A brilliant modern translation by Christine Donougher of Victor
Hugo's thrilling masterpiece, with an introduction by Robert Tombs.
This is the best translation of the novel available in English, as
recommended by David Bellos in The Novel of the Century. Victor
Hugo's tale of injustice, heroism and love follows the fortunes of
Jean Valjean, an escaped convict determined to put his criminal
past behind him. But his attempts to become a respected member of
the community are constantly put under threat: by his own
conscience, and by the relentless investigations of the dogged
policeman Javert. It is not simply for himself that Valjean must
stay free, however, for he has sworn to protect the baby daughter
of Fantine, driven to prostitution by poverty. 'A magnificent
achievement. It reads easily, sometimes racily, and Hugo's
narrative power is never let down ... An almost flawless
translation, which brings the full flavour of one of the greatest
novels of the nineteenth century to new readers in the
twenty-first' - William Doyle, Times Literary Supplement 'The
year's most interesting publication from Penguin Classics was [...]
a new translation by Christine Donougher of the novel we all know
as Les Miserables. You may think that 1,300 pages is a huge
investment of time when the story is so familiar, but no adaptation
can convey the addictive pleasure afforded by Victor Hugo's
narrative voice: by turns chatty, crotchety, buoyant and savagely
ironical, it's made to seem so contemporary and fresh in
Donougher's rendering that the book has all the resonance of the
most topical state-of-the-nation novel' - Telegraph 'Christine
Donougher's seamless and very modern translation of Les Miserables
has an astonishing effect in that it reminds readers that Hugo was
going further than any Dickensian lament about social conditions
[...]The Wretched touches the soul' - Herald Scotland
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Review This Product
Mon, 26 Feb 2024 | Review
by: Tanya K.
I doubt I could say anything about this book that hasn't been said before. It's heart-wrenching in places, happy in others, with many educational digressions (Hugo really loves his history lessons, which I mostly found interesting). The repeated, almost coincidental, interactions with the same handful of characters did make me raise my eyebrows on several occasions, but Hugo did make it worth it in the end. I'm rather sad at Javert's story. This is a character whose personal growth I found particularly interesting. This is an emotional story. I also found this translation to be particularly good i.e. it wasn't clunky, or archaic.
NOTE 1: I read the Penguin Classics edition of Les Misérables by Victor Hugo, translated by Christine Donougher.
NOTE 2: For a discussion on the various translations/editions see the site: welovetranslations.com
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