One chapter of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, every day for a year— delivered to your inbox, completely free! There are 365 chapters in the novel (most of which are fairly short) making it perfect for a yearly readalong. This subscription is for people who want to read The Brick but are intimidated by the brickiness of it, and for longtime fans who want to reread The Brick in a group.
Find a reading schedule linked here.
Find the full text of Les Miserables online here.
If you would like to talk to other people in the Les Mis letters readalong, follow @lesmisletters on Tumblr here or join our Discord server here!
FAQ:
What inspired this?
This was inspired by Dracula Daily, and a Tumblr post about how Les Mis has 365 chapters (many of which are short) so you could feasibly read one a day for a year.
When is this going?
One chapter every day of 2024, beginning on January 1st and ending on New Year’s Eve! This is an ongoing annual event that repeats every year. See us again in 2025!
What translation are you using?
Isabel F. Hapgood's 1894 translation, provided by Project Gutenberg. The full translation is here and more information on Project Gutenberg (which provides free ebooks) can be found on their website. Hapgood is a solid translation, but has reputation for being a bit wordy, literal, and clunky at times— she tries to imitate the original French so closely that it occasionally sounds stilted in English. For example, she renders the different formal pronouns in French (“tu” vs “vous”) as “you” and “thou,” which does not translate well to English.
If you’re having trouble with Hapgood and would like to follow along in a different translation, we recommend Wilbour (19th century, poetic) Fahnestock Macafee (1980s, updated version of Wilbour, not in public domain) Christine Donougher (2010s, modernized language, lots of footnotes) or Julie Rose (2009, slang-y modern language, lots of footnotes.) We do not recommend the Norman Denny edition for this particular readalong because it is heavily abridged, making it difficult to follow in this close-reading format.
Is that legal?
Yes! The book is in the public domain, and Project Gutenberg has also specified that you don’t need permission to use text they provide. Go show them some love! (They run on volunteers or you can donate to them here.)
Will you be recording audio versions of each chapter?
I will not. There are, however, audio versions available for free at Librivox.org, on Spotify, and even on YouTube, if you want to follow along.
What if I join after you start?
You’ll get the chapter scheduled for that day. You can always catch up here on Substack or anywhere else you can read Les Mis. We’re using the unabridged version but abridged versions exist for a reason.
Who are you?
This substack is currently run by Mellow, or secretmellowblog on Tumblr and @barricadescon on TikTok! Feel free to talk to me there. It is run in partnership with BarricadesCon, an online Les Mis convention, which you can find at barricadescon.com.
This Substack was first started by Rachel. Here is what she wrote back in 2022: “I would like to stay mostly anonymous (at least for now.) If you need to reach me you can do that here or @lesmisletters on Tumblr. Depending on how big this gets, I might make more socials, but for now I’m sticking to this.”
