Les Miserables: Notes

by Amy L. Marsland

The original CliffsNotes study guides offer expert commentary on major themes, plots, characters, literary devices, and historical background. The latest generation of titles in this series also... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0822007355
• ISBN13: 9780822007357
• Release Date: November 1968
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 120 Pages
• Weight: 0.26 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Helped me enjoy the musical

This was perfect for me to read a week before I was to attend the musical. After reading this, I knew all the characters and their motivations and all the story lines. After watching the show, I became interested in reading the book...and probably will...someday!

Ahhhh... Good old Notes....

Okay, I was browsing through my library and I stumbled across the Les Miserables cliff notes (I have read the whole thing unabridged 4 times). I picked it up to look it over, and was impressed. I checked it out, and took it to school the next day and gave it to my friend who was reading the abridged version and I gave it to her to read. She liked it much better. She said it was, "Shorter (she's not exactly into long books), more emmotional (eep), and included many things that the abridgement left out. Two of my personal favorite parts- Jean Prouvaire's Last Poem, and Orestes Fasting and Pylades Drunk, which were included in Cliff's Notes. Bravo!

My Fave Book EVER

You really have to be into drama when you read this! You have to love to read and have to understand 5 things going on at once! Victor Hugo wrote an awesome book when he wrote Les Miz!! I fell in love with every character!! He wrote a fantastic book! I have read the abridged 2 time sthe unabridged once and i've seen the play 3 times and have both movies!!

Better than all you can ever say

This is the best book I have ever read. Victor Hugo is a very good and interesting writer!Castor Junior

"Les Miserables"-- proof of Hugo's belief in humanity

Being one of the precious few who see Javert as the novel's most intriguing character, I found myself flipping through "Les Miserables" when I first purchased it, looking for all of the "Javert chapters." However, though it took me a year to finish the remaining pages of the book (those focusing on Valjean and the protagonists), I must admit that I now consider it to be my favorite piece of literature. I'm sure that most everyone reading this review knows the plot, but I'll summarize it anyway. The hero-- Jean Valjean, convict who breaks parole. The "bad guy" (not really!)-- Inspector Javert, an misunderstood policeman. The miserable ones-- Fantine (prostitute), Eponine (suffers from a forbidden love), the Parisian beggars. The lovers-- Cosette (Fantine's daughter; Valjean's charge) & Marius (student). The revolutionaries-- Enjolras, Marius, students. Story: Javert chases Valjean, Valjean changes his life and looks out for Cosette, Students and Eponine die, Marius and Cosette get married, Valjean dies. Sounds uplifting, doesn't it? Seriously, though the story is extremely deep and the negative emotional content is through the roof (as are the amounts of philosophical commentaries and descriptions that Hugo interjects, i.e. a 100-page documentary on the history of the Parisian sewer system), the reader almost always finishes the book with a sort of uplifted feeling; a new belief in the ability of humanity to transcend and break free of our earthly chains. The musical version of Hugo's masterpiece sends the audience away with similar thoughts, but the story is severely condensed and the romanticism enhanced. I will say one thing of Boublil & Schonberg, though-- they were true to Hugo's intents. I believe it's on one of the first pages of the novel that Hugo alerts his readers to the fact that "Les Miserables" is NOT about Valjean, Javert, Cosette, or any of the others. It's about the Eternity. And the lyrics and melodies of the musical "Les Miserables" are true to this-- they never once forget that the primary aim of the story is to tell people the news of God's power over all of us, and how, through His love, we too can love, grow, and, as Valjean discovers, we can change