Part I was published first, and sold so well that subscribers lined up for the rest of the work. Twenty years later, Les Misérables was published. Hugo began as a poet and was in his late thirties when he wrote The Hunchback of Notre Dame. What astonishes me is that by the time Hugo wrote Les Misérables, he was already a widely respected poet and author in France. The time it must have taken both the translator and the publisher (Penguin Classics) to complete this gorgeously-produced novel is staggering to contemplate but they have allowed us to marvel at Hugo’s work once again. The relevance of this story to our world cries out to us, and the simplicity of the language makes it accessible even to a schoolchild. What Donougher does is make it fluent to our ears and eyes and as thrilling to us now as it must have been in 1862 when it was published for the first time. Paperback, 1456 pgs, Pub Feb 24th 2015 by Penguin Classics (first published 1862), Orig Title: Les Misérables, ISBN13: 9780143107569, Language: English, Setting: ParisĬhristine Donougher’s new translation is brilliant.
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