Twelve hundred pages of French melodrama that in turn inspired a wildly successful two-plus hours of musical melodrama? Dude, I am so there. I was totally sitting in a gelato shop today, drinking a milkshake and sniffling over Jean Valjean and his epic moral struggle about whether or not to reveal his identity. And yes, feeling like a dork while I did it.

Yeah, Julie Rose's translation is brand-new, just published in July, and it's great. I've only run across one or two places where she left a French phrase, and she added the translation of it in quote marks - not sure why, but it works. I would assume that some of the more modern slang is what she's used to replace the archaic stuff; I bet she did a lot of research to determine what would best fill in for each one. And ALSO, she leaves titles untranslated, which gives me joy. Another thing I hate in translated works is when they put people's titles in English, too. It really distracts me to read about, say, Mr Madeleine when what I am reading takes place in France and the title is Monsieur, okay?? She even leaves some of the more elaborate titles, like Monsieur le maire, which just gives my geeky self a happy. So give it a shot! It's unabridged, though, so you'll just have to suffer through the stuff about the sewers.

No terrible Les Mis slash for anyone until it is less terrible!