Les Mis people: please recommend best translation or abridgement

[Catherine]

OK, I finally saw the movie last night. I've seen the stage version twice, and read the first several hundred pages (so just the beginning LOL) of the Fahnestock\McAfee translation, which the book notes is based on the Wilbur translation. Is this a good one? I may get the kindle edition, just because the book is a bit unwieldy. Recommendations please?

 

And I am not opposed to an abridgement, if it's a good one.

[duckens]

Whatever you choose, I would also check out Cliffs Notes for the book. I thoroughly enjoyed the book when I read it in my early 20s, but I also had the Cliffs Notes to help me through it.

 

Usually, I would do a portion of the reading, and after, read the comparable commentary. Then I got to the part where Victor Hugo spent 5 chapters describing the French sewer system. :ohmy: Checking the commentary reassured me that I wouldn't miss anything important if I scanned the rest of that section. It saved me.

 

I also remember the description of the denouement being particularly good, and I have shared it with other lovers of the book to explain how Hugo would cross-tie all of his characters.

[Catherine]

Thank you! That is very helpful-study guide. Anyone else? Which translation? Or does it matter?

[Matryoshka]

I compared them all a while back, and vastly preferred the Denny translation (I think that's Penguin Classics?). I found the Wilbur to be a bit unwieldy to get through, and the one "based on" the Wilbur - well, that's kind of one more step removed from the source language. The newest translation (Rose) seemed to be trying overly hard to be "modern" - no big words (causing the text to sometimes be longer than the French! :svengo: ), and used what I found to be some very anachronistic "hip" language. Ew.

 

The Denny was clear and readable - the language didn't get in the way of the story. And the sewer chapters have been relegated to an appendix - so you can go read them if you want, but if you'd rather not, it's easy to skip them. The text is otherwise unabridged.

[Candid]

Here's the abridged version Tapestry uses: http://www.amazon.com/Miserables-Enriched-Classics-Victor-Hugo/dp/141650026X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359382268&sr=8-1&keywords=9781416500261 They don't use many abridgements beyond the Norton Anthologies but this is one they use.

 

You might also check on the high school forum, someone posted looking for this same thing and another person posted their personal "good parts" version.