Jul 172013
Les Miserables
Jean Valjean is free after nineteen years in prison. However, his reentry into society will be anything but easy. During his long struggle to succeed as an honest man, his life is shaped by the fates of the impoverished Fantine and her daughter Cosette, the despicable Thenardier, the young student Marius, and the obsessive police inspector Javert. Each character plays an unforgettable part in Hugo’s master work. Victor Hugo’s spectacular novel is set in the tempest-tossed nineteenth century Pa
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kindle version is unabridged,
To clarify a misconception — in the “product details,” the ISBN listed (1449565530) is in error, as is the corresponding number (218) of print pages. That ISBN corresponds to “Volume II, Cosette.” A publisher broke the rather long book into volumes so that they could sell five books instead of just the one megabook, and volume II is 218 pages. The kindle book is the complete, unabridged edition with all five volumes. Like all scanned books, it has scattered scanning errors that you can, in general, read through without compromising the experience.
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|LIFE CHANGING….don’t be afraid of it.,
I know it’s scary. It’s probably one of the longest and hardest to read books you’ve ever picked up (or at least it was for me). Hugo goes into painstaking detail with his history, his scenery, and his character development. Reading on can be frustrating sometimes because you just can’t see where the author is going. Minute descriptions of people, places, and political views abound. But you come to trust in Hugo…because you realize that no lengthy discussion is wasted with him. It has a purpose and a place and provides a richness to his story that I have never seen in any other work.
The scope and depth of the story is UNBELIEVABLE. The characters are so completely flesh and bone that you know them. You know who they are and exactly how they will react in a situation before it ever happens. The scenes are so masterfully laid out that you can envision every detail in your mind. And oh, believe me when I say the storytelling is breathtaking. Les Miserables is about poverty and the human condition, set against the backdrop of decades of French history. But it is so much more. It’s a story of the redemption of man, despite everything the world can throw at him. It is a story of fear and sadness, but most of all, hope. The hope that we can do better. The hope that religion will not lead us down a path of self-righteousness, but to true righteousness, which to quote the book of Isaiah is “to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke”. There is so much to be learned about forgiveness, love, happiness, and life from this story.
Les Miserables is not just a book. It might be the best book ever written. It is a LIFE CHANGER. Don’t be afraid of it. Experience it for yourself.
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|First Kindle use: a great experience,
I started Les Mis with the translation by Fahnestock & MacAfee in paperback. After reading more than 3/4 of the book, I purchased a Kindle. While I awaited its arrival, I downloaded Kindle to my PC & searched for a Kindle copy of Les Mis (& didn’t want to pay a second time for the book). I could not find the same translation, but this is very similar. I easily transferred over 450 highlights from my paper copy to the ebook (on my computer). It took time, but it was pretty straightforward (a little awkward since the translations weren’t identical). It would have been much harder & longer to try to do that on the actual Kindle.
One thing I miss in this translation: “Slang” is usually used instead of “argot”, “emeute” is not used for “riot”. It was fun to have some French words which would be explained & repeated in the text, used as text (in the F & M translation), instead of a translation which seems weak (in the Kindle copy). This is why I gave it a 4 instead of a 5.
I really liked the links from the Table of Contents to each volume, book & chapter (chapters were not listed in the Table of Contents of the paperback). But there is no forward option (to the next chapter). The format was very readable, even easier than the paperback (a blank line between paragraphs, which was very helpful on the extra long paragraphs).
An added bonus, which I found helpful, at the end of the Kindle copy, there is a letter Hugo wrote to the Italian publisher in 1862 telling in his words why Les Mis is for all nations. (This was not in my paper copy.)
By the time my Kindle arrived, my notes were ready to sync from the PC to the Kindle (pretty quick & mostly painfree), & I finished the book with the Kindle… much easier to hold & manipulate than 1500 pages.
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