Die Elenden (1862)

The final three paragraphs may well be the best ending I've had the pleasure of reading. ( )

Classics

I have this book in its abridged form twice before, but this time I read the unabridged version. A masterpiece. ( )

classic tale of crime and redemption and implacable pursuit

Wow. Or is that most sacred excrement? On my fourth attempt, I finished this Fall River Press/Barnes & Noble hardcover, published in 2012 presumably to commemorate the sesquicentennial (150-year anniversary) of the novel's original 1862 appearance. It crams the 1,463-page mass-market paperback edition into 908 pages of tiny print, the story of ex-convict Jean Valjean, as well as that of the massive underclass everywhere about which nobody cares. The only reasons I didn't give this greatest of all French (translated into English) novels five stars are the many tangents on which the author flies, including a multi-page "history" of the Parisian sewers. A long, sometimes depressing, sometimes aggravating--I wanted to strangle Inspector Javert--but ultimately great read. ( )