Les Misérables by Victor Hugo; Unabridged MP3 Audio Book; Narrator Frederick Davidson

Set in the Parisian underworld and plotted like a detective story, Les Misérables follows the adventures of Jean Valjean, originally an honest peasant, who was imprisoned for nineteen years for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his sister’s starving family. A hardened criminal upon his release, he eventually reforms, becoming a successful industrialist and town mayor. Despite this, Valjean is haunted by an impulsive former crime and is pursued relentlessly by the police inspector, Javert.

Hugo describes early nineteenth-century France with a sweeping power that gives his novel epic stature. Among the most famous chapters are an account of the battle of Waterloo and a description of Valjean’s flight through the Paris sewers.

Translated by Charles E. Wilbour

“Davidson’s exquisitely nuanced interpretation of Les Misérables expertly reflects the excellence of Hugo’s literary and political classic.”—Booklist

Victor Hugo (1802–1885) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights campaigner, and perhaps the most influential exponent of the Romantic movement in France.

In France, Hugo's literary reputation rests primarily on his poetic and dramatic output and only secondarily on his novels. Among many volumes of poetry, Les Contemplations and La Légende des siècles stand particularly high in critical esteem, and Hugo is sometimes identified as the greatest French poet. In the English-speaking world, his best-known works are the novels Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. His other novels include The Last Days of a Condemned Man, Toilers of the Sea, and The Man Who Laughs.