An English-language version appeared in New York that same year, thanks to a justly hailed translation that the American Egyptologist Charles Wilbour completed in only six months. “Les Misérables” was published in France in 1862. Rarely has any work of literature received such a pummeling at the hands of a succession of publishers, translators, filmmakers and musical impresarios, as David Bellos demonstrates in “The Novel of the Century,” his intriguing new history of Hugo’s 1,500-page masterpiece. $27.Ī good book could be written about the bastardization of great novels, and Victor Hugo’s “Les Misérables” would make a fine Exhibit A.
THE NOVEL OF THE CENTURY The Extraordinary Adventure of “Les Misérables” By David Bellos 307 pp.
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