Les Miserables tells the story of the fallen human condition. It is a meditation on the lacrimae rerum of Virgil’s Aeneid enlightened by the Hope found in the New Testament.

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

by Stephen Fitzpatrick

On June 5, 1832, a young Victor Hugo unwittingly found himself in the crossfire between young revolutionary republicans and the French National Guard. He took shelter in a doorway and escaped unharmed but the experience must have made a lasting impression upon him. Thirty years later Hugo used the small and predictably brief uprising against the monarchy as the historical backdrop for his ponderous tome, Les Miserables.

And a ponderous tome it certainly is. The reader gravely measures the weight of his commitment when taking it from the shelf. I recently finished an edition published by the Modern Library. The pages are large, the print small and still the volume boasts more than twelve hundred pages. Strangely enough, beside the Modern Library edition on my shelf is another copy of the same book published by Dodd, Mead, and Company (hereafter D.M.C.). This is not a usual occurrence in my library. I am generally content with one copy of any given book. There are two principle differences between my two copies of Les Miserables: The D.M.C. edition is abridged (to a far more manageable five hundred and eighty-five pages) and illustrated. Hence the need for two copies: I wish to have an unabridged edition but, being partial to well illustrated books, I also want the first-rate illustrations of Mead Schaeffer.

Upon perusal of the beginning of the D.M.C. edition of Les Miserables, the reader will find a friendly and reassuring note from the abridger, who has chosen to be remembered only as R.T.B.; a sensitive and humble touch. I will quote some of the note:


No longer is the abridgment of a classic condemned as a literary misdeed akin to plagiarism…. The era of the three and four decker novel is gone, and with it the false sanctity that preserved its integrity. Here, in this shortened version, is retained the magic of Hugo’s style…. What is not here in this abridgment is a great deal of special political pleading, obscure and local history and such matters which were important to the day when the book was written but are no longer so in the urgency of our present years. But the central story is here in all its color and drama, as powerful and exciting today as when it first appeared in ten volumes.

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