Does anyone have a recommendation for the best English translation of Les Miserables?
Don't get the one where they translated the title as The Sad Heads.
Also the cover for that one totally spoils that it's a book about bread.
You'll fight, and you'll shag, and you'll hate each other till it makes you quiver, but you'll never be friends.
Spike ,'Sleeper'
Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
DavidS - Nov 30, 2012 12:50:06 pm PST #20138 of 28344
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
Atropa - Nov 30, 2012 12:59:29 pm PST #20139 of 28344
The artist formerly associated with cupcakes.
You guys! I have Discount Armageddon to read on the plane tomorrow! I'm very excited to be finally reading it. (In part because I've had three or four different people tell me I remind them of the Aeslin mice. This baffles me, but I assume it will be clear once I read the book.)
Steph L. - Nov 30, 2012 1:42:17 pm PST #20140 of 28344
this mess was yours / now your mess is mine
HAIL!
Polter-Cow - Nov 30, 2012 1:45:28 pm PST #20141 of 28344
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!
CHEESE AND CAKE FOR JILLI ON THIS DAY OF REASON!
Atropa - Nov 30, 2012 1:47:17 pm PST #20142 of 28344
The artist formerly associated with cupcakes.
I ... am starting to suspect I know why people have compared me to them.
Steph L. - Nov 30, 2012 1:52:32 pm PST #20143 of 28344
this mess was yours / now your mess is mine
LET US CELEBRATE THE FEAST OF DAMN IT, I HAVE TO CHECK A BAG FOR THIS TRIP TO VEGAS!
Atropa - Nov 30, 2012 1:55:26 pm PST #20144 of 28344
The artist formerly associated with cupcakes.
Hee! (And omg, two-page packing list. Iiieee!)
megan walker - Nov 30, 2012 2:24:56 pm PST #20145 of 28344
"What kind of magical sunshine and lollipop world do you live in? Because you need to be medicated."-SFist
Does anyone have a recommendation for the best English translation of Les Miserables?
I took a quick look at the editions on Goodreads and no translator stood out to me, bad or good.
Since opinions on translations are so personal, and most people only know whatever they've read, my advice for picking one is always to read the first few paragraphs in each option, either at the library, bookstore, or using the "look inside" feature at Amazon. See what you like.
I guess an annotated version might be helpful, but really just knowing that there are many, many revolutions is enough to get the gist of the context. Also, bread's an issue.
Quick guide to the long nineteenth century in France:
1789-1791 = Revolution I: the glory days
1792-1794 = Revolution II: the gory days (war with Austria and Prussia, the Terror, guillotining galore)
1794-1799 = The Directory (i.e., the boring part no one talks about)
1799-1814 = All Napoleon all the time (also, more war)
1814 = First Restoration: the monarchy strikes back (Louis XVIII takes the throne, sort of, see below)
1815 = The Hundred Days: The return of Napoleon. Or not (i.e., Waterloo).
1815 = Second Restoration: Louis XVIII, part deux
1830 = More revolution, or Louis XVIII's upstart relatives want a piece of the pie and the July Monarchy begins under Louis-Philippe.
1831-34 = Various uprising and insurrections in Paris and Lyon linked to the industrial revolution. Also, cholera epidemics!
Lather, Rinse, Repeat with the Revolution of 1848 that installs a Republic, only to be followed by a coup d'etat by Napoleon III in 1851, and then the Commune and another Republic in 1871.
javachik - Nov 30, 2012 2:27:51 pm PST #20146 of 28344
Our wings are not tired.
Which one was number 9?
sj - Nov 30, 2012 2:33:26 pm PST #20147 of 28344
"There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea."
Thanks, megan. I bookmarked your post. That's more than I remember from my European History classes ages ago.