Els miserables (1862)

Bellissimo. Assolutamente indispensabile. ( )

http://abbiereviews.blogspot.com/2013/09/les-miserables.html
Ahhhh....this audio book was amazing!! I was wondering how to introduce this classic without overwhelming my children by handing them the unabridged version that this bookworm fell in love with at the age of 14. And this came up for review!!

The actors were perfect! My children were captivated as they sat with pen, paper, and colored pencils sketching and journaling their impressions of the story. Finally a way to delve into a classic without without being overwhelmed. This offered the opportunity for my children to picture the story in their mind first. I was sadly not impressed with the movie so this audio version was perfect. My children laughed and cried with the characters and talked about the many symbolic things and under currents of the book. It opened the opportunity to explore the social and political climate of that time and discuss the ultimate impact of grace, mercy and love.

Thank you Tyndale for this review copy. ( )

I'm doing my main Les Mis re-read in Wilbour, but using this Donougher edition for notes and translation comparison. Overall, I feel like the flow and phrasing in this translation can be more stilted than Wilbour, hence why I'm using this as the companion instead of the main text (also the Everyman's Library edition got me with the ribbon!), but I like both quite a bit.

I found out Les Mis has 365 chapters, so, as I wanted it re-read it anyway, I'm making it a project where I read one chapter ever day in 2022. The first translation I read was the good ol' brick-- Fahnestock and MacAfee-- and after surveying and sampling all my choices I'm not going too far afield with this read-through, and sticking with Wilbour, though I have the Donougher alongside for notes and comparison. I am recording my impressions as I go, trying to write a little something about every book.

Vol. One: Fantine

I. An Upright Man -- Ah, the bishop! I think that this extended character profile is an extremely suitable opening to Les Mis, and allows Hugo to get right into some of the issues that most interest him. When you're used to the musical version, I think it can be easy to think of the Monseigneur Bienvenu as a bit of a cipher, a perfect angelic intervention into Valjean's plight, but Hugo's scrupulous detail on this first of his so-called "tangents" reveal all of Myriel's fallible humanity and humor. He reminds me a bit of a moralistic Regency/Victorian heroine, a Fanny Price or Agnes Grey-- could be irredeemably priggish in the hands of a less skillful author, but is instead endearing and revealing.

II. The Fall -- I had completely forgotten about the extended metaphor in chapter 8, the title of which Wilbour translates as "The Waters and the Shadow". Distressing and overwhelming. I'm reading Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell right now as well, and it was here that I started to think about all the overlap between them. The two books were published only 14 years apart (with English translations of Les Mis following very closely on, including Wilbour's) and both deeply explore the plight of the poor and the wretched-- the miserable, even. It's interesting to think about the contemporary readers who could easily have gotten hold of both of them as new books. I can't find much info about translations of Mary Barton, I wonder if Gaskell had much of a French readership.

III. The Year 1817 -- The tragedy of the surprise is heartbreaking every time, even when you're expecting it. Switching over to Felix Tholomyes and the double quatuor is our first jump to a seemingly entirely unrelated place, time, and cast of characters from what has come before (though of course we know they will later converge). But Hugo's consistency of style and precision of detail and atmosphere binds everything together even as we jump around. Cosette emerges from an ensemble. Tholomyes is wonderfully charismatic and detestable (I think we all know a Tholomyes). Btw, had to switch to Donougher to get translations of the songs-- the old habit of translators to leave verse untouched always confuses me.

IV: To Entrust is Sometimes to Abandon -- A short book, just three chapters. I forgot Mme Thenardier has among her faults being a novel-reader, ha!

V. The Descent -- I am impressed by how, in my opinion, Hugo is able to write about privation and despair both without glorifying them and without making the text so unpleasant as makes me want to just put the book down. Especially struck by the first paragraph of Chapter X: Results of the Success about winter for the working poor, which Wilbour translates as "The sky is but the mouth of a cave. The whole day is the cave." and Donougher translates as "The sky is a basement window, the whole day a cellar." Extremely evocative. I'm glad to be approaching spring, myself. Also, just noticed the similarity in title to Book 2. I wonder what distinction if any is implied between Valjean's Fall/chute and Fantine's Descent/descente in the original linguistic context.

VI. Javert -- Another short one. I find it interesting that the book named after Javert focuses not his introduction, which came just previously, but on the scene where he reveals his own perceived failing. Honestly, though, I think what we learn about his character here is more key to understanding the eventual arc of his story than anything about his background or the "dog son of a wolf" stuff.

VII. The Champmathieu Affair -- A book of three journeys. Valjean's moral/spiritual decision, the path of Valjean's dream, and Valjean's physical struggle to travel from M---- sur M---- to Arras. All three of them are rendered very distinctly by Hugo, but they all feed into each other. This is where we definitely get the best sense of Valjean as a complete character, not just what prison made of him, or the face he puts on as M Madeleine, but as he has been influenced and created by all of his experiences-- what he thinks of them, how he has been shaped by them in ways he doesn't understand or control. and how he acts because of them (each of the three journeys!). This firmly establishes him as the character that I am interested in following throughout the rest of the book.

VIII. A Counter-Blow -- I had forgotten about the exact circumstances of Fantine's death! Probably my memory was overwritten by the musical's version. Really absolutely heartbreaking, almost overdoes it with making Javert into a brute. And in general this book is a little brutal in the way it plunges you out of the extended sequence of Valjean's long day's journeys, and back into the realities of the rest of the world. Revealing your white hair, as it were. Short chapters full of business. Excitement, things progressing. And of course the Sister Simplice setup and payoff is amazing, gets me every time.

Vol. Two: Cosette

As I enter the second volume, the length of this review is already approaching insufferable, so it will continue in the Comments section of my copy of the book.

my review ( )