Les Miserables

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 oppressedl

First read Hugo's novel when I was in Junior High; surprisingly enough, I loved it back then, and it remains one of my top ten favorites even as a college graduate. Not only is his style beautiful, the social dialgue and identity politics that are a part of Les Miserables are so relavent and honest to life.. even moreso today..

I think the version I had was cut and condensed, and thus very confusing to read. I even knew the whole story by heart, but had trouble connecting parts. It was depressing to me that Val Jean was always so sad. He was such a good guy, but whenever it described him, it always mentioned that he was a sad man. It just depressed me, even if you are good, you will still be sad.

A very epic story. I read it in the original French for my foreign language class which made it a bit of a drudgery to read but the story was still quite gripping.