Les Misérables

Penguin Classics

By: Christine Donougher, Victor Hugo, Robert Tombs

Narrated by: Adeel Akhtar, Natalie Simpson, Adrian Scarborough, Emma Fielding, John Owen-Jones

Length: 65 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

This Penguin Classic is performed by an ensemble cast which includes the BAFTA award-winning actor Adeel Akhtar (Killing Eve, The Night Manager, Les Miserables), Adrian Scarborough (Gavin and Stacey, The King's Speech), Natalie Simpson (Outlander, Les Miserables), Emma Fielding (Unforgotten, Les Miserables) and John Owen-Jones, who was the youngest actor ever to play the part of Jean Valjean in the stage show of Les Miserables, and who has appeared as Jean Valjean on Broadway and in the West End. This definitive recording includes an introduction by Robert Tombs.

Victor Hugo's tale of injustice, heroism and love follows the fortunes of Jean Valjean, an escaped convict determined to put his criminal past behind him. But his attempts to become a respected member of the community are constantly put under threat: by his own conscience and by the relentless investigations of the dogged policeman Javert. It is not simply for himself that Valjean must stay free, however, for he has sworn to protect the baby daughter of Fantine, driven to prostitution by poverty.

Public Domain (P)2020 Penguin Audio

Top 5 Books Of All Time

One of the greatest novels of all time. Now that I’ve finally read it, I know this to be true. Very talented voice artist(s).

Best book on Audible

This was magnificent. Every word a dagger to the soul. Beauty and horror present throughout. Each narrator brought a certain special essence. Marius book had my favorite narrator. She was one of the few who could capture Gavroche. Do not be turned off by the length or the time commitment. You will be elevated. Soul put higher.

A superb version. Well translated, and narrated

I'm glad this is the version of Les Miserables I selected on audible. The narrators are excellent. Their voices are easily distinguishable, and they do a great job of voicing different point of view characters in a way that makes it easy for the listener to know who is speaking.
The translation made some great choices. Victor Hugo frequently described when characters are speaking to one another in French using the formal pronoun Vous versus the more familiar Tu. The hard copy of the book my son has translates these always as You in English without distinction. Here, in the Penguin Audiobook they retain the French words when appropriate to help the listener understand what Hugo wants you to see. It's a small thing, but well executed in this audiobook in my opinion. I read an abridged version when I was a teenager, and after listening to this unabridged audiobook I see that there is a lot about the politics of their day that could be omitted without losing any of the story of the main characters. However, I am enjoying this more complete view of the complexities of French opinions in the decades after Napoleon. It seems very similar to the passions and fierce animosities of our era. People are complicated, and they have the tendency of seeing their rivals as more simplistic. This is clear in Hugo's text as it is in our own 21st century lives.

pick this version!

narrators dud a beautiful job. love love loved this, so sad it ended. best version ever

All 5 are very amazing

This version of Les Miserables is so elegant. The Christine Donougher translation is quite a wonderful translation and it is an even better narration. Adeel Akhtar does such a wonderful job doing part 1: Fantine, hearing him doing Cossette's mother and him doing the young Jean Valjean was so grand. Natalie Simpson was so elegant as she voiced the young Cossette and the slightly older Jean Valjean, including the Thenardiers. Adrian Scarborough was very good with the drama in part 3: Marius. He did a great job with Jean Valjean, Javert, the Thenardiers, including the young Eponine. Emma Fielding does a very beautiful job in Part 4 as she voices the teenager Cossette and how she tells this piece through her eyes, also Jean Valjean is voiced well, including Marius, the grandfather, Thenardier and Eponine. And, John Owen-Jones does a very good job with the senior versions of Jean Valjean and Thenardier, he does very good with Marius, Javert, and the older Cossette. Does a very good job with the drama and the closing of the story. Loved this so much.

inconsistent

This is a decent audiobook, and you will not waste your credit on it; since I always read a chapter and then listen to it, I noticed two issues that I will point out.

1: The footnotes need to be consistently read. You will miss many of the footnotes if you do not have the book handy.

2: The are parts of the book that are not read. It is worse in Part one, Fantine.

Overall, it is a decent reading, and it is a decent reading of an excellent translation.

5 times as long as needed. Read abridged version.

While some of Victor Hugo's best parts are the height of eloquence and brilliance, his tiresome wordiness (he writes 10 chapters when 1 will do), over-sentimentality, endless digressions on religion, minutiae, and trivial history, 2-dimensional cartoon characters (mainly good, mainly evil), endless crazy coincidences and deus ex machina moments, glorification of war, religion, and senseless deaths of Napoleon's soldiers and students of 1832 June Rebellion, Jean Valjean's Jesus-like unrealistically selfless reactions to everything, Marius's idiotic weak responses, etc....all drove me crazy to finally be done with this 1400 page monstrosity ASAP! (I listened to the 65 hour audiobook, at 1.5 to 2 times normal speed.)

His main characters were all unbelievably 1 or 2 dimensional and unrelatable as human beings. Hugo glorifies religion, religious figures, Napoleon, and the glory of dying in war enough to make me gag. His women characters are either virginal children, hookers with hearts of gold, or ugly evil hags. Jean Valjean, Marius, Javert, etc... mope and dither endlessly for chapters on their moral dilemmas... So much I wanted to punch them and say "Make a decision, dammit!"

Hugo beats you ad nauseum with his moralistic points on the value of religion, the evils of the death penalty and Paris's poor treatment of criminals, women, children, and the poor... you name it.

He spends the first 14 chapters of the novel on the unrealistically pure, dull life of Bishop Myriel, who barely makes any appearance at the start of the book, instead of on our main character Jean Valjean. He covers every detail of the bishop's house, sermons, and life ad nauseum... Yawn.

Besides his dull digressions on the bishop's life, the convent, Paris street kids, slang, and the sewer system (6 chapters literally cover the history and engineering of Paris shit)... all mercifully skippable....the one digression I liked was his 19 chapters on Napoleon's battle of Waterloo. Though Hugo got some facts wrong, I watched on YouTube several fascinating videos explaining it and was captivated by Napoleon's defeat and Hugo's story of his actual visit there.

I highly recommend you read an abridged version or fully read the Waterloo part but skip all his other tiresome digressions. Use Cliffs Notes to summarize all parts you skip. I read up to the end of Javert, used Cliffs Notes for the rest, and vow to never read this novel or Hugo again!

Switched readers

I liked how the readers switched throughout the book. It took a long time to get through this book but it is an exciting story.

Classic for a reason

The story of Les Miserable is one that resonates today just as much as when Victor Hugo wrote it. Beautiful and heartbreaking. Brokenness with a cry for redemption.

The length of the audio lends itself to the different narrators. I wish I could give more stars.

Great so far

It seems a bit strange writing a review for just the first part (of 6) but I guess it makes sense with there being several different narrators. This book has been on my list for a long time and I can see now why it gets so much acclaim. I was moved to tears several times already. Beautiful and profound. Yes, the writing style is a bit tedious sometimes, the level of detail and back-story. Reminds me of another favorite of mine, The Count of Monte Cristo, in the way it wanders along, with side stories and a plethora of seemingly unimportant characters. But it all adds to the mood making it feel real, and akin to life. The narrator did fine as well. I was not amazed as with some readers, in the different voices of characters, but the telling seems appropriate for the story itself, and that’s enough. He certainly doesn’t distract from the story and I appreciate that.