TEHRAN – A new Persian translation of “Les Miserables”, the French historical novel of the 19th century by Victor Hugo, will soon hit bookstores across Iran.
Translated by Mohammadreza Parsayar, the book will be released by Hermes Publications, the Persian service of ISNA reported on Wednesday.
“Les Miserables” was first translated into Persian by Hosseinqoli Mosta’an in 1930, and a few years later Mohammad Majlesi released a new translation of the book.
“Although the first translation is good, it is not void of mistakes and it needed to be retranslated into Persian more precisely and with a better and smoother text,” Parsayar said.
Victor Hugo’s tale of injustice, heroism and love follows the fortunes of Jean Valjean, an escaped convict determined to put his criminal past behind him in the book Les Miserables. But his attempts to become a respected member of the community are constantly put under threat: by his own conscience, when, owing to a case of mistaken identity, another man is arrested in his place; and by the relentless investigations doggedly pursued by policeman Javert.
It is not simply enough for him that Valjean must be set free, for he has sworn to protect the baby daughter of Fantine, who has been driven by poverty to hard labor. A compelling and compassionate view of the victims of early nineteenth-century French society, Les Miserables is a novel on an epic scale, moving inexorably from the eve of the battle of Waterloo to the July Revolution of 1830.
RM/YAW
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