Les Misérables (Adaptation)

by Sherwood Smith (Adapted by), Victor Hugo (Based on a book by)

Overview

Victor Hugo
Les MisÉrables
Translated by Charles E. Wilbour
Abridged, edited and with an introduction by Paul Bénichou

Published simultaneously in nine languages in 1862, Les MiséRables is a vast tapestry set against the chaos of post-Napoleonic France. A cast of hundreds is woven into the epic story of the ex-convict Jean Valjean and his valiant struggle to redeem himself. A potent social document of the poverty, ignorance, and brutality of man, Les MiséRables is also a rousing adventure and a passionate parable of love. Here, Victor Hugo displays his skills as a dramatist and poet, and shows his deeply felt compassion for all mankind.

Pocket Books' Enriched Classics present the great works of world literature enhanced for the contemporary reader. This edition of Les MiséRables contains the original introduction by Hugo scholar and Harvard professor Paul Bénichou, as well as his accomplished abridgment.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781578400171
Publisher:	Acclaim Books
Publication date:	05/28/1997
Series:	Classics Illustrated Study Guides
Edition description:	Classics Illustrated
Pages:	64
Product dimensions:	5.24(w) x 7.63(h) x 0.17(d)
Age Range:	12 - 14 Years

Read an Excerpt

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 yet solved; as 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. Hauteville House, 1862.


1815, M. Charles Franois-Bienvenu Myriel was Bishop of D----. He was a man of seventy-five, and had occupied the bishopric of D---- since 1806. Although it in no manner concerns, even in the remotest degree, what we have to relate, it may not be useless, were it only for the sake of exactness in all things, to notice here the reports and gossip which had arisen on his account from the time of his arrival in the diocese.

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.

M. Myriel was the son of a counsellor of the Parlement of Aix; of the rank given to the legal profession. His father, intending him to inherit his place, had contracted a marriage for him at the early age of eighteen or twenty, according to a widespread custom among parliamentary families. Charles Myriel, notwithstanding this marriage, had, it was said, been an object of much attention. His person was admirably moulded; although of slight figure, he was elegant andgraceful; all the earlier part of his life had been devoted to the world and to its pleasures. The revolution came, events crowded upon each other; the parliamentary families, decimated, hunted, and pursued, were soon dispersed. M. Charles Myriel, on the first outbreak of the revolution, emigrated to Italy. His wife died there of a lung complaint with which she had been long threatened. They had no children. What followed in the fate of M. Myriel? The decay of the old French society, the fall of his own family, the tragic sights of '93, still more fearful, perhaps, to the exiles who beheld them from afar, magnified by fright--did these arouse in him ideas of renunciation and of solitude? Was he, in the midst of one of the reveries or emotions which then consumed his life, suddenly attacked by one of those mysterious and terrible blows which sometimes overwhelm, by smiting to the heart, the man whom public disasters could not shake, by aiming at life or fortune? No one could have answered; all that was known was that when he returned from Italy he was a priest.

In 1804, M. Myriel was cure of B----(Brignolles). He was then an old man, and lived in the deepest seclusion.

Near the time of the coronation, a trifling matter of business belonging to his curacy--what it was, is not now known precisely--took him to Paris.

Among other personages of authority he went to Cardinal Fesch on behalf of his parishioners.

One day, when the emperor had come to visit his uncle, the worthy cure, who was waiting in the ante-room, happened to be on the way of his Majesty. Napoleon noticing that the old man looked at him with a certain curiousness, turned around and said brusquely:

'Who is this goodman who looks at me?'

Table of Contents

	Introduction	7
Part 1	Fantine
I	An Upright Man	19
II	The Outcast	71
III	In the Year 1817	119
IV	To Trust is Sometimes to Surrender	144
V	Degradation	155
VI	Javert	191
VII	The Champmathieu Affair	202
VIII	Counter-Stroke	260
Part 2	Cosette
I	Waterloo	279
II	The Ship Orion	325
III	Fulfilment of a Promise	338
IV	The Gorbeau Tenement	385
V	Hunt in Darkness	399
VI	Le Petit-Picpus	425
VIII	Cemeteries Take What They are Given	451
Part 3	Marius
I	Paris in Microcosm	495
II	A Grand Bourgeois	512
III	Grandfather and Grandson	522
IV	The ABC Society	555
V	The Virtues of Misfortune	584
VI	Conjunction of Two Stars	603
VII	Patron-Minette	619
VIII	The Noxious Poor	627
Part 4	The Idyll in the Rue Plumet and the Epic of the Rue Saint-Denis
I	A Few Pages of History	705
II	Eponine	739
III	The House in the Rue Plumet	756
IV	Help from Below May be Help from above	788
V	Of Which the End Does Not Resemble the Beginning	797
VI	The Boy Gavroche	812
VIII	Enchantment and Despair	844
IX	Where are They Going?	876
X	5 June 1832	883
XI	The Straw in the Wind	904
XII	Corinth	915
XIII	Marius Enters the Darkness	943
XIV	The Greatness of Despair	953
XV	In the Rue de L'Homme-Arme	970
Part 5	Jean Valjean
I	War within Four Walls	987
II	The Entrails of the Monster	1061
III	Mire, But the Soul	1076
IV	Javert in Disarray	1104
V	Grandson and Grandfather	1110
VI	The Sleepless Night	1129
VII	The Bitter Cup	1145
VIII	The Fading Light	1162
IX	Supreme Shadow, Supreme Dawn	1173
Appendix A	The Convent as an Abstract Idea (Part Two, Book VII)	1202
Appendix B	Argot (Part Four, Book VII)	1214

What People are Saying About This

V. S. Pritchett

Hugo's genius was for the creation of simple and recognisable myth. The huge success of Les Miserables as a didactic work on behalf of the poor and oppressed is due to its poetic and myth-enlarged view of human nature... Hugo himself called this novel 'a religious work'; and it has indeed the necessary air of having been written by God in one of his more accessible and saleable moods.

Editorial Reviews

As part of the "Bullseye Step into Classics" series, this book offers young readers a simplified version of the classic tale of the haunted and hunted man relentlessly pursued by the unforgiving police inspector. The opening scenes of the story, depicting the desperate poverty that drives Jean Valjean to steal a loaf of bread and, after his release from prison, to treat his benefactor dishonestly, are passed over quickly in narrative form and don't engage the reader on an emotional level. However, once Jean Valjean rescues Cosette from a terrible life and takes her as his daughter, the story becomes more and more compelling. This version will hold the interest of young readers and it is to be hoped that, when they are a few years older, they will search out the original masterpiece and become immersed in the drama of Jean Valjean, the hunted and Inspector Javert, the hunter. 1995, Random House, $3.99. Ages 9 to 12. Reviewer: Carolyn Mott Ford

Children's Literature

Hugo's classic tale set against the backdrop of political upheaval in 19th-century France retains its timeless appeal in this notably condensed rendition of the struggles of former convict Jean Valjean. While the abridgment inevitably cuts many of the intricate subplots and minor characters who enrich Hugo's vast tome, this suspenseful central plot tracing Valjean's endeavor to emerge from desperate circumstances while being pursued by the duty-obsessed Inspector Javert remains intact and comprehensible to listeners. The principal characters retain their epic proportions, and the major themes of redemption through good works and the importance of authentic charity are undiminished. Narrator Michael York adds vigor and distinct characterizations to the broad cast of characters in this fittingly dramatic performance. Suitable for collections that do not already contain one of the many audio versions of this work (e.g., Audio Reviews, LJ 5/1/93).--Linda Bredengerd, Hanley Lib., Univ. of Pittsburgh, Bradford

Library Journal

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (40 pp.; Sept. 1997; 0-531- 30055-2): A storybook retelling of Hugo's classic of the lonely bellringer and his hopeless love for the beautiful gypsy girl, Esmerelda, whom he rescues from hanging and the evil archdeacon Dom Frollo and reunites with her mother. While remaining relatively faithful to the original, this version from Wynne- Jones (The Maestro, 1996, etc.) is always competent, but never compelling. Slavin creates lovely illustrations, but his pale washes leave even the most festive scenes sedate. The volume lacks power or emotion; adults seeking an alternative—any alternative—to the Disney film may find that this one hardly competes for the hearts and minds of the target audience.

Kirkus Reviews