LES MISÉRABLES

BY

VICTOR HUGO

PART PREMIER

FANTINE

AUTHORIZED TRANSLATION BY LASCELLES WRAXALL.

BOSTON:

LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY.

1887

VICTOR HUGO (1828)

PUBLISHERS' PREFACE.

The present edition of "LES MISÉRABLES," in five volumes, has been madewith the special object of supplying the work in a proper form forlibrary use, embodying the two great requisites, clear type and handysize. It is in the main a reprint of the English translation, in threevolumes, by Sir Lascelles Wraxall, which was made with the sanctionand advice of the author. Chapters and passages omitted in the Englishedition have been specially translated for the present issue; numerouserrors of the press, etc., have been corrected; and the author's ownarrangement of the work in five parts, and his subdivisions into booksand chapters, have been restored.

BOSTON, Sept. 1, 1887.

PREFACE

So long as, by the effect of laws and of customs, social degradationshall continue in the midst of civilization, making artificial hells,and subjecting to the complications of chance the divine destiny ofman; so long as the three problems of the age,—the debasement ofman by the proletariat, the ruin of woman by the force of hunger, thedestruction of children in the darkness,—shall not be solved; so longas anywhere social syncope shall be possible: in other words, and froma still broader point of view, so long as ignorance and misery shallremain on earth, books like this cannot fail to be useful.

HAUTEVILLE-HOUSE, 1862.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FANTINE.