Editing Les Misérables (section)

==Contemporary reception==
The appearance of the novel was a highly anticipated event, as Victor Hugo was considered one of France's foremost poets in the middle of the nineteenth century. ''[[The New York Times]]'' announced its forthcoming publication as early as April 1860.<ref>{{cite news|title=Personalities.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1860/04/10/news/personalities.html|access-date=3 January 2013|newspaper=The New York Times|date=10 April 1860}}</ref> Hugo forbade his publishers from summarizing his story and refused to authorize the publication of excerpts in advance of publication. He instructed them to build on his earlier success and suggested this approach: "What Victor H. did for the Gothic world in ''Notre-Dame of Paris'' [''The Hunchback of Notre-Dame''], he accomplishes for the modern world in ''Les Misérables''".{{sfn|Behr|1993|loc=38}} A massive advertising campaign<ref>La réception des Misérables en 1862 – Max Bach – PMLA, Vol. 77, No. 5 (December 1962)</ref> preceded the release of the first two volumes of ''Les Misérables'' in Brussels on 30 or 31 March and in Paris on 3 April 1862.<ref>{{cite web|title=''Les Misérables'', Victor Hugo, first edition, 1862|url=http://www.abebooks.com/book-search/title/les-miserables/author/victor-hugo/first-edition/price-min/2100/pub-min/1862/pub-max/1862/sortby/1/page-1/|publisher=ABE Books|access-date=21 January 2013}}</ref> The remaining volumes appeared on 15 May 1862.

Critical reactions were wide-ranging and often negative. Some critics found the subject matter immoral, others complained of its excessive sentimentality, and others were disquieted by its apparent sympathy with the revolutionaries. L. Gauthier wrote in ''Le Monde'' on 17 August 1862, "One cannot read without an unconquerable disgust all the details Monsieur Hugo gives regarding the successful planning of riots."<ref>[http://groupugo.div.jussieu.fr/groupugo/doc/97-03-22Bouchet.pdf Les 5 et 6 Juin 1832. L'Evenement et ''Les Miserables'']</ref> The [[Goncourt brothers]] judged the novel artificial and disappointing.<ref>Goncourt, Edmond et Jules, Journal, Vol. I, Laffont, 1989, {{ISBN|2-221-05527-6}}, April 1862, pp. 808–809</ref> [[Gustave Flaubert|Flaubert]] found "neither truth nor greatness" in it. He complained that the characters were crude stereotypes who all "speak very well – but all in the same way". He deemed it an "infantile" effort and brought an end to Hugo's career like "the fall of a god".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.univ-rouen.fr/flaubert/03corres/conard/lettres/62b.html|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20061127232346/http://www.univ-rouen.fr/flaubert/03corres/conard/lettres/62b.html|url-status=dead|title=Letter of G. Flaubert to Madame Roger des Genettes – July 1862|archivedate=27 November 2006}}</ref> In a newspaper review, [[Charles Baudelaire]] praised Hugo's success in focusing public attention on social problems, though he believed that such propaganda was the opposite of art. In private, he castigated it as "repulsive and inept" (''immonde et inepte'').<ref>{{cite journal|last=Hyslop|first=Lois Bee|title=Baudelaire on Les Misérables|journal=[[The French Review]]|date=October 1976|volume=41|issue=1|pages=23–29}}</ref><ref name="jacobin">{{cite news|last1=Turner|first1=David Hancock|title=Les Misérables and Its Critics|url=https://www.jacobinmag.com/2013/01/les-miserables-and-its-critics/|access-date=14 June 2016|work=[[Jacobin (magazine)|Jacobin]]|date=18 January 2013}}</ref>

The work was a commercial success and has been a popular book ever since it was published.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://groupugo.div.jussieu.fr/Groupugo/Textes_et_documents/Hugo%20en%20Grece.pdf|title=Réception des Misérables en Grèce|author=[[Marguerite Yourcenar]]|access-date=16 September 2007|archive-date=20 July 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720165130/http://groupugo.div.jussieu.fr/Groupugo/Textes_et_documents/Hugo%20en%20Grece.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>[http://librairie.auchandirect.fr/librairie_livres/fortune_miserables_victor_hugo_au_2747507459.htm Réception des Misérables au Portugal] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929190326/http://librairie.auchandirect.fr/librairie_livres/fortune_miserables_victor_hugo_au_2747507459.htm |date=29 September 2007 }}</ref> Translated the same year it appeared into several foreign languages, including [[Italian language|Italian]], [[Greek language|Greek]], and [[Portuguese language|Portuguese]], it proved popular not only in France but across Europe and abroad.