Les Misérables

Family Radio Theater makes the best dramatizations. Our family loves to listen to all of their productions.

Its the abridged version of the story, not the musical (thank goodness.) Masterfully produced and great to listen to with family on road trips. We listen to this frequently over the years and it never gets old. This radio drama format makes this classic even more of a classic in this medium. It quietly highlights Christian themes of sin and redemption (that we did not get in school) as the story pours out such wonderful characters in dramatic form, with moving musical score. About 3 hours long, but you don't want it to end.

I like audio while driving, but radio has too many ads and most "music" stations are NOT to my taste. So, I listen to audio books, etc. And this version of La Mis is fantastic!

I extremely enjoy focus on the family radio theater, they make every story come alive.

Fantastic dramatization of Les Mis. I like it better than the book and the musical combined. It focuses on the central narratives and has a great score. Amazing voice acting and writing bring the characters to life. Not recommended for young children (*spoilers* it's about an ex-con raising a prostitute's daughter during a bloody revolution), but older kids (use your best judgement), teens, and adults will find it very entertaining.

This is my second dramatization by Focus on the Family Radio Theater, and again they have done a superb job. They use wonderful sound effects and first-rate voice actors. That being said, I think that if I hadn't already read the book (once in print and once via audio book) I would have been somewhat confused by the story. Les Miserables is an epic novel that weaves together numerous sub-plots involving many characters. To distill that into a 3-hour dramatization means that many things must be cut out. The story itself suffers as a result; for example, much about Fantine, which to me was the most heart-rending part of the entire novel, was left out of this dramatization entirely. I also think that having so much omitted makes it difficult for the first-time listener to follow the plot, know what is going on and know who all the characters are. For that I am giving this 4 stars rather than 5; it would have been better for the producers to include more elements of the story, even if it meant going into 4 CDs rather than just 3. Actually, it has always surprised me that Les Miserables has been a choice for dramatization, or for a Broadway play. I would never have thought that such a serious novel with so many elements would lend itself to that type of interpretation. However, its popularity is testament to the fact that it must work on some level; perhaps someday I'll be able to see the play myself. My recommendation: if you have never read Les Miserables, then do that first before listening to this dramatization. If you've already read the book then enjoy this recording for the high-quality entertainment that it is.

This is by far one of the best audio CD's I have ever heard from any producer. Very well done. I have seen the Broadway play, read the book, watched several movie versions of this story. This audio Cd surpassed my expectations and tops my list of Les Miserables favorites. My kids 8 and 15 loved it as well.

I have seen the musical and watched the movie but never actually read the story before, so this was a treat. Always impressed by Radio Theatre productions and this one did not disappoint. Just finished the audio book this morning and I may have sat in my car a few more minutes (with a few tears in my eyes) to finish it off. Hoping this production company releases more books as I think we almost have them all!

朗読CDはよくありますが、このCDはラジオドラマ仕立てになってます。 効果音やせりふに臨場感があり、英語もわかりやすく聞きやすく楽しめます。 このお値段にしてはかなりお得だと思います。

This is the story, not a musical thingumy. It is not a straight reading of the script, either, but it is magnificent. You have some of the best acting I imagine you can get on audio. I love listening to this. My 10-year-old goes and puts the CD on, too. That does not put it at a lower level, but says that it is so good that a child is choosing to listen to it, too. It is seriously good. It is also not identical to the book. It couldn't be, unless it was about 40 CDs long, anyway. It is not even just abridged, though. there are changes to plot. I don't always know why, but the spirit of it is the same, I think. If you know your British actors, this has Tony Robinson, Brian Blessed, Geoffery Palmer, and they are so good. I don't know where the cover sheet has gone from my copy, but the actresses who play young Cossette, Eponine, and the older Cossette are also outstanding, as are so many of the players of the shorter parts. They deserve more credit- they aren't all even mentioned on the CD case. I would imagine that this is amongst the best work of many of these actors. The backing music is also moving. If you want something to take you to another place, and leave you powerfully entranced and stirred inside, this is a story that I think does that. They recommend it for 8 yrs and over, and that makes good sense, but it is not a child's production. This is serious, high-quality radio-theatre acting, (and it's 3-CDs long :-))

My brother-in-law wore out his last copy, so he was delighted to get this new one from his boys for Christmas.

I couldn't face the massive undertaking of the full book and decided to try this three CD dramatised production. This is superb and the casting perfect. Now my only regret is that they did not go on to do the entire book - all 1,200 pages.

同じシリーズのAnne of green gables があまりによかったので、次は男の物語りを・・・と思い買ってみたのですが、 聞き取りにくさ、内容の高度さ？から、平均的な英語学習者では楽しめないでしょう。思わず引き込まれるようなことも今のところ、ありません。 苦痛＝続かないということになります。 今のところ、最高の男の子向けヒアリング教材はDr.Popper's penguin ということになりますかね。 もうすこし英語力が向上してから再チャレンジしてみたいと思います。