Les Misérables, Volume 1
Victor Hugo
Read by LibriVox Volunteers
This is book 1 of 5. An ex-convict breaks parole and starts a new life as a righteous man, but is pursued by a police inspector. Along the way, the ex-convict joins a revolution, adopts a daughter, and beats people up. Hooray. (Summary by smileyman457) (13 hr 45 min)
Chapters
Reviews
emotions are in the details
jaded_grl
first, great job readers. like others, I only noticed one chapter where the persons strong accent made it hard to understand, but it was a short chapter of not much importance. as is always true, the book is better than the movie (or play). where the movie takes 5minutes, the book takes a full 5hrs. the writer had so much patience in writing so much detail in the history... detailed character descritions, life history for characters that only play a passing moment w the main characters. but it is in those details that later the actions of the character fill u with so much more emotion and understanding. the writer even filled chapters with general history of the time period to give u a better understanding of the life and trials and mindset of people of the time. I have seen the musical and movie many many times by various performers. so I hesitated to read this book knowing its old writing style could bore me since I was so familiar with the story. but I am glad now that I finally decided to read it.
Best Book Ever Written
A LibriVox Listener
I absolutely love this book and I wouldn’t have read it if it wasn’t for these readers! I got through the whole thing in a couple months and I am now reading it the second time!!!
Very good
A LibriVox Listener
Les Miserables is a book that's far too wordy for my usual schedule to allow me to read, but which I have wanted to read for a long time. Many thanks to Librivox and the readers for making it available in this form. It was a pleasure to listen to and I am immediately moving on to Vol. 2. A couple of chapters in Book III were nearly incomprehensible, and I had to go to Project Gutenberg to read them. I think this was two different readers, and it was due to sound quality along with accent. That is why I gave a slightly lower score.
This is a must read
A LibriVox Listener
Very well read! Thank you Librivox volunteers! One reader was difficult to understand and after several attempts I skipped the chapter. As per the story, AMAZING. Victor Hugo is a literary genius. His ability to place the reader in the scene is unrivaled. Les Miserables is an emotional and inspiring historical fiction that will enhance your perspective and encourage you to do more good. Enjoy!
Good read
dmetz
Although some of the voices were slightly annoying or hard to discern, the book was great and for being a free recording done by volunteers, I would say pretty reasonable.
Les Misérables...
potuc
What a beautiful work. The details are immersive, almost as if you were really there. Like Dumas's works, the backstories of fairly unimportant characters add a feeling of additional depth to the story. I've been meaning to read this for quite a while now, but didn't have the time. Now this, this I can listen to as I work, as I prepare to sleep, and whenever I want to! 5 stars to most of the readers, there were one or two who were difficult to understand, but only one reader was actually incomprehensible, and that was only a seven-minute chapter. And who am I to complain, anyway? LibriVox provides all of these wonderful recordings at no cost at all! I did take off half a star for this, but please don't take that too seriously. Five-star multi-leader recordings are few and far between. Recommended highly overall!
Marvelous book, a humble of readers
Harry Haller
I had to give this volume of Les Misérables four stars--which should be five were it not for too many of the readers not being up to the task--because the volume well-deserves its high place among the great classics. More than a few readers did an excellent job, but it's hard to believe that Librivox was so desperate for readers that they had to give so many chapters to people who don't know how to pronounce common English words, let alone the French ones. One chapter was read by a guy using a broken microphone that hums in varying degrees from beginning to end. I encourage subscribers to overlook the weak reading of many chapters that nevertheless are well worth listening to, and I beg Librivox to have the half-dozen worst readings rerecorded by a better reader.
wonderful read
adam
I really liked this book. I feel like Victor Hugo is an old friend by now. He's a very interesting guy to hang out with! The character development is probably the best I've ever read and the way he takes his time to fill out the picture in the story is astounding. It's so rich and colorful and real. I'm a bit sad to be finished with the book and glad to know there's another huge book in hunchback waiting for me some day. In all, a very engaging, compelling and heart rending book. I really loved it. Thanks to all who read it.