Author: Victor Hugo
Publisher: Diamond Book Distributors
Rating: WARTY!
Graphic novel illustrated by TszMei Lee, edited by Stacy King
DISCLOSURE: Unlike the majority of reviews in this blog, I've neither bought this book nor borrowed it from the library. This is a "galley" copy ebook, supplied by Net Galley. I'm not receiving (nor will I expect to receive or accept) remuneration for this review.
Written in 1862 and covering a period of seventeen years, ending thirty years before the date of publication, Les Misérables tells a miserable story which has some of its roots buried in actual events. Unfortunately, this was a miserable presentation of a French classic which made little sense to me.
For inexplicable reasons, this French tale was rendered as a Japanese manga in every sense of the word, meaning that instead of starting at the beginning, at the top of page one, on the left, and proceeding through incrementing pages to the end, it began at the "end". Actually it doesn't even start on page one, but on page fifteen. In order to make sense of it you not only have to read this starting at the end, but also you must read the panels backwards, too - right to left - just like a real Japanese manga.
This made absolutely zero sense to me, especially since I was reading this in ebook form. Seriously? It was actually confusing because I started reading it at the beginning as any westerner would do. Page 302 (the printed page number) appeared on page 42, and 281 was on page 63 while page 283 appeared on page 61! It was only as I realized that the story and the frames were out of sequence that I discovered what had been done. Yes, the comic does explain this in some detail if you're into reading the small print, which I am not. I honestly didn't expect to have to read the instructions on how to read the novel before I read the novel!
» Indeed! «
I have no idea why English language comics are presented in this way. It's insupportable, and especially so in ebook format. I mean, if you're going to be completely ass-backwards about it, why not start reading the panels at the bottom instead of the top?! Why not print the thing in Japanese? It makes just as much sense to me as what was done here, but the real question to be answered is: do they genuinely want to get the classics out? If so, then why are they robotically trying to recreate something from one milieu and hammering it blindly into another, hoping it will eventually "fit"? I honestly don't buy that this is the right way to go about it.
That said, the graphics were not bad - no color, simply line drawings (but I did not get at all the grey gingham patterning). The story wasn't entertaining to me, not even read backwards. Actually reading it the way I did begin to read it, made it seem much more of a dramatic (if a little confusing!) story than it did when I started reading it as it was intended to be read. Go figure!
I'm sorry to say though, that overall it was neither particularly gripping nor impressive. I know Hugo's novel was a lot more text than this rendition of it is capable of reproducing, but it seems to me that Hugo's text could have had a better outing than this. So in view of all this, I cannot recommend this graphic novel.
