Les Misérables2013
The best modern complete Les Misérables, by many lights. Christine Donougher gives Hugo in clear, supple, contemporary English that keeps his sweep and rhetoric without letting them curdle into bombast, and she renders the whole book, digressions intact, with excellent notes and an introduction by Robert Tombs. It reads faster and more naturally than Hapgood while staying faithful, and it handles the slang and the set-pieces with real assurance. If you want one unabridged Les Misérables to actually read and finish, this is the current first recommendation.