Penguin Classics: Les Misrables (Paperback)

A brilliant modern translation by Christine Donougher ofVictor Hugo’s thrilling masterpiece, with an introduction by Robert Tombs.

This is the best translation of the novel available in English, asrecommended by David Bellos inThe Novel of the Century.

Victor Hugo’s tale of injustice, heroism and love follows the fortunes of JeanValjean, an escaped convict determined to put his criminal past behind him. Buthis attempts to become a respected member of the community are constantly putunder threat: by his own conscience, and by the relentless investigations ofthe dogged policeman Javert. It is not simply for himself that Valjean muststay 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’snarrative power is never let down … An almost flawless translation, whichbrings the full flavour of one of the greatest novels of the nineteenth centuryto new readers in the twenty-first’ – William Doyle,Times LiterarySupplement

‘The year’s most interesting publication from Penguin Classics was […] a newtranslation by Christine Donougher of the novel we all know asLesMisrables. You may think that 1,300 pages is a huge investment of timewhen the story is so familiar, but no adaptation can convey the addictivepleasure afforded by Victor Hugo’s narrative voice: by turns chatty, crotchety,buoyant and savagely ironical, it’s made to seem so contemporary and fresh inDonougher’s rendering that the book has all the resonance of the most topicalstate-of-the-nation novel’ – Telegraph

‘Christine Donougher’s seamless and very modern translation ofLesMisrableshas an astonishing effect in that it reminds readers thatHugo was going further than any Dickensian lament about social conditions […]TheWretchedtouches the soul’ – Herald Scotland

About the Author

Victor Hugo was born in Besanon, France in 1802. In 1822 hepublished his first collection of poetry and in the same year, he married hischildhood friend, Adle Foucher. In 1831 he published his most famous youthfulnovel,Notre-Dame de Paris. A royalist and conservative as a youngman, Hugo later became a committed social democrat and was exiled from Franceas a result of his political activities. In 1862, he wrote his longest andgreatest novel,Les Misrables. After his death in 1885, his bodylay in state under the Arc de Triomphe before being buried in the Panthon.

Robert Tombsis Emeritus Professor of French History at Cambridge,and a Fellow of St John’s College. Most of his writing and teaching has been onFrench and European history and on Franco-British relations, for which he wasawarded the Palmes Acadmiques by the French government. Since his foray intoEnglish history, with the publication ofThe English and Their Historyin2014, he has become a frequent commentator on contemporary issues, and isco-editor of the pro-Brexit academic websiteBriefings for Britain.