Les Miserables

Les Misérables by Victor Hugo “The classic story of the triumph of grace and redemption, adapted for today’s readers” by Jim Reimann W Publishing, 2001. 288 pages. Many years ago my mother received in the mail, every month or so, a volume of the “Readers’ Digest Condensed Books” series. Each volume contained abridgments of recent books. I never quite grasped, back then, the reasoning by which one might justify reading a shortened version of a …

…fully realized portraits of Jean Valjean, Javert, Cosette, Thenardier, and Marius, as well as of important characters Reimann inadequately acknowledges: Bishop Myriel, Fantine, Éponine, and Gavroche, to name a few. Rather than settle for a tale of one man’s salvation, readers should strive to experience the novel’s full scope as a “social and historical drama” and a “vast mirror” of the human race, of societal norms that may very well be beyond redemption.