Les Miserables

By: Victor Hugo

Narrated by: Frederick Davidson

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

Excellent -- worth the investment

Takes a LONG time to listen to but well worth it. Narration is excellent. The only thing I will say is I found it odd that the narrator has an English accent given the amount of French in the translated text. Other than that, the narrator does an admirable job bringing characters to life over such a long novel. The quality of the narration is critical to making an audio book listenable. I have bought some books that were simply unlistenable but this one is excellent.

Worth the work

OK - when a book hits 50hrs+ you have to hope that its a goody. It is.

My only experience of this work before this was as the title of a musical. I don't like musicals.

But the book is brilliant. Like so many of the big beasts in literature there is quite a lot of peripheral philosophising but never so much that it gets tedious. The sweep of the story is amazing and the feeling as the story progresses of different threads being spun and woven is masterful. I ended up extending listening sessions in order to get to the finale quicker Definitely worth the effort to get all the way through.

Frederick Davidson is an ever reliable narrator making this a real must listen.

Good Story, Bad Recording

I chose the version that was included with my subscription and I learned you get what you pay for. This was the worst recording I’ve ever listened to. There was a cat meowing a few times in the background, pages rustling, the narrator stifled a yawn at one point, and lots of swallowing. I got the feeling Mr. Davidson recorded this in his house instead of a studio and the background noises took away from the book (though the cat made me laugh).

Excellent narration of a classic

I can't imagine you're looking at reviews on such a well known story for anything but whether the narrator is good, so I'll simply tell you that he is divine and brings each character to life.

Much too much

Victor Hugo at his best is amazing, but he frequently wanders all over the place. Try an abridged version.