Les Miserables

By: Victor Hugo

Narrated by: Frederick Davidson

Length: 57 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

Set in the Parisian underworld and plotted like a detective story, Les Miserables follows Jean Valjean, originally an honest peasant, who has been imprisoned for 19 years for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his sister's starving family. A hardened criminal upon his release, he eventually reforms, becoming a successful industrialist and town mayor. Despite this, he is haunted by an impulsive former crime and is pursued relentlessly by the police inspector Javert.

Hugo describes early 19th-century France with a sweeping power that gives his novel epic stature. Among the most famous chapters are the account of the battle of Waterloo and Valjean's flight through the Paris sewers.

(P)1996 Blackstone Audiobooks

LOVE THIS READING!

i... i am a better person for having listened to this amazing story. thank you.

Great Story, Recording Needs Work

Any additional comments?

This audiobook sounds like it was recorded in a tin room with a narrator who was gasping for breath. His accents and pronunciation were fine.

Very enjoyable story!

Nothing bad to say here. It was very well put together and told. Brilliant is all

You should listen to the abridged version

Really, it's a truly magnificent story, but you'll find so many more versions of abridged novel, because they doing us all a favor. There is so much background info and information about things rather irrelevant to the story itself. I can only imagine all of the things they would leave out of that version, which would make this a true 5-star story.

Milton

Always a compelling read. Now, with excellent narration! For my fellow book geeks, listen closely and you can hear the narrator take a sip of water.

sublime

This book is completely worth the 56 hours. It's an amazing story. The ending had me crying like a baby.

Beyond expectations

Beware: any person find if reading at all will come to loathe the musical version for having to cut a single descriptive detail or plot point.
THE FULL BOOK IS WORTH IT.
Most of the philosophical and historical tangents are pretty decent, the only one I really struggled with was the full few hours of describing Waterloo. Having the whole picture, with every branch and so much character description, was stunning. On the edge of my seat through the last few hours, and currently bawling my eyes out. I am so grateful for this book

Excellent narration

The narrator really brought the different characters to life. The depiction of the final scene was especially well done.

The best book I have ever listened to

If you enjoy Victorian era writing, you will love this translation. Also, Davidson's performance is wonderful. I have listened to the entire story several times; it is my personal favorite.

Narrator is Horrid

Don't get me wrong, it wasn't the narrator's accent or even his condescending attitude that ruined it for me. I could have suffered through that. It was his horrendous gasping for air, I don't know what was wrong with this man when he recorded this, that he seemed out of breath! Had he just run a marathon? Does he suffer with severe asthma? Whatever it might be, I could not ignore it. No matter how great the story is, I could not listen to him gasping in my ear, which is why I listened mainly with a speaker rather than an earbud (It helped a bit). Still, he had a nasal quality to his voice, which leads me to conclude that this man had a cold at the time he recorded this (What a trooper!).

Aside from the horrid narration by a sick man, the story was rather good. At least the parts I understood, I have since actually purchased a kindle copy to read on my own. I definitely encourage you to read the unabridged book, and if you don't care to have a man with a cold read to you, then listen to this audiobook. I however am glad that I didn't pay for this book and listened to it through the new Plus Catalog.

All in all, I recommend the book if you don't mind the mentioned narration problems I described. And if that does bother you, the story is amazing and I definitely recommend that you try to read this book or find a different unabridged audiobook.