130,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock 🇳🇿

Overnight NZ-wide delivery 🚀 Auckland Bookstore • Open 7 days, 8:30am–5pm

Les Misérables

4.21 goodreads logo

Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.

Check link for latest rating.
( 834,290 ratings, 25,029 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Les Misérables, authored by Victor Hugo, is set in 19th-century France and follows the life of Jean Valjean, a former convict seeking redemption. The narrative explores themes of justice, love, poverty, and societal reform through a tapestry of interconnected characters, including the relentless Inspector Javert and the destitute Fantine. This epic tale captures the struggle for hope and freedom against the backdrop of revolution and social upheaval.
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$3400
Elsewhere:
$3700
Backorder
STOCK ARRIVING UNKNOWN - CONTACT US Order now to secure your copy from our next shipment

Found a better price? Request a price match

Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This book may appeal to you if you enjoy epic tales of redemption, justice, and love set against the backdrop of 19th-century France. Its richly woven narrative explores the complex, intertwined lives of its characters, addressing social injustice and the human quest for dignity and liberty. If you are captivated by stories of personal transformation, sacrifice, and resilience, this work offers a compelling and emotional journey.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

Features Jean Valjean, an escaped convict determined to put his criminal past behind him. But his attempts to become a respected member of the community are constantly put under threat: by his own conscience, and by the relentless investigations of the dogged policeman Javert.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

A brilliant new translation by Christine Donougher of Victor Hugo's thrilling masterpiece, with an introduction by Robert Tombs.

Les Misérables is Victor Hugo's tale of injustice, heroism, and love. It follows the fortunes of Jean Valjean, an escaped convict determined to put his criminal past behind him. However, his attempts to become a respected member of the community are constantly under threat—by his own conscience and the relentless investigations of the dogged policeman Javert.

It is not simply for himself that Valjean must stay free, however, for he has sworn to protect the baby daughter of Fantine, who was driven to prostitution by poverty.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Victor Hugo's Les Misérables is praised for its narrative power and seamless translation, making it accessible to modern readers while maintaining its original flavour. The translation creates a fresh impact, reminding readers of Hugo's profound insights into social conditions, akin to but surpassing Dickensian themes.

Book Hero reading reviews

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780241248744

Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 26 November 2015

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Penguin Classics

Contributors:

  • Translated by Christine Donougher
  • Introduction by Robert Tombs
  • Translated by Christine Donougher

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 60.0mm

Width: 130.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 926g

Pages: 1456

About the Author

Victor Hugo (Author) Victor Hugo was born in Besan on, France in 1802. In 1822 he published his first collection of poetry and in the same year, he married his childhood friend, Ad le Foucher. In 1831 he published his most famous youthful novel, Notre-Dame de Paris. A royalist and conservative as a young man, Hugo later became a committed social democrat and was exiled from France as a result of his political activities. In 1862, he wrote his longest and greatest novel, Les Miserables. After his death in 1885, his body lay in state under the Arc de Triomphe before being buried in the Pantheon. Robert Tombs (Introducer) Robert Tombs is Emeritus Professor of French History at Cambridge, and a Fellow of St John's College. Most of his writing and teaching has been on French and European history and on Franco-British relations, for which he was awarded the Palmes Academiques by the French government. Since his foray into English history, with the publication of The English and Their History in 2014, he has become a frequent commentator on contemporary issues, and is co-editor of the pro-Brexit academic website Briefings for Britain. Christine Donougher (Translator) Christine Donougher is a freelance translator and editor. She has translated numerous books from French and Italian, and won the 1992 Scott Moncrieff Translation Prize for her translation of Sylvie Germain's The Book of Nights.

Also by Victor Hugo

View all
  • Notre-Dame de Paris
    In the vaulted Gothic towers of Notre-Dame lives Quasimodo, the hunchbacked bellringer. Mocked and shunned for his appearance, he is pitied only by Esmerelda, a beautiful gypsy dancer to whom he becomes completely devoted. Esmerelda, however, has also attracted the attention of the sinister archdeacon Claude Frollo, and when she rejects his lecherous approaches, Frollo hatches a plot to destroy...
    Paperback
    $2600
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Les Miserables
    Beautiful clothbound edition of Victor Hugo's tale of injustice, heroism, and love, ahead of the major new film starring Anne Hathaway, Hugh Jackman, and Russell Crowe. Part of Penguin's beautiful hardback Clothbound Classics series, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith, these delectable and collectible editions are bound in high-quality colourful and tactile cloth. This beautiful clothbound edition of Victor Hugo's...
    Hardback
    $4500
    Elsewhere:
    $5000
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Les Miserables (Barnes & Noble Collectible Editions)
    One of the most widely read novels of all time, Les Miserables was the crowning literary achievement of Victor Hugo's career. An enormous melodrama set against the background of political upheaval in France following the rule of Napoleon I, the novel tells the story of the peasant Jean Valjean—unjustly imprisoned and hounded by his nemesis, the magnificently realised police detective...
    Hardback
    $5300
    Elsewhere:
    $5799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Les Misérables
    Les Misérables is widely considered to be one of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century. First published in France in 1862, Les Misérables is Victor Hugo’s greatest achievement—the ultimate tale of redemption. Former prisoner Jean Valjean struggles to live virtuously after an unexpected act of forgiveness by a kindly bishop changes his life. His righteous actions change people’s lives...
    Paperback
    $3099
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Toilers of the Sea
    No character was ever thrown into such strange relief as Gilliatt...here, indeed, the true position of man in the universe. Robert Louis Stevenson The Toilers of the Sea tells the fairytale-esque story of Gilliatt, an outcast fisherman who must rescue an engine from a wrecked steamship. If successful, he will win the hand of the shipowner's beautiful daughter, Deruchette. He...
    Paperback
    $3499
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Les Miserables
    NOW A MAJOR BBC TV ADAPTATION "Still grips the reader with its epic-narrative sweep and all-embracing humanitarianism" Douglas Kennedy, Sunday Times Read the masterful story of romance and revolution behind the hit BBC TV series. Les Miserables is a novel peopled by colourful characters from the nineteenth-century Parisian underworld; the street children, the prostitutes, and the criminals. In telling the...
    Paperback
    $3000
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Les Misérables
    Les Misérables by Victor Hugo is a tale of injustice, heroism, and love that follows the fortunes of Jean Valjean, an escaped convict determined to put his criminal past behind him. Valjean's attempts to become a respected member of the community are constantly under threat. His journey is plagued by his own conscience, especially when an innocent man is mistakenly...
    Paperback
    $2799
    Elsewhere:
    $2999
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Satan and His Daughter, the Angel Liberty
    Victor Hugo spent years in political exile off the coast of Normandy. While there, he produced his masterpiece, Les Misérables—but that wasn’t all: he also wrote a book-length poem, La Fin de Satan, left unfinished and not published until after his death. Satan and His Daughter, the Angel Liberty, drawn from this larger poem, tells the story of Satan and...
    Paperback
    $4799
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • Les Misérables
    “The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but he who causes the darkness.”“So long as ignorance and poverty exist on earth, books of the nature of Les Misérables cannot fail to be of use,” says Victor Hugo in the preface of his famous novel. Set in the years after the French Revolution, Les Misérables is certainly French...
    Leather / fine binding
    $5500
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Les Misérables
    It was nineteen years ago that Jean Valjean landed in prison for stealing a loaf of bread. He had tried to escape multiple times, but in vain. Now, he is determined to live as a respectable member of society. But in his way stands Inspector Javert, a man who lives to see justice done, and he won't stop till he...
    Hardback
    $9500
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Notre-Dame de Paris
    Three extraordinary characters caught in a web of fatal obsession are at the centre of Hugo's novel. The grotesque hunchback Quasimodo, bell-ringer of Notre-Dame, owes his life to the austere archdeacon, Claude Frollo, who in turn is bound by a hopeless passion to the gypsy dancer Esmeralda. She, meanwhile, is bewitched by a handsome, empty-headed officer, but by an unthinking...
    Paperback
    $4200
    Available
    Ships in 2-3 weeks
  • Ninety-Three
    A new translation by David Bellos of the last great novel by France's greatest novelist. In the turmoil of the French Revolution, the year 1793 represented the peak of bloody revolutionary violence. Victor Hugo plunges into this tumultuous period with a story of courage and betrayal across the political classes. As the revolution rages, three characters—a nobleman turned revolutionary, a...
    Hardback
    $4500
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks

More from General Fiction

View all
  • On Sale
    17% off
    Yesteryear
    A BOLD AND BITING SATIRE. WILL HAVE YOU GASPING TO THE FINAL PAGE — Nita Prose WICKEDLY FUNNY, BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN AND FRIGHTENINGLY PERCEPTIVE — Abigail Dean INVENTIVE, ADDICTIVE, A WILD RIDE — Ashley Audrain SHOT THROUGH WITH HUMOUR AND LACED WITH DARKNESS — Clare Mackintosh The Stepford Wives meets The Handmaid's Tale — Hannah Deitch My name was Natalie Heller...
    Paperback
    $2500
    Elsewhere:
    $3699
    (3)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • On Sale
    14% off
    Theo of Golden
    THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING PHENOMENON'For anything to be truly good, there must be love in it. Nothing is what it's supposed to be if love is not at the core.' One morning, a stranger arrives in the town of Golden. No one knows who he is or where he came from…His name is Theo and he's arrived there by chance –...
    Paperback
    $2500
    Elsewhere:
    $3499
    (6)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • On Sale
    17% off
    The Wedding People
    'BEST READ OF THE YEAR SO FAR' THE TIMES 'BOOKS AS FUN AS THIS ONE ARE FEW AND FAR BETWEEN' GUARDIAN Phoebe Stone arrives at a grand beachside hotel in Rhode Island wearing her best dress and least comfortable shoes. Immediately she is mistaken for one of the wedding people — but she's actually the only guest at the Cornwall...
    Paperback
    $2000
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    (3)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    Threshing Day
    The next book in the blockbuster Empyrean series, Threshing Day contains thirteen stories starring your favorite characters and their dragons. The deluxe first edition includes sixteen beautiful original full-color illustrations by artist Joe Requeza.    Rebecca Yarros is the #1 New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of over twenty novels, including Fourth Wing and In the...
    Hardback
    $6999
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Chain Reaction
    Jack Reacher, \"the coolest continuing series character\" (Stephen King), returns in a brand new, pulse-pounding read from Lee and Andrew Child. The world’s bestselling hero is back in a brand new, high-octane adventure! ‘She knew that finding Reacher would not be easy . . .’ Washington DC. General Susan Turner needs help from the only guy she knows will get...
    Paperback
    $2999
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • A Court of Thorns and Roses Paperback Box Set (5 books)
    All five of the Court of Thorns and Roses paperbacks packaged together in a gorgeous box set. "Passionate, violent, sexy and daring." —USA TODAY on A Court of Thorns and Roses Feyre is a huntress. The skin of a wolf would bring enough gold to feed her sisters for a month. But the life of a magical creature comes at...
    Set
    $9999
    Elsewhere:
    $12495
    (4)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • A Court of Mist and Fury
    A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas continues Feyre Archeron's epic journey in the world of the High Fae. Having survived the brutal trials under the Mountain, Feyre returns to the Spring Court. Though she now possesses the immortal powers of the High Fae, the traumatic experiences have left scars on her human heart. Haunted by the...
    Paperback
    $2100
    Elsewhere:
    $2299
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Threshing Day
    New Release
    Threshing Day
    The next book in the blockbuster Empyrean series, Threshing Day, contains thirteen stories starring your favourite characters and their dragons. The deluxe first edition includes sixteen beautiful original full-colour illustrations by artist Joe Requeza and silver-gilded edges. *while stock lasts. Discover the beloved world of the record-breaking, multi-million-copy bestselling series where power always demands a price, secrets darken every hallway,...
    Hardback
    $4999
    Elsewhere:
    $5500
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • A Court of Thorns and Roses
    The first instalment of the GLOBAL PHENOMENON and TikTok sensation, from multi-million selling and #1 Sunday Times bestselling author Sarah J. Maas. Maas has established herself as a fantasy fiction titan – Time Harry Potter magic, Taylor Swift sass, Fifty Shades-level athleticism – The Sunday Times With bits of Buffy, Game of Thrones and Outlander, this is a glorious series...
    Paperback
    $2100
    Elsewhere:
    $2299
    (3)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • A Court of Wings and Ruin
    The third instalment of the GLOBAL PHENOMENON, romantic fantasy epic and TikTok sensation, ACOTAR. From multi-million and #1 Sunday Times bestselling author Sarah J. Maas. In A Court of Wings and Ruin, the gripping third book of the ACOTAR series, Feyre Archeron faces the ultimate battle for her world. Having returned to the Spring Court, she is determined to gather...
    Paperback
    $2100
    Elsewhere:
    $2299
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • A Court of Frost and Starlight
    In A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas, readers are invited to revisit the enchanting world of Prythian in a heartwarming and introspective narrative. Set against the backdrop of the Winter Solstice, Feyre Archeron and her mate Rhysand return to centre stage as they strive to restore the Night Court after the devastating conflicts of A Court...
    Paperback
    $2100
    Elsewhere:
    $2299
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • A Court of Silver Flames - Night Court Edition
    Limited Edition
    A Court of Silver Flames - Night Court Edition
    The magic and beauty of the Night Court is captured in these LIMITED EDITIONS of the Court of Thorns and Roses series! This Night Court Edition features the Night Court symbol on a striking black and silver foiled cover and includes black sprayed edges. The latest instalment of the GLOBAL PHENOMENON, romantic fantasy epic and TikTok sensation, ACOTAR. From multi-million...
    Paperback
    $2500
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships today

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.

General Fiction lists from the team

Explore our curated lists from our heroes to find your next read!