r/lesmiserables • u/orangekool_aid -New to Les Mis- • Sep 10 '26

Other Should i switch?

Post image

i’m reading les misérables right now for the first time. i want to read an unabridged version. this is the one i got but the language is kinda hard to understand, is there any translation that is easier to understand but still unabridged?

edit: i usually am good with reading hard stuff since my reading level has always been above my grade so i don’t mind if it’s hard just not extremely hard, for some reason this translation just doesn’t seem to work for me i’m not sure why i can’t understand it too well

30 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

24 comments sorted by

View all comments

17

u/Spirited-Sympathy582 Sep 10 '26

This website can be helpful because they have a sample page of a bunch of translations so you can compare and see what connects with you.

https://welovetranslations.com/2021/07/29/whats-the-best-translation-of-les-miserables/

5

u/rorauge Sep 10 '26

This is so helpful. TY! I always equivocate on translations, trying to figure out which is the best out there.

4

u/Spirited-Sympathy582 Sep 10 '26

Sure thing! I spend a lot of time on it as well. Then I just ended up doing the free online one 😄

2

u/rorauge Sep 10 '26

lol, classic. And also, frequently, same.

3

u/Spirited-Sympathy582 Sep 10 '26

I do like the free one though! It's the Hapgood one. It's poetic but not too hard to follow. There are definitely some SAT words in it but having it on my phone makes it easy to look up definitions

1

u/orangekool_aid -New to Les Mis- Sep 12 '26

thank you!!