5-star novel, 3-star abridgement

books:


	• Les Miserables (Abridged Edition) Victor Hugo Ballantine Books, 1996 - 336 pages average customer review:based on 8 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

The best book I've read so far

Although the story is a little different than the real version because Jean Valjean is the main character throughout the novel and you don't really get to know the bishop as well, this abridged version is still awesome. It's not really that long and you'll finish this book quickly because the plot is so interesting. There is a lot of action as well as little romance that deals with realistic emotions that we all could relate to,

5-star novel, 3-star abridgement

This is one of the most amazing stories I have ever read. I loved the musical and wanted the rest of the story. I wanted the unabridged version, but got this one as a gift. GREAT story--and well worth the read--but this abridgement is too severe in my view. I felt like too many chunks of the story were missing and left unexplained.

I recently bought another abridged (but still 880 pages) version (actually the Barnes & Noble version) and that one is just about right. Whatever they cut, I didn't miss (and there were still a few segments I could have skipped over).

So if you want to experience the real Les Miserables and see what all of the fuss is about, I would skip this version and get a less severe abridgement or, if you dare, an unabridged version.

for more information click here

A Book that makes you think

Les Miserables is truly a fantastic book set in the Napoleon era in France. Ex-convict, Jean Valjean, goes through poverty, wealth, love, sadness, and happiness. He tried to forget his past and change himself for a new life while encountering a little girl, Cosette, who becomes like a daughter to him. This book relives the French setting of a person's life, whether it was a rich man or a poor man. It tells the story of many people's lives and how they all relate to every other character in the book. Les Miserables entangled me into the scenes through the sewers of Paris and the Battle of Waterloo because it sounded so real I felt as if I were there, running and fighting alongside of the men. This book also made me stop and think about what just happened because the people and events were all very conflicting. They match up at one point of the story. Victor Hugo really kept me into the book, except when some of the paragraphs went into so much detail it was tempting to just skip over it. But most of the time it was so exciting it made me want to skip the next few paragraphs to see what would happen. Though it took me awhile to read it, I couldn't stop reading and wondering what would happen next.

for more information click here

"Who am I?...24601."

I've just discovered the musical and I wanted to read the book as well. To be honest, I knew that it would be unrealistic of me to try to plunge into a 1,400 page novel. In glancing through the introduction to the unabridged version, even scholars consider it digressive and longwinded. I opted to read the abridged version instead.

The result?

I feel I have an idea now of the story, yet I am not sure I have really read Les Miserables. What is lost in the story, what is considered extraneous, is a lot of the background and the character definitions. I would have liked to have spent more time with Gavroche. I'm still not sure how the July Revolt started or why or how Marius was involved. We skip most of Fantine and her suffering. A lot of the questions remain unanswered.

What we have left is the plot. That is enough for me to recommend this book. I would have never have read it otherwise. I think I have an idea now of Hugo as an author and Les Miserables as a novel.

Some day however, I'll read the whole thing.

for more information click here

reviews: page 1, 2

Sensational, dramatic, packed with rich excitement and filled with the sweep and violence of human passions, LES MISERABLES is not only superb adventure but a powerful social document. The story of how the convict Jean-Valjean struggled to escape his past and reaffirm his humanity, in a world brutalized by poverty and ignorance, became the gospel of the poor and the oppressed.

From the Paperback edition.

hot or not? What's your opinion? Write a review and share your thoughts!

recommendations

Reading List from a Christian Jr. High English Teacher
simply amazing fictiion from all generations
A Very Picky Reader's Favorite Books
The Art of Being Cultured 101
The Best Books I Read in 2006

edition

HOLY BIBLE/ SCHOOL AND CHURCH EDITION- Regular Print
MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, Sixth Edition
Psychology, Eighth Edition, in Modules
Society: The Basics (10th Edition)
The Tales of Beedle the Bard, Collector's Edition (Offered ...

search for books
les miserables, abridged, edition, miserables

Impressum / about us