A guide to abridging Les Mis

 Behold; here's a link to Project Gutenberg's edition of Les Misérables. If you want to read it on a website at straight HTML, this is the appropriate link. But, intepid readers, you should be warned that Hugo sometimes veers off into slightly irrelevant tangents. If you want the purest plot, follow the guide below of areas that you can afford to skip:
  • Volume 1, Book 1: All about the Bishop and how awesome he is. Jean Valjean not mentioned.
    • Chapters I - VII are still good to read since they encompass Hugo's views on morality.
  • Volume 1, Book 3: All about how Fantine came to be abandoned
    • All you need to know is that her boyfriend left her (and Paris) to start his career in earnest after a few years of merriment.
  • Volume 2, Book 1: All about the battle of Waterloo
    • Only important plot point is that Thenardier accidentally revives an "Officer Pontmercy" while robbing him. Pontmercy makes note of this.
  • Volume 2, Books 6 and 7: All about the history and situation of French Convents
  • Volume 3, Book 1, Chapters I - XII: All about urchins in Paris.
    • Gavroche (important character) not mentioned until last chapter (XIII)
  • Volume 3, Book 2: Exposition about Marius's grandfather's politics.
  • Volume 3, Book 4: All about Marius's revolutionary friends and how they came to meet.
  • Volume 4, Book 7: On slang
  • Volume 5, Book 2: On the sewers of Paris

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