frightful. The truth is the whole truth; and you did not tell it. You were Monsieur Madeleine, why not have said so? You had saved Javert, why not have said so? I owe my life to you! why not have said so? Oh oui, défends-moi de mourir. Qui sait? jobéirai peut-être. Jétais en train de mourir quand vous êtes arrivés. Cela ma arrêté, il ma semblé que je renaissais. Oh, yes, forbid me to die. Who knows? I shall obey perhaps. I was just dying when you came. That stopped me, it seemed to me that I was born again. La mort est un bon arrangement. Dieu sait mieux que nous ce quil nous faut. Que vous soyez heureux, que monsieur Pontmercy ait Cosette, que la jeunesse épouse le matin, quil y ait autour de vous, mes enfants, des lilas et des rossignols, que votre vie soit une belle pelouse avec du soleil, que tous les enchantements du ciel vous remplissent lâme, et maintenant, moi qui ne suis bon à rien, que je meure, il est sûr que tout cela est bien. Voyez-vous, soyons raisonnables, il ny a plus rien de possible maintenant, je sens tout à fait que cest fini. Death is a good arrangement. God knows better than we do what we need. That you are happy, that Monsieur Pontmercy has Cosette, that youth espouses morning, that there are about you, my children, lilacs and nightingales, that your life is a beautiful lawn in the sunshine, that all the enchantments of heaven fill your souls, and now, that I who am good for nothing, that I die; surely all this is well. Look you, be reasonable, there is nothing else possible now, I am sure that it is all over. Ce nest rien de mourir; cest affreux de ne pas vivre. It is nothing to die; it is horrible not to live. Jécrivais tout à lheure à Cosette. Elle trouvera ma lettre. Cest à elle que je lègue les deux chandeliers qui sont sur la cheminée. Ils sont en argent; mais pour moi ils sont en or, ils sont en diamant; ils changent les chandelles quon y met, en cierges. Je ne sais pas si celui qui me les a donnés est content de moi làhaut. Jai fait ce que jai pu. I was writing just now to Cosette. She will find my letter. To her I bequeath the two candlesticks which are on the mantel. They are silver; but to me they are gold, they are diamond; they change the candles which are put into them, into consecrated tapers. I do not know whether he who gave them to me is satisfied with me in heaven. I have done what I could. Les forêts où lon a passé avec son enfant, les arbres où lon sest promené, les couvents où lon sest caché, les jeux, les bons rires de lenfance, cest de lombre. Je métais imaginé que tout cela mappartenait. Voilà où était ma bêtise. Ces Thénardier ont été méchants. Il faut leur pardonner. Cosette, voici le moment venu de te dire le nom de ta mère. Elle sappelait Fantine. Retiens ce nom-là: — Fantine. Mets-toi à genoux toutes les fois que tu le prononceras. Elle a bien souffert. Elle ta bien aimée. Elle a eu en malheur tout ce que tu as en bonheur. Ce sont les partages de Dieu. Il est là-haut, il nous voit tous, et il sait ce quil fait au milieu de ses grandes étoiles. Je vais donc men aller, mes enfants. Aimez-vous bien toujours. Il ny a guère autre chose que cela dans le monde: saimer. The forests through which we have passed with our child, the trees under which we have walked, the convents in which we have hidden, the games, the free laughter of childhood, all is in shadow. I imagined that all that belonged to me. There was my folly. Those Thenardiers were wicked. We must forgive them. Cosette, the time has come to tell of your mother. Her name was Fantine. Remember that name: Fantine. Fall on your knees whenever you pronounce it. She suffered much. And loved you much. Her measure of unhappiness was as full as yours of happiness. Such are the distributions of God. He is on high, he sees us all, and he knows what he does in the midst of his great stars. So I am going away, my children. Love each other dearly always. There is scarcely anything else in the world but that: to love one another. La nuit était sans étoiles et profondément obscure. Sans doute, dans lombre, quelque ange immense était debout, les ailes déployées, attendant lâme. The night was starless and very dark. Without doubt, in the gloom some mighty angel was standing, with outstretched wings, awaiting the soul. Chapter VI - Grass Hides And Rain Blots Out [ edit] Cette pierre est toute nue. On na songé en la taillant quau nécessaire de la tombe, et lon na pris dautre soin que de faire cette pierre assez longue et assez étroite pour couvrir un homme. On ny lit aucun nom. This stone is entirely blank. The only thought in cutting it was of the essentials of the grave, and there was no other care than to make this stone long enough and narrow enough to cover a man. No name can be read there. Il dort. Quoique le sort fût pour lui bien étrange, Il vivait. Il mourut quand il neut plus son ange, La chose simplement delle-même arriva, Comme la nuit se fait lorsque le jour sen va. He sleeps. Although his fate was very strange, He lived. He died when he had no longer his angel. The thing came to pass simply, Of itself, as the night comes when day is gone. These final lines are a statement once pencilled on the stone of Valjean's grave. The Isabel F. Hapgood translation is here used; the Wilbour edition leaves the verses untranslated. He sleeps; although so much he was denied, He when his dear love left him, died. It happened of itself, in the calm way That in the evening night-time follows day. Norman Denny translation He is asleep. Though his mettle was sorely tried, He lived, and when he lost his angel, died. It happened calmly, on its own, The way night comes when day is done. Lee Fahnestock and Norman MacAfee translation, based on the Charles E. Wilbour translation External links [ edit] Les Misérables at French Wikisource Free eBook of Les Misérables at Project Gutenberg — English translation by Isabel F. Hapgood Hugo Central Les Miserables at Online Literature Cameron Mackintosh: Les Misérables A Resourceful Les Mis Fan Site.

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