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.

Which one was number 9?

Thanks, megan. I bookmarked your post. That's more than I remember from my European History classes ages ago.

Oh, that's how Napoleon III came to power, I always wondered.

Oh, that's how Napoleon III came to power, I always wondered.

Like his uncle, he came into power legitimately, as the elected president of the Second Republic. But then he got greedy, as Napoleons are wont to do. When he gets his ass kicked in the Franco-Prussian War, the Second Empire falls and the Third Republic begins.

When the Third Republic gets its ass kicked in WWII, the government is replaced by Vichy, and then the Fourth Republic begins. The Fourth Republic is sort of a parliamentary nightmare and so DeGaulle comes back and essentially creates the Fifth (current) Republic which gives more power to the President.

As they say, history has a tendency to repeat itself.

I've always been fascinated that for a while Mexico was French.

I've always been fascinated that for a while Mexico was French.

I think it was Austrian for a year or two, too.

HAIL! It Is Time To Celebrate The Feast Of Being Checked Into The Hotel Room!

Clovis and I want to know where we can get our own colony of Aeslin mice. Because if anyone should have a colony of them, it's me and the Devilbunny.

I'm loading up the Kindle while I still can (Whispernet apparently won't work once I'm not in the US), so I'll go ahead and add Discount Armaggedon even though I hate the cover. Seriously, do book covers suck more now than at any time since the 70s?

Oh, the cover is horrible. I felt vaguely embarrassed by it.