Unregistered
05-24-2005, 06:07 PM
I first met Les Miserables in the Classic Comics version when I was a child. I was impressed even with this sketchy version. Later I saw the great movie starring Charles Laughton as Javert. As an adult I read an abridged version and thought it was the greatest book I ever read. A few years later I read the complete version and realized how much I had missed. I read an abridged version to my children, filling in the most interesting parts that had been left out. Now more than 60 years from the time I found the Classic Comics version I am reading an abridged version to my 11-year-old granddaughter and she is absorbed in it. Unfortunately the abridgements leave out some of the best parts, so I have to go back to the "real" book to fill her in. Why do the abridgements leave out the wonderful part where Jean Valjean goes to the Thenardiers' to rescue Cosette? That is one of the most moving parts. When I was working in a state prison as librarian I lent my copy to an inmate who had begun to read the classics in prison. He took weeks to read it and when he handed it back to me he said, "Jim, you have enriched my life." I know the plot is contrived and incredible but it is a great book because of the grandeur of the main character, Jean Valjean.<br>