World classic, retold in simple Mandarin
Les Misérables
悲惨世界
Les Misérables (悲惨世界, Bēicǎn shìjiè) is a classic by Victor Hugo, retold in simple Mandarin as an 8-chapter story with audio for learners at about HSK 4 (Upper intermediate).
Retold from Victor Hugo's 1862 novel: a man who stole a loaf of bread, a bishop's silver candlesticks, and a promise to a dying mother. A story about second chances.
Meet the voices
- Narrator · 旁白 — A warm storyteller who sets the scene.
- Jean Valjean · 冉阿让 — A strong, weary man who spent nineteen years in prison for bread and chooses to become good.
- The Bishop · 主教 — A kind old churchman who trusts a thief and gives him a second chance.
- The Bishop's Sister · 妹妹 — The bishop's worried younger sister who keeps house.
- The Innkeeper · 老板 — A frightened town innkeeper who turns Valjean away.
- The Police Sergeant · 警察 — A gruff policeman who brings Valjean back.
- The Little Boy · 小男孩 — A small boy who loses a coin on the road.
- Javert · 沙威 — A strict police inspector who believes the law is everything.
- The Factory Worker · 工人 — A cheerful worker at the mayor's factory.
- Fantine · 芳汀 — A poor mother who works only to care for her daughter Cosette.
- The Judge · 法官 — A stern judge in the courtroom.
- Champmathieu · 尚马蒂厄 — A poor old tree trimmer mistaken for Valjean.
- Young Cosette · 珂赛特 — A small, hardworking girl who dreams of her mother.
- Madame Thénardier · 德纳第太太 — The sharp-tongued, greedy innkeeper's wife.
- Thénardier · 德纳第 — A sly, greedy innkeeper.
- Cosette · 珂赛特 — Valjean's grown-up daughter, warm and playful.
- Marius · 马吕斯 — A shy young student who falls in love with Cosette.
- The Student · 学生 — A young man at the barricade.
8 chapters, one journey
Chapter 1: Nineteen Years
十九年
A freed prisoner is turned away from every door in town, until an old bishop opens his. But the silver on the bishop's table is very tempting.
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Chapter 2: The Silver Candlesticks
银烛台
The police drag Valjean back to the bishop with the stolen silver. What the old man says next changes Valjean's whole life.
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Chapter 3: Monsieur Madeleine
马德兰市长
Years later Valjean is the kind mayor of a seaside town. But a new police inspector keeps staring at him, and a poor woman needs his help.
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Chapter 4: The Other Man
另一个人
A poor old man is about to go to prison in Valjean's place. One quiet night, Valjean must decide who he really is.
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Chapter 5: Cosette and the Doll
珂赛特和娃娃
On a freezing Christmas night, a stranger meets a little girl carrying a bucket much too big for her. He has come to keep a promise.
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Chapter 6: The Garden Gate
花园的门
Cosette has grown up, and Valjean has never been so happy or so afraid. Then a shy student begins to visit the park, and a letter falls into Valjean's hands.
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Chapter 7: The Barricade and the Sewer
街垒和下水道
On a night of fighting in Paris, Valjean faces his old enemy twice: once with a knife in his hand, and once at the end of a long dark tunnel.
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Chapter 8: The Last Candles
最后的烛光
Valjean tells Marius the truth and steps out of his children's lives. But the truth finds Marius, and the two young people run to the bed of the man who saved them both.
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Key words in Les Misérables
Behind the story
Les Misérables was written by the French author Victor Hugo and published in 1862. Hugo wrote much of it while living in exile, and the story follows Jean Valjean, a man punished for stealing bread, who chooses to become a good man.
Chinese readers know the novel as 悲惨世界, and it has been translated into Chinese many times. Its ideas about mercy, poverty and second chances speak to readers in every country, which is why it is still one of the most widely read novels in the world.
Did you know?
- The full novel is more than a thousand pages long, and the retelling here follows only its main road.
- The uprising in the story is based on the Paris rebellion of June 1832, when people really did build barricades across narrow streets.
- Paris has an enormous underground sewer system, and part of it is now open to visitors.