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Les MiserablesWhen Victor Hugo's novel Les Miserables firstcame
out in 1862, people in Paris and elsewherelined up to buy it.
Although critics were less re-ceptive, the novel was an instant
popular success.The French word "miserables" means both
poorwretches and scoundrels or villains. The novel of-fers a huge
cast that includes both kinds of "mis-erables." A product of
France's most prominentRomantic writer, Les Miserables ranges far
andwide. It paints a vivid picture of Paris's seamierside,
discusses the causes and results of revolution,and includes
discourses on topics ranging from theBattle of Waterloo to Parisian
street slang. But thetwo central themes that dominate the novel are
themoral redemption of its main character, Jean Val-jean, an
ex-convict, and the moral redemption of anation through revolution.
Victor Hugo said: "Icondemn slavery, I banish poverty, I teach
igno-rance, I treat disease, I lighten the night, and I hatehatred.
That is what I am, and that is why I havewritten Les Miserables."
The novel is a criticalstatement against human suffering, poverty,
and ig-norance. Its purpose is as much political as it
isartistic.
As a novelist, poet, political activist, andpainter, Victor Hugo
was a central figure in the Ro-mantic movement of
nineteenth-century France.Both his family and his times influenced
Hugo's
Victor Huigo1862
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Victor Hugo
social views and politics, which included a deepconcern with
human rights, social injustice, andpoverty as the root of evil.
Born in Besan,on,France, in 1802, Hugo grew up in the years
ofNapoleon Bonaparte's empire. In 1815, the empirecollapsed at the
Battle of Waterloo, which Hugodescribes in detail in Les
Mise'rables, and a consti-tutional monarchy was established. His
father wasa general in the Napoleonic army with
republicansympathies while his middle-class mother had roy-alist
leanings. The young Hugo spent a large partof his childhood in
Paris with his mother. He alsotraveled through Europe in his
father's wake andglimpsed the Napoleonic campaigns. After
attend-ing school in Paris, he married his childhood love,Adele
Foucher, in 1822.
In that same year, Hugo published his first vol-ume of poetry,
beginning a long and diverse liter-ary career that also included
drama and novels. Hewas acquainted with many major figures on the
in-tellectual and artistic scene. His political convic-tions
changed over time as various French govern-ments rose and fell, but
his belief in human rightswas consistent. In a letter to a friend
describing whyhe wrote Les Mise'rables, Hugo said: "If the radi-cal
is the ideal, yes, I am a radical.... A societywhich admits
poverty, a religion which admits hell,a humanity which sanctions
war, seem to me an in-
ferior society, an inferior religion and humanity,and it is
towards the higher society, the higher hu-manity and religion that
I turn: society without aking, humanity without frontiers, religion
withouta book.... I condemn slavery, I banish poverty, Iteach
ignorance, I treat disease, I lighten the night,and I hate hatred.
That is what I am, and that iswhy I have written Les
Miserables."
The 1840s to the 1860s were an active time forthe writer. He was
elected to the AcademieFrancaise in 1841 and to the peerage in 1845
inrecognition of his literary achievements. The late1840s marked a
period of serious political in-volvement for Hugo. He spoke up in
the Chamberof Peers, criticizing the legal system and the
treat-ment of the poor, themes to which he returned inLes
Miserables. Disillusioned with monarchism, hepublicly espoused
republicanism and participatedin the revolution of 1848. These
experiences gavehim firsthand knowledge of what barricade fight-ing
was like, which he used in the novel. LouisNapoleon, the elected
president of the newly es-tablished republic, seized power in a
coup d'etat in1851. Hugo criticized the new ruler and ended upin
exile, first in Belgium, then later on the Isle ofGuernsey in the
English Channel, where he re-mained until 1870. It was during this
exile that hewrote most of Les Miserables.
Les Miserables was first published in 1862, ap-pearing
simultaneously in cities across Europe. Inspite of a mixed critical
reaction, the novel, withits championing of the poor and
disenfranchised,was an immediate popular success in France
andabroad. It sealed Hugo's reputation as a legend.
Upon his return to France in 1870, he receiveda hero's welcome.
He continued to write for therest of his life, but abstained from
politics. Afterhis death in 1885, Victor Hugo lay in state underthe
Arc de Triomphe and was buried in the Pan-theon, in the heart of
his beloved city, Paris.
Les Miserables is the story of four people,Bishop Myriel, Jean
Valjean, Fantine, and MariusPontmercy, who meet, part, then meet
again dur-ing the most agitated decades of
nineteenth-centuryFrance. It also tells the story of the 1832
revolu-tion and describes the unpleasant side of Paris. Thenovel is
in essence a plea for humane treatment ofthe poor and for equality
among all citizens.
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Part I-FantineThe year is 1815 and Napoleon has just been
defeated at Waterloo. Bishop Myriel lives a quietlife as a just
man, who is especially sympathetictoward the poor, bandits, and
convicts. One day astrange man asks for shelter at his home and,
withhis usual compassion, the bishop gives him roomand board. This
man is Jean Valjean, who has justbeen released from prison after
serving a lengthy,unjust sentence, during which he tried to escape
nu-merous times. Valjean is angry, hurt, and vengeful.His soul has
"withered" and all but died. The bishopurges him to replace anger
with goodwill in orderto be worthy of respect: "You have left a
place ofsuffering. But listen, there will be more joy inheaven over
the tears of a repentant sinner, thanover the white robes of a
hundred good men. If youare leaving that sorrowful place with hate
and angeragainst men, you are worthy of compassion; if youleave it
with goodwill, gentleness, and peace, youare better than any of
us."
Valjean listens. Nevertheless, he decides to robthe good bishop.
During the night, he runs awaywith the bishop's silver. He is
caught and broughtback to the bishop, who tells the police that he
him-self gave Valjean these precious objects. LaterBishop Myriel
tells Valjean, "you belong no longerto evil, but to good. It is
your soul I am buying foryou. I withdraw it from dark thoughts and
from thespirit of perdition and I give it to God!" Valjean
isstunned. After he steals a coin from a little boy, hehas an
epiphany: "he could see his life, and itseemed horrible; his soul,
and it seemed frightful.There was, however, a gentler light shining
on thatlife and soul."
Fantine is a seamstress unjustly fired once heremployer leams
about her scandalous past. Aban-doned by her lover, she is hungry,
destitute, andunable to care for her daughter, Cosette. First
shesells her hair, then her teeth, before finally prosti-tuting
herself. At this stage of the story, Fantine has"endured all, borne
all, experienced all, suffered all,lost all, wept for all. She is
resigned, with that res-ignation that resembles indifference as
death re-sembles sleep." She leaves two-year-old Cosette tothe care
of the Th6nardiers, who run a tavern in theoutskirts of Paris.
Cosette is poorly treated by thecouple and their two daughters. The
Thenardiersview Cosette as their domestic slave, all the
whiledemanding more and more money for Cosette'scare. Fantine must
continue selling her body to payfor Cosette's keep.
Valjean assumes a new identity as MonsieurMadeleine, and becomes
a good citizen, a rich in-dustrialist, and ultimately mayor.
Valjean savesFantine from the police (headed by InspectorJavert)
once he discovers she was fired from thevery factory under his
care. He wants to redeemher, but it is too late. Fantine is sick
and soon dies.
At the same time, Champmathieu is falsely ac-cused of being
Valjean by Inspector Javert, whoselifelong goal has been to find
the escaped convictValjean. Javert was a "formidable man"
whosemother was a fortune-teller and whose father wasin the
galleys. "His stare was cold and as piercingas a gimlet. His whole
life was contained in thesetwo words: waking and watching." After a
longnight of hesitation-to accuse Champmathieuwould save him from
Javert, to keep silent wouldsend an innocent man to death-Valjean
decides toconfess his true identity to save the wrongly ac-cused
man:
He declared that his life, in truth, did have an object.But what
object? to conceal his name? to deceive thepolice? was it for so
petty a thing that he had doneall that he had done? had he no other
object, whichwas the great one, which was the true one? To save,not
his body, but his soul. To become honest andgood again. To be an
upright man! was it not that,above all, that alone, which he had
always wished,and which the bishop had enjoined upon him!...
Todeliver himself up, to save this man stricken by soghastly a
mistake, to reassume his name, to becomeagain from duty the convict
Jean Valjean; that wasreally to achieve his resurrection, and to
close forever the hell from whence he had emerged! to fallinto it
in appearance, was to emerge in reality! hemust do that! all he had
done was nothing, if he didnot do that! all his life was useless,
all his sufferingwas lost. He had only to ask the question: "What
isthe use?"When the unyielding Javert arrests him, Val-
jean escapes, and a long hunt begins.
Part II-CosetteValjean does not run far. Fantine has told
him
about Cosette, so he goes to the Thenardiers' andsaves the
little girl from her terrible life. They set-tle in Paris, where
they constantly have to hide fromJavert's eye. They finally find
shelter in a convent,the Petit-Picpus, where they spend five happy
yearsof redemption: "Everything around him, this quietgarden, these
balmy flowers, these children, shout-ing with joy, these meek and
simple women, thissilent cloister, gradually entered into all his
being,and his soul subsided into silence.... His wholeheart melted
in gratitude and he loved more andmore."
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Part III-MariusMarius is a young student, and like many
other
young men of his generation, he is passionately in-terested in
Napoleon: "Napoleon had become tohim the people-man as Jesus was
the God-man."In Paris he meets a group a young radical students,the
Friends of the ABC, who are very much likehim and who convert him
to republicanism: "mymother is the republic." One day, he spots in
a parka young girl, walldng with her father. "She was amarvelous
beauty. The only remark which could bemade ... is that the
contradiction between her look,which was sad, and her smile, which
was joyous,gave to her countenance something a little wild."He sees
her again the next day, and the next, until,six months later, he
falls in love with her. It is thefifteen-year-old Cosette.
Part IV-Saint DenisCosette has noticed Marius and falls in
love
with him, but she does not want Valjean to knowabout it. One day
Marius writes to her and they se-cretly meet: "these two hearts
poured themselvesinto each other, so that at the end of an hour, it
wasthe young man who had the young girl's soul andthe young girl
who had the soul of the young man."Valjean suspects nothing until
he accidentally in-tercepts one of Marius's letters.
Part V-Jean ValjeanWorkers and republican students are on
the
barricades, opposing the police and the army of themonarchy.
Many of the revolutionaries are killedin the struggle. Valjean
discovers Marius andCosette's love, but still saves Marius's life
on thebarricades. He carries the wounded and uncon-scious young man
through the Paris sewers. He hasone last confrontation with Javert,
his old nemesis,who is at his mercy. He decides to let him go.Moved
by this gesture and appalled at himself,Javert kills himself:
"Terrible situation! to bemoved! To be granite, and to doubt! to be
ice andto melt! to feel your fingers suddenly open! to loseyour
hold, appalling thing!... The projectile manno longer knowing his
road, and recoiling!" Still,many died, including Gavroche, a little
Parisianboy whose courage inspired the fighters of the
bar-ricades.
Cosette restores Marius to health, and they de-cide to get
married. On the wedding day, Mariusmeets Valjean, who tells him who
he really is, aconvict still hunted by the police, and that
Cosettedoes not know anything about his unsavory past.However,
Valjean does not tell Marius that he
saved his life during the insurrections. Mariuswants to help him
win his pardon, but Valjean re-fuses: "I need pardon of none but
one, that is myconscience." Marius decides to stay silent, but heis
horrified by the revelations. Valjean stops visit-ing the young
couple. Soon, Marius learns that hewas saved by him and,
accompanied by Cosette,rushes to Valjean's home, but it is too
late: Valjeanis dying. Uttering his last words, Valjean
advisesthem, "There is scarcely anything else in the worldbut that:
to love one another." He is buried undera blank stone.
BahorelBahorel is a student and a member of the ABC
Society, a secret revolutionary group of studentsand workers.
But he has no respect for authorityand is a real troublemaker,
liking nothing betterthan a good fight.
Mademoiselle BaptistineThe unmarried sister of the Bishop of
Digne,
she lives with him and runs his household. She isa gentle,
respectable woman who does good works.
Bishop ofDigneSee Charles Myriel
BossuetA member of the ABC Society, Bossuet is a
law student. He is cheerful but unlucky; everythinghe undertakes
seems to go wrong.
CombeferreCombeferre is a member of the ABC Society,
a student, and a philosopher of revolution. He hasa scientific
mind and dreams of the inventions ofthe future and how they will
benefit the human race.
CosetteCosette is the illegitimate daughter of Fantine,
a Parisian "grisette" (working woman) whoselover, Felix
Tholomyes, abandons her when she ispregnant. Valjean rescues
Cosette from the Th6-nardiers, and she becomes the love of his life
andthe motivation for his goodness. She is raised andeducated in a
convent. When she and Valjean moveout into the real Paris, she
turns into a beautifulyoung Parisian woman and falls in love with
Mar-ius Pontmercy.
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,MediaAdaptations
* Recorded in 1988, Les Mise'rables is availablefrom Dove Books
on Tape in an abridged ver-sion read by Christopher Cazenove.
* Les Miserables was adapted for the stage as amusical by Alain
Boublil and Claude-MichelSchonberg, with the lyrics composed by
HerbertKretzmer. In 1995, the tenth anniversary con-cert in Royal
Albert Hall, London, was releasedas a movie by Columbia Tristar
Home Video.The musical is also available as a sound record-ing from
Geffen produced in 1987. This versionfeatures the original Broadway
cast.
* Les Mise'rables was made into a film in 1935,starring Fredric
March, Charles Laughton,Cedric Hardwicke, Rochelle Hudson, and
JohnBeal. Directed by Richard Boleslawski, thisadaptation is
detailed and faithful to the novel,except for a changed ending.
Considered a clas-sic, the film received Academy Award nomi-nations
for Best Cinematography and Best Pic-ture.
* There are many French film adaptations of thenovel. A version
released in 1957 stars JeanGabin, Daniele Delorme, Bernard
Blier,Bourvil, Gianni Esposito, and Serge Reggiani.Directed by
Jean-Paul LeChanois, the film is inFrench with English
subtitles.
* A version directed by Glenn Jordan was madefor television in
1978, starring Richard Jordan,Anthony Perkins, John Gielgud, Cyril
Cusack,Flora Robson, Celia Johnson, and ClaudeDauphin.
* An animated version of Les Miserables ap-peared in 1979,
produced by Toei AnimationCompany.
* A 1994 film version of the novel transferred itssetting to
early twentieth-century France. Di-rected, produced, and adapted by
ClaudeLelouch, the movie, starring Jean-Paul Bel-mondo, Michel
Boujenah, Alessandrea Mar-tines, and Annie Girador, received a
GoldenGlobe award for Best Foreign Film.
CourfeyracA member of the ABC Society, Courfeyrac be-
comes Marius's friend and takes him in.
EnjolrasEnjolras is a leader of the ABC Society. Mar-
ius first meets him there and ends up fighting withhim on the
barricade. The only son of rich parents,Enjolras is a student of
the Revolution and has "anature at once scholarly and warlike." He
is indif-ferent to women and pleasure, but passionate aboutjustice.
Enjolras defines what he is fighting for ina speech on the
barricade: "Citizens, no matterwhat happens today, in defeat no
less than in vic-tory, we shall be making a revolution. [...
Equal-ity] means, in civic terms, an equal outlet for alltalents;
in political terms, that all votes will carrythe same weight; and
in religious terms that all be-liefs will enjoy equal rights.
Equality has a means
at its disposal-compulsory free education. Theright to learn the
alphabet, that is where we muststart."
FantineFantine is a Parisian "grisette," or working
woman, who falls in love with a student, FelixTholomyes. Just
after Felix breaks off their rela-tionship, she gives birth to
their daughter, Cosette.From that point forward her life is a
downward spi-ral. She gives up her child to the mercenary
Th6-nardiers and finds a job in her home town, but isdismissed when
her supervisor finds out about herpast. She struggles to make ends
meet, sellingeverything she has: her hair, her teeth, and
herself(becoming a prostitute). Fantine represents soci-ety's
cruelty to the poor and its degradation of poorwomen in particular.
Only Valjean shows her anykindness.
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Still fiom the 1935 movie Les Miserables, starring Fredric March
as Jean Valjean.
Pere FaucheleventWhen Fauchelevent, an elderly carrier, gets
caught beneath the wheels of his own cart, Valjeanrescues him
and afterward finds work for him as agardener in a Paris convent.
In doing so, Valjeanrisks giving away his identity to Javert, who
is al-ready suspicious, by showing his great strength.But
Fauchelevent repays Valjean by taking him andCosette in when they
are on the run from the po-lice. Fauchelevent, an educated peasant,
is bothshrewd and good-willed. He recognizes his debtand finds the
means to repay it.
FeuillyA member of the ABC Society of revolution-
aries, Feuilly earns his living as a fan-maker and
isself-educated.Mademoiselle Gillenormand
Monsieur Gillenormand's eldest daughter is aprudish,
narrow-minded old woman who runs herfather's household.Monsieur
Gillenormand
Monsieur Gillenormand, Marius Pontmercy'sgrandfather and
caretaker, is a relic of the past. He
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had his heyday in the decadent Ancien Regime,
thepre-Revolutionary monarchy, in which the nobilitydominated
France. He still looks back to those dayswith nostalgia and regret.
Gillenormand believesthat in modem times people lack the gift of
livinglife to the fullest and enjoying all of its pleasures.He
raises Marius to believe that the Revolution"was a load of
scoundrels." When Marius discov-ers that his father was a
Revolutionary hero, itcauses a bitter break between them.
Thieodule GillenormandTheodule is Monsieur Gillenormand's
great-
nephew and a lieutenant in the army. He is a vainyoung man and a
favorite of his Aunt Gillenor-mand. He tries to become
Gillenormand's favoritewhen Marius is out of the picture, but he
can't re-place Marius in the old man's affections.
GrantaireAlthough Grantaire belongs to the ABC Soci-
ety, he is a cynic and a hedonist and does not be-lieve in the
ideals of revolution. But he does be-lieve in one ideal: Enjolras,
whom he regards withlove and admiration.
Inspector JavertInspector Javert is nearly as renowned a
char-
acter as Jean Valjean, perhaps due to the drama-tized versions
of Les Miserables, which havetended to present the novel as more of
a detectivestory than a morality tale. Javert serves as
Valjean'snemesis throughout the novel, continually threat-ening to
expose his past and bring him under thecontrol of the law. In his
exaggerated, nearly fa-natical devotion to duty and his lack of
compas-sion, Javert represents a punitive, vengeful form
ofjustice.
Hugo suggests that Javert's "respect for au-thority and hatred
of revolt" are rooted in his past,for he was born in a prison. As
if to compensatefor this fact, he has spent his life in faithful
serviceto law enforcement. When Valjean saves Javert byhelping him
escape from the revolutionaries,Javert's rigid system of behavior
is upset, for herealizes that Valjean, a criminal who has not
yetbeen officially punished, has performed an act ofgreat kindness
and courage. Javert previouslywould have overlooked such an act and
arrested thecriminal, but his realization proves more than hecan
bear. Unable to resolve his inner conflict, Javertdrowns himself in
the Seine River.
JolyA member of the ABC Society, Joly is study-
ing medicine. He is something of a hypochondriac.
Monsieur MabeufAn elderly churchwarden, Mabeuf befriends
Marius's father, Colonel Pontmercy, and Mariusbecomes friends
with Mabeuf after his father dies.He is a gentle man whose main
interests in life arehis garden and his books, but he becomes very
poorand has to sell all of his books. Impoverished andwithout hope
in life, Mabeufjoins the rebels, coura-geously climbs to the top of
the barricade to planta flag, and is shot by the militia. His age
and gen-tleness make his courage even more remarkable,showing that
revolution can come in any form.
Madame MagloireMadame Magloire is the personal maid of
Mademoiselle Baptistine and the Bishop ofDigne'
shousekeeper.
Charles MyrielMyriel is a kind and generous bishop who
gives Jean Valjean aid when everyone else refuseshim. Searching
for a place to spend the night, theex-convict finds that he is a
branded man and noinn will let him stay. His last resort is the
home ofthe bishop, who takes him in and treats him as anhonored
guest. After Valjean steals the Bishop'ssilver and is caught by the
police, the bishop pro-tects him by insisting that the silver was
actually agift. Afterward, he says to Valjean, "[You] nolonger
belong to what is evil but to what is good.I have bought your soul
to save it from blackthoughts and the spirit of perdition, and I
give it toGod." The bishop's selfless act inspires Valjean tochange
his life.
Colonel Georges PontmercyA hero of the Napoleonic wars,
Pontmercy
marries Gillenormand's youngest daughter and hasa son, Marius.
The villainous innkeeper, ThM-nardier, drags Pontmercy to safety
from the battle-field of Waterloo. Although Marius does not meethis
father, Pontmercy watches him from afar inchurch and loves his son.
He leaves Marius a notetelling him to adopt the title of Baron
(Napoleongave it to Pontmercy on the field of battle), and todo
Th6nardier every good in his power. Mariusworships his father as a
hero and is strongly influ-enced by his political beliefs.
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Marius PontmercyMarius is a young law student who falls in
love
with Cosette. He also saves Valjean from a plotagainst his life
by the innkeeper-turned-criminal,Thenardier. In turn, Marius is
saved by Valjeanwhile fighting on the barricade. He is the son
ofGeorges Pontmercy, a colonel and war hero underNapoleon. But
Marius's grandfather, MonsieurGillenormand, despises Georges and
takes Mariusinto his own home to raise him.
Marius is at a stage of life where he doesn'tknow yet what he
believes. His image of the worldkeeps opening up as he encounters
new points ofview. When Marius discovers his father's identity,he
worships him as a war hero and adopts a pro-Napoleon stance opposed
to his grandfather's roy-alism. He gets into a quarrel with
Gillenormand andstorms out of the house to make his way
throughParis as a starving student. Marius falls in with agroup of
students, the ABC Society led by Enjol-ras, who share his
republican beliefs. At first he isreluctant to give up his belief
that conquest and warare the greatest ideals of a nation. But he
begins tohave doubts when the students present him with anew ideal,
freedom: "Having so lately found a faith,must he renounce it? He
told himself that he neednot; he resolved not to doubt, and began
despitehimself to do so." When unrest stirs Paris in 1832and his
friends take up arms, he joins them on thebarricades. But it is
more out of desperation, be-cause he fears he has lost Cosette,
than out of po-litical conviction. He is lured there by the voice
ofthe street girl Eponine Thenardier telling him thathis friends
await him.
Jean ProuvaireProuvaire is a member of the ABC Society of
students and workers. A wealthy student, he is in-terested in
social questions, but is also a poet andlover with a romantic
side.
Eponine ThienardierThe poor daughter of the Thenardiers,
Eponine
falls in love with Marius and becomes jealous ofhis love for
Cosette. She is torn between wantingto help him and wanting to keep
him away fromCosette. She courageously saves his life on the
bar-ricade by stepping between him and a bullet, anddies in his
arms. Her life is an example of poverty'sdegradation: "What it came
to was that in the heartof our society, as at present constituted,
two un-happy mortals [Eponine and her sister] had beenturned by
extreme poverty into monsters at oncedepraved and innocent, drab
creatures without
name or age or sex, no longer capable of good orevil, deprived
of all freedom, virtue, and responsi-bility; souls born yesterday
and shrivelled todaylike flowers dropped in the street which lie
fadingin the mud until a cartwheel comes to crush them."
Gavroche The'nardierGavroche is a Parisian urchin (street
child), the
son of the villainous Thenardiers. Lively andclever, he lives by
his wits. He dies by them as welland proves his courage, getting
shot by soldierswhen he teases them on the barricade. His fate
isinterwoven with that of Marius, Cosette, and theThenardiers. The
novel presents him as an essen-tial representative of Paris: "He
had neither hearthnor home, nor any regular source of food; yet
hewas happy because he was free. By the time thepoor have grown to
man's estate they have nearlyalways been caught in the wheels of
the social or-der and become shaped to its requirements; butwhile
they are children their smallness saves them."
Madame ThenardierThe coarse wife of the innkeeper
Thenardier,
she takes in Fantine's daughter, Cosette. But shetreats her like
a Cinderella, feeding and clothingher poorly and making her do the
worst work inthe household. She helps hatch a plot to entrap
Val-jean and steal his fortune, but instead ends up inprison. The
narrator states that she is naturally crueland scheming and offers
her as an example of thosewho commit crimes not because they are
driven toit, but because it suits them.
Monsieur ThenardierThe unscrupulous innkeeper and his wife
take
care of Cosette, but treat her poorly. He embarkson a life of
crime, getting involved with the worstcriminals in Paris, and
attempts to entrap and robValjean. Although he ends up in prison,
he escapes.He helps Valjean escape from the sewers when Val-jean is
trapped there with Marius. Th6nardier playsa central part in the
plot. He does good in spite ofhis evil intentions, not knowing what
the conse-quences of his own actions will be.
Felix TholomyesA wealthy, rakish student, Tholomyes is Fan-
tine's lover for a while and then abandons her.Their affair
ruins Fantine. She becomes pregnantand cannot earn enough to save
herself and herchild. The narrator says of the relationship:
"Forhim it was a passing affair, for her the love of herlife."
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Jean VaijeanThe chief protagonist, Jean Valjean, is an ex-
convict who struggles to redeem himself morallyand to find
acceptance in a society that rejects himas a former criminal.
Valjean's redemption throughhis many trials is the central plot
ofLes Miserables.
The child of a poor peasant family, he losesboth his parents as
a young child and moves in withan older sister. When her husband
dies, Valjeansupports her and her seven children by working asa
tree pruner. Unable to feed the family on his earn-ings, he steals
a loaf of bread from a baker and endsup serving nineteen years in
prison for his crime.Finally free, he finds that he cannot find
lodging,work, or acceptance in the outside world. As an ex-convict
he is at the bottom of the social order.
But Valjean has a transforming experiencewhen he meets the
Bishop of Digne, who acceptsand shelters him regardless of his
past, even afterValjean tries to steal from his household. Here
Val-jean learns the lesson of unconditional love, a rea-son for
living that sustains him through all of histrials. And they are
many. He lives on the run fromtwo forces: the justice of the law,
represented byJavert, a police detective who doggedly pursueshim,
and his own conscience, which leads him tomake difficult choices
between what is right andwhat is easiest.
Valjean starts a new life as the mayor of Mon-treuil sur Mer. He
is the savior of this manufactur-ing town, rebuilding its
industries and economy andsustaining the population with new jobs.
But helives on the run from his dogged pursuer, Javert,and in his
first moral trial he has to give himselfup to keep an innocent man
from going to prisonin his place. He escapes again and lives the
rest ofhis life as a fugitive.
The harshness of the society in which he livespresents great
obstacles to Valjean's moral re-demption. Only the transforming
power of love letshim overcome them. He loves a young girl,
Cosette,daughter of the prostitute Fantine, and raises her ashis
daughter. Most of his good acts center on herwelfare: saving the
life of her lover, Marius; pro-tecting her, whatever the cost to
himself; even giv-ing up Cosette after she marries, so that she
willnot be sullied by connection to an ex-convict. Hislove for her
teaches him how to act in the world atlarge. In all of his actions
he strives to be honor-able and generous.
Change and TransformationThe most important theme the novel
examines
is that of transformation, in the individual and insociety. Jean
Valjean, the chief protagonist, istransformed from a misanthropic
and potentially vi-olent ex-convict to a man capable of heroic
loveand self-sacrifice. The force that transforms him islove. The
Bishop of Digne offers Valjean uncon-ditional love, trusting the
former criminal with hislife and giving him all that he can.
Valjean findsinspiration for an entirely new life from this
ex-ample. He learns to put another person first whenhe raises
Cosette as his own daughter, and he en-dures moral trials, such as
risking his life to rescueMarius, who loves Cosette and whom
Valjeanhates. On a broader scale, the workers and studentson the
barricade fight for social transformation, tocreate a new France
without injustice and poverty.Human Rights
Closely related to the theme of transformationis that of human
rights. This is what the barricadeis about and what the students,
workers, and down-trodden poor of Paris want. The novel offers
manyexamples of the violation of human rights. Valjeansteals a loaf
of bread because he has hungry chil-dren to feed. The law punishes
him for nineteenyears because of this petty crime, and Valjean
findslittle peace at the end of his term. The police in-spector
Javert pursues him almost to the grave forthe theft of a coin.
Fantine loves a man who aban-dons her, and she ends up as a
prostitute. She sac-rifices her child, her looks, and her body just
to sur-vive. Even worse, when she does defend her humandignity and
accuses a bourgeois gentleman of as-sault, the police arrest her.
As the novel presentsit, the aim of revolution is to create a
society inwhich all individuals have equal rights and in
whichpoverty itself is undesirable.
Class ConflictThe central struggle is also a class conflict:
revolution mobilizes the have-nots against thehaves. The working
class of Paris is presented asan ominous force, ready to throw up a
barricade ata moment's notice. The barricade is where the
life-and-death struggle of the disenfranchised and thegovernment
takes place. The students and workersjoin and fight to create a new
and better nation,even at the cost of their lives. Enjolras, their
leader,puts it eloquently when he says: " [This] is the hardprice
that must be paid for the future. A revolution
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Topics forFutrther
Studvy* Investigate current prison conditions in the
United States and compare today's prison ex-perience to
Valjean's as described in the novel.
* Consider the ethical issues surrounding impris-onment that the
novel raises in book two, chap-ter seven ("The inwardness of
despair"). DoesHugo see prison as an effective means of pun-ishing
criminals? Does prison reform criminals,according to Hugo, or does
it make them moreviolent? How does the author suggest
prisonersshould be treated? Use examples from the bookto support
your answers.
* Investigate the economic, legal, and social def-inition of
poverty in the United States today andcompare it to the conditions
of poverty in Parisas described in the novel.
is a toll-gate. But mankind will be liberated, up-lifted and
consoled. We here affirm it, on this bar-ricade."
Justice and InjusticeAnother major question the novel considers
is
whether the legal institutions of the state exact truejustice.
While he is in prison, the convict Jean Val-jean considers the
question of whether he has beentreated fairly. Readers must wonder
if his crime,stealing a loaf of bread to feed his family,
reallymerits the punishment he receives: four years ofimprisonment
that stretch to nineteen when he triesto escape. Valjean asks
himself "whether humansociety had the right to ... grind a poor man
be-tween the millstones of need and excess-need ofwork and excess
of punishment. Was it not mon-strous that society should treat in
this fashion pre-cisely those least favored in the distribution
ofwealth...?" He comes to the conclusion that, al-though he did
commit a reprehensible crime, thepunishment is out of proportion,
and he developsan intense hatred for society as a whole.
Fantinemeets the same fate when she defends herselfagainst attack.
As a prostitute, she is on the bottomrung of society; the law
offers her no protection.
Only respectable people with money appear to haveany legal
rights.
Meaning of LifeValjean's great discovery, the one that
trans-
forms him, is that the meaning of life lies in love.His love is
twofold, both the generalized love forone's fellow creatures that
the Bishop of Digneshows toward him and the specific love for
anotherperson that he feels for Cosette. Summing up thisphilosophy
at the end of his life, Valjean says toCosette and Marius, "Love
one another always.There is nothing else that matters in this world
ex-cept love."
StructureIn some ways the novel is structured tradi-
tionally. It has a rising action, that is, the part ofthe
narrative that sets up the problems that are tobe resolved. This
consists of Valjean's life up tothe point when he saves his enemy
Marius by car-rying him through the sewers of Paris to safety.
Theclimax, or turning point, when the conflict reachesits peak, is
the suicide of the police detective Javert.Caught between his rigid
belief in the absolutepower of law and his conclusion that he has a
moralobligation to break the law and free his savior, Val-jean,
Javert solves his dilemma by killing himself.The denouement, or
winding-down of the story,which describes the outcome of the
primary plotproblem as well as resolving secondary plots, in-cludes
Marius's recovery, the marriage of Cosetteand Marius, the
revelation of Valjean's true story,and the young couple's visit to
Valjean's deathbed.
But the narrative's many departures from themain plot are
important to the novel as well. Thenovel includes separate sections
on the sewers ofParis, the criminal underworld, the
convent,Parisian street slang, the Battle of Waterloo,
revo-lutionary societies, and the barricades. Hugo istelling more
than the story of one man; he is tellingthe story of Paris. His
digressions, although theydo not forward plot development, give the
readerinformation about the novel's themes, such as hu-man rights,
justice and injustice, class conflict, andthe city. He is primarily
concerned not so muchwith narrating a story but with critiquing
societyand presenting his notions of reform.
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Point of ViewThe story is told from a third-person omni-
scient point of view. Omniscient narrators have agod's-eye or
all-knowing view, knowing more thantheir characters do. The
narrator breaks in severaltimes to equate himself with the author.
For ex-ample, at the beginning of the Waterloo episode,the narrator
says: "On a fine May morning last year(that is to say, in the year
1861) a traveller, the au-thor of this tale, walked from Nivelles
in the di-rection of La Hulpe." And in describing Paris, hestates:
"For some years past the author of this book,who regrets the
necessity to speak of himself, hasbeen absent from Paris." Although
generally thereis a distinction between the author and the
narratorof a work, this device blurs the boundary. The novelis a
vehicle of expression for the author's socialviews. Whenever the
narrator is not describing theactions, thoughts, and speech of the
characters, thevoice of authority emerges. This includes the
dis-cussion of Parisian street urchins, the sewers, theunderworld,
and the barricades. The narrator pullsback from the characters to
look at the broader sce-nario. Here is a typical example of this
device, de-scribing the barricade: "And while a battle that
wasstill political was preparing in that place that hadwitnessed so
many revolutionary acts; while theyoung people, the secret
societies, and the schools,inspired by principle, and the
middle-class inspiredby self-interest, were advancing on each other
toclash and grapple ... there was to be heard the som-bre growling
of the masses: a fearful and awe-in-spiring voice in which were
mingled the snarl ofanimals and the words of God, a terror to the
faint-hearted and a warning to the wise, coming at oncefrom the
depths, like the roaring of a lion, and fromthe depths like the
voice of thunder."
SettingThe setting for most of the novel is Paris
around 1830, a character in its own right. The nar-rative
devotes almost as much space to it as to theprotagonist, Valjean.
It is a dark, gloomy, and sin-ister place, full of plague-carrying
winds and pol-luting sewers, rotting old districts and slums. Its
se-cretive aspect is a blessing, though, for Valjean,who seeks
refuge in dark corners. The narrow al-leys lend themselves, too, to
the building of barri-cades. The narrative also presents Paris as a
mi-crocosm, reflecting the world as a whole: "Parisstands for the
world. Paris is a sum total, the ceil-ing of the human race.... To
observe Paris is to re-view the whole course of history...." Paris
also hasits places of beauty and tranquillity, such as the
Luxembourg Garden on a fair day, but even herediscontent lurks,
in the form of two hungry boyswandering in search of food.
The novel presents Paris in all its wretched-ness and grandeur.
The urban environment haspower over those who live in it. Some
characters,such as Thenardier, an innkeeper who gets involvedwith
the worst criminal elements of the city, arecorrupted by Paris's
temptations and hardships.Others, like Gavroche, the street urchin
who is Th-nardier's son, demonstrate courage and compassionin spite
of their circumstances. For Valjean, Parisis both a refuge and a
testing-ground. Hugo rangesover many aspects of the city in his
portrayal of it,from the convents to the argot, or slang, spoken
onthe streets, from the heart of the city to its half-tamed
outskirts, from rooftops to sewers. The sewersystem of Paris
symbolizes the dark underside ofthe city, where its secret history
is stored: "thatdreadful place which bears the impress of the
rev-olution of the earth and of men, in which the re-mains of every
cataclysm is to be found, from theFlood to the death of Marat."
(Marat was a leaderof the French Revolution who was
assassinated.)Most of all, the citizens of Paris make up its
char-acter. The novel presents a sprawling picture of thepeople:
criminals, orphans, students, the middleclass, and others.
SymbolismThe novel employs symbolism, the use of one
object to represent another, on a grand scale. Parisrepresents
the world as a whole. Gavroche sym-bolizes the heroism of the
average individual. Thecity sewers represent the seamy underside of
Paris,filled with scraps of history, both good and evil,that have
been discarded and forgotten, but not de-stroyed. The sewers also
represent Valjean's pas-sage through hell to redemption. He carries
Mar-ius to safety on his back through their passageslike a martyr
bearing a cross. A pair of silver can-dlesticks, stolen from the
Bishop, serves for Val-jean as a symbolic reminder of where he has
comefrom and how he should act. Such leitmotivs, orrecurring
themes, woven through the text adddepth and meaning.
RomanticismRomanticism was an artistic and intellectual
movement of the late eighteenth and early nine-teenth century
that put the individual mind at thecenter of the world and of art.
Romanticism val-ued emotional and imaginative responses to
real-ity, the individual's interior experience of the
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"Conquerors of the Bastille," an engraving by Francois Flamena
illustrating the French Revolution of1789.
world, which it perceived as being closer to truth.It evolved
partly as a reaction to the Enlighten-ment's emphasis on restraint,
simplicity, logic, andrespect for tradition. Les Miserables is a
charac-teristic Romantic work in both theme and form. Intheme, the
novel assaults the traditional socialstructure, glorifies freedom
of thought and spirit,and makes a hero of the average individual,
suchas Gavroche the street urchin, who dies withcourage on the
barricade. In form, the novel val-ues content over structure,
offers passionaterhetoric rather than classical restraint, and
rangesfreely over many subjects.
5:1 81*ffiff6M
RomanticismRomanticism was an intellectual and artistic
movement that swept Europe and the United Statesin the
late-eighteenth to mid-nineteenth centuries.This movement was
preceded by the Enlighten-ment, which emphasized reason as the
basis of so-cial life. The Enlightenment also promoted univer-sal,
formal standards, dating back to Greek andRoman classicism, for
greatness in art. The artists,philosophers, writers, and composers
of the Ro-
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Compare&
C'ontrast* 1830s: Under public pressure, French legislators
reformed prisons to some extent. They abolishedsome of the more
barbaric forms of punishmentthat were practiced under the Ancien
Re'gime,such as torture and hanging, and offered educa-tion for
petty offenders.1850s: As a result of unemployment caused
byindustrialization, crime rates rose in France andthe prison
population increased. Inmates werenot allowed to speak to each
other. Riots andsuicides took place in prisons.Today: Due in part
to poor economic conditionsin France, prison populations are on the
riseagain, with an increase in the number of con-victs serving time
for drug-related crimes. Witha prison population that is steadily
increasing,overcrowding is a problem, and many inmatesfind
themselves sharing a cell with as many asfive other prisoners.
* 1830s: France was beginning to become an in-dustrialized
nation, a process that would trans-form its economy, workplace,
working class,and political landscape.1850s: Increasing
industrialization broughtwealth to France as well as increased
unem-ployment. Lack ofwork drove thousands ofpoorwomen to
prostitution and many of the urbanpoor to crime.Today: After rapid
consolidation of industriesin the 1970s, many French manufacturing
jobs
mantic movement rejected these standards and in-stead valued the
individual imagination and expe-rience as the basis of art and
source of truth. Na-ture, the state of childhood, and emotion,
ratherthan logic or scientific investigation, were consid-ered the
primary sources of eternal truth.
Victor Hugo was one of the leading writers ofthe Romantic
movement in France, and Les Mis-e'rables was one of its major
works. The novel isRomantic in style and theme. It is written in
a
were eliminated, resulting in high levels of un-employment.
Currently, many young peoplehave difficulty finding permanent work.
How-ever, recent changes in the French school sys-tem have expanded
educational opportunitiesfor students, in an effort by the
government tocreate an employable workforce.1830s: Antigovernment
protesters set up barri-cades in Paris after Charles X published
threeordinances calling to abolish freedom of thepress, dissolve
Parliament, and limit votingrights to 25,000 landed proprietors.
The 1830revolution successfully removed Charles fromthe throne;
succeeding him was Louis Phillippe.1850s: A bloody protest occurred
in Paris in1848, removing Louis Phillippe from power andcreating a
provisional government that extendedthe right to vote and set up
national workshopsto combat unemployment. After another
violentclash, this government was in turn replaced bythe Second
Republic, with an assembly domi-nated by the middle class.Today:
After violent student protests and na-tion-wide strikes in May of
1968, new Frenchleaders shifted toward a more liberal form
ofgovernment, trying to balance a market econ-omy while preserving
social-democratic princi-ples. Today, France is joining with other
Euro-pean nations to create the European Union, acommunity which
will share a common cur-rency and create a formidable trading
bloc.
sweeping, emotional manner, taking the experienceof the
individual as the starting-point for discover-ing truths about
French society.
RevolutionFrance in the nineteenth century was in a con-
stant state of political and social unrest. In 1789,the newly
formed National Assembly created adocument called the "Declaration
of the Rights ofMan," establishing the right to liberty,
equality,
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property, and security, and adding that every citi-zen had a
duty to defend these rights. After KingLouis XVI was executed on
January 21, 1793, aperiod of confusion and violence followed.
Manypeople, the innocent along with the guilty, were ex-ecuted in
the aftermath of the Revolution.
With the bloody departure of the monarchy,the legislature
appointed a five-man Directory topower in 1795. But conspirators,
includingNapoleon Bonaparte, staged a coup d'etat, or sur-prise
overthrow of the state, in 1799. Napoleon be-came dictator and
remained in power until he wascompletely defeated at the Battle of
Waterloo in1815. This is when Hugo's novel Les
Mis6rablesbegins.
From 1815 until 1830, France was ruled byLouis XVIH and then
Charles X under the SecondRestoration. During this time the French
used aconstitutional monarchy where the king governedalongside an
elected parliament. This was a com-paratively tranquil and
prosperous period, but itended in the Revolution of 1830, when
Charles Xpublished ordinances dissolving Parliament, limit-ing
voting rights to land owners, and abolishingfreedom of the press.
Charles was forced from thethrone and replaced by Louis Philippe,
the "citizenking," who had fought in the French Revolution.This was
a triumph for the middle class, but it leftthe working-class and
poor out in the cold.
The insurrection of 1832, the first Republicanuprising since
1789, started to stir at the burial ofLamarque, a Revolutionary
hero. Republicansshouted, "Down with Louis Philippe!" The
barri-cades went up, and a violent clash ensued. Theforces on the
barricades, composed mainly of stu-dents and workers, lacked public
support, and therebellion was put down by government forces.
In 1848, a new wave ofrevolution swept acrossEurope, triggered
by the political unrest of bour-geois liberals and nationalists,
crop failures severalyears in a row, and economic troubles. In
France,Louis Philippe was driven from his throne. After abloody
struggle between the working-class and themiddle-class provisional
government in Paris, theSecond Republic was established, with a
mainlymiddle-class national assembly and LouisNapoleon, who was
related to Napoleon I, as pres-ident.
Hugo was sympathetic to the 1848 revolution,became a
representative in the assembly, and ini-tially supported Louis
Napoleon. However, in 1851the president assumed control of France
in a mili-tary coup d'etat, and in 1852 the population voted
to disband the republic and reestablish the empire.Hugo was
disillusioned with both the French peo-ple who were willing to
exchange freedom for sta-bility and with Napoleon mI, who had
traded in hisrepublican opinions to become a dictator. Criticiz-ing
the government and Louis Napoleon publicly,Hugo was forced to leave
France, first for Belgiumand then for the Channel Islands. Les
Mise'rables,which Hugo composed from the late 1840s to 1862during
his exile, integrated his feelings about thepolitical situation,
his memories of the barricadesof 1848, and his republican ideals.
The novel de-nounces the degradation of the urban working-classand
society's mistreatment and neglect of the poor,especially women and
children.
IndustrializationThe continuing industrialization of France
in
the 1850s and 1860s created wealth for the coun-try, but it also
created unemployment as machinesreplaced manual laborers in many
jobs. This in turnled to an increase in crime. Poor working
womenturned to prostitution as a means of survival, work-ing under
the scrutiny of a Police Morals Bureau,which considered them
corrupt. The character ofJean Valjean was drawn from a historical
person,a petty thief named Pierre Maurin who spent fiveyears in
prison for stealing bread for his sister'schildren. Hugo draws a
clear distinction in thenovel between those who choose crime
becausethey are corrupt and those who are driven to it bypoverty
and desperation. On the one hand, there isTh6nardier, who is by
nature "highly susceptible tothe encroachments of evil." On the
other, there isValjean, who stole only to save his family, and
Fan-tine, who suffered for protecting herown child. Thenarrator
blames society's indifference and injusticefor the situation of
those who fall into the latter cat-egory.
Publishers bid against each other for the rightto publish Les
Miserables, no doubt sensing thatthe novel would be a great
success. It had beenawaited for years. The author's exile to
Guernseyonly increased his international reputation and thesuspense
of waiting for his next major work. Hugoreceived an unheard-of
300,000 francs as advancepayment for the novel. But the publishers
regainedtheir investment and more when the book cameout.
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Les Mise'rables appeared in 1862, published byLaCroix of
Brussels and Paris. It appeared simul-taneously in Paris, London,
Brussels, New York,Berlin, St. Petersburg, and other European
capitals.Published initially in five parts, divided into
tenvolumes, the novel was released in three separateinstallments in
April, May, and June. Hugo's fam-ily and friends gave it a huge
buildup in the press,advertising its release for a month in advance
in allthe major papers of Europe. Rumors that it mightbe banned in
France built up the suspense evenmore. The book-buying public gave
it an enthusi-astic reception. Booksellers in Paris lined up to
buythe second installment in such great numbers thatpolice were
needed to manage the crowd. It was anenormous success for its
publishers and its author.Adele Hugo, the author's wife, wrote that
groupsof workers shared the cost of the ten volumes inorder to pass
it from hand to hand and read it. Thecritic Saint-Beuve commented
that Hugo "hadsnatched the greatest popularity of our time underthe
nose of the very government that exiled him.His books go
everywhere: the women, the commonpeople, all read him. Editions go
out of print be-tween eight in the morning and noon."
The book's critical reception, on the otherhand, was mixed. Some
of his contemporaries per-ceived Hugo's style as long-winded,
digressive,melodramatic, and full of unlikely coincidences.Others
found his sweeping, passionate prose, cham-pioning of social
issues, and ideals of justice andmorality inspirational.
On the negative side, many critics disliked thenovel's
digressions from the main plot, especiallythe long account of
Waterloo. Adolphe Thiers, ahistorian, expressed the strong opinion
that thenovel was "detestable. The spirit is bad, the planis bad,
and the execution is bad." The writer Bar-bey D'Aurevilly found the
novel vulgar and full ofimprobabilities, and criticized it for its
socialistviews. Hippolyte Taine, a critic and historian,thought the
novel was insincere and its success wasa flash in the pan.
On the positive side, the poet Charles Baude-laire offered
praise for the work's poetic and sym-bolic qualities. The English
novelist GeorgeMeredith, though he thought it was drawn in
over-simplified terms, called it "the masterwork offiction of this
century-as yet. There are things init quite wonderful." The great
Russian novelistFyodor Dostoevsky considered Les Mise'rables
su-perior to his own Crime and Punishment, and sawHugo as a
champion of the idea of spiritual rebirth.
Walter Pater was of the opinion that Hugo's workswere among the
finest products of the Romanticmovement.
In the first half of the twentieth century,Hugo's reputation as
a novelist waned. This was inpart because of changes in the tastes
of writers andreaders. First the Realist, then the Modernist
writ-ers swept through the literary scene, and it is
char-acteristic of such movements that they debunk whathas come
before in an effort to break new ground.Les Miserables in
particular achieved its blindingsuccess partly'because of the
moment in time whenit was released. It was the long-awaited work of
anational hero returning from exile, but that histor-ical moment
passed, along with Hugo's great in-fluence over national
opinion.
But many writers, including Andr6 Gide andJean-Paul Sartre,
acknowledged his lasting influ-ence. Hugo's works are still widely
read today, andhe has modem defenders. The literary critic
VictorBrombert, for example, comments: "The dramaticand
psychological power ofHugo's novels dependsin large part on the
creation of archetypal figures....The sweep of his texts and the
moving, even haunt-ing images they project are a function of the
widestrange of rhetorical virtuosity." Les Miserables haspassed
into modem legend in its well-known andpopular adaptations for film
and the stage, and it isarguably the most important Romantic novel
of thenineteenth century.
Anne-Sophie CerisolaIn the following essay, Cerisola, a
former
teacher at the Lycee Francais de New York and acurrent
instructor at New York University, outlinessome of the biographical
background that led toHugo's great work; Cerisola also discusses
the au-thor's ambition of creating not only a great story,but also
a novel that would be an epic of its time,thus explaining the
story's complicated narrativeapproach.
Victor Hugo took seventeen years to write LesMiserables, his
vast fresco of individual and col-lective destinies, which was
published in 1862when he was sixty years old. The novel is the
par-allel story of the redemption of Jean Valjean andFrance-and to
a larger extent, the story of hu-manity's political and social
progress. Above all,
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WhatDo I Read
Next?* Victor Hugo's other major works include the
novel The Hunchback ofNotre Dame, publishedin 1831, and the
poetry collection Contempla-tions, released in 1856, which he wrote
at aboutthe same time as Les Mise'rables. Some criticsconsider the
latter, written after the drowningdeath of his daughter, his best
poetry.
* Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment,first published in
1866, tells the story of Raskol-nikov, a man who commits a brutal
murder andthen can escape neither his own conscience northe
detective who pursues him.
* Published in 1940, Native Son, a novel by RichardWright, is
the story of Bigger Thomas, a poorblack boy raised in the Chicago
slums. Wrightdescribes how Bigger's fear of white society, andits
fear of him, turns him into a criminal.
* In the Belly of the Beast is an insider's accountof prison
life written by the controversial Jack
Henry Abbott, a convict. Abbott was releasedafter he published
the book in 1991, at the urg-ing of a group of writers including
NormanMailer. Shortly thereafter, he killed a man in abar brawl and
was sentenced to life imprison-ment.
Marie Henri Beyle Stendhal offers a detailed ac-count of the
Battle of Waterloo in The Charter-house of Parma, published in
1839. The maintheme of this novel is the struggle of the
indi-vidual against a conformist society.Charles Baudelaire's 1857
The Flowers of Evilis a collection of poems centered on life in
PaniOne of the major poetry collections of the cen-tury, it bridged
the Romantic and Modernistmovements. Six of the poems that were
consid-ered too erotic and decadent were banned inFrance until
1949. Baudelaire was Hugo's con-temporary and often reviewed his
work.
Hugo intended Les Miserables to be a novel aboutthe people, and
for the people, and he largely suc-ceeded.
When Les Miserables was published, it ap-peared simultaneously
in Paris, London, Budapest,Brussels, Leipzig, Madrid, Milan, and
Naples, andwas translated into many other languages. Thenovel's
phenomenal success has continued eversince, and understandably so:
it is a gripping storywell told. As the critic Kathryn Grossman put
it, "aplot as full of twists and turns as the
treacherouslabyrinths-sewers, conscience, streets-Hugo de-scribes."
Grossman also reminds us, "in France,Hugo's supporters had prepared
the event with amassive publicity campaign. [The book]
appearedfirst in serial form on April 3, 1862. Yet the mag-nitude
of the public's response surprised even themost committed Hugo
partisans. According to re-ports at the time, no one had ever seen
a book de-voured with such fury: public reading rooms rentedit by
the hour. By April 6, the book was sold outin Paris."
The novel's power derived from its simplemessage. Man was not
inherently evil, he was madeso by an unjust society. In the preface
to the novel,Hugo wrote emphatically: "So long as the threeproblems
of the age-the degradation of man bypoverty, the ruin of woman by
starvation, and thedwarfing of childhood by physical and
spiritualnight-are not yet solved ... books like this can-not be
useless." Jean Valjean was the perfect il-lustration of this
principle. Valjean was not by na-ture a criminal. The motive which
led him to stealbread, the origin of his fall, was not evil. He
wasseeking to provide food for hungry children, his sis-ter's
offspring, only out of desperation. But hisyears of prison hardened
him. "He had for his mo-tives," says Hugo, "habitual indignation,
bitternessof soul, the profound feeling of iniquities endured,and
reaction even against the good, the innocent,and the just, if such
exist." The story of his con-version is exemplary. As Monsieur
Madeleine ofMontreuil-sur-mer, he is the good industrialist,
theadmirably just and efficient mayor, the caring phil-
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anthropist. Forced back into his true identity by therevelation
of the imminent exile to the galeys ofthe innocent Champmathieu,
who has been identi-fied as Jean Valjean, he reluctantly fights
againwith his demons. From this ordeal, minutely ana-lyzed in the
chapter "A Tempest in a Brain," heemerges triumphant, saves
Champmathieu in timeand goes again to the galleys. After his
escape, hislife is a long record of care and self-sacrifice
toCosette, his adopted daughter. He triumphs evenwhen faced with
Marius's love for Cosette, and isable not only to dominate his
jealousy but to savethe life of Marius (the famous episode of the
sew-ers) and make possible Marius's marriage withCosette.
Moreover, Hugo draws constant analogies be-tween Valjean's
spiritual progress and humanity'sstriving toward freedom and social
justice. Thefight for justice and freedom is led by Marius'sgroup
of radical friends, the "Friends of the Un-derdog," and in
particular Enjolras, whose speechon the barricades echoed most of
Hugo's ideas:
"the nineteenth century is grand, but the twentiethcentury will
be happy. Men will no longer have tofear, as now, a conquest, an
invasion, a usurpation,a rivalry of nations with the arned hand ...
they willno longer have to fear famine, speculation, prostitu-tion
from distress, misery from lack of work, and thescaffold, and the
sword, and the battle, and all thebrigandages of chance in the
forest of events.... Menwill be happy.... Oh! the human race shall
be deliv-ered, uplifted, and consoled! We affirm it on this
bar-ricade."
However, the young radicals die on the barri-cades and, as one
critic noted, Hugo sometimesseems pessimistic about the outcome of
the fight:"The dismal, lurid, grotesque imagery with whichHugo
consistently depicts les mis6rables driveshome a powerful point.
Despite all the talk aboutprogress, nothing has changed for a large
swath ofhumanity. Conditions may have improved for someindividuals
and their offspring. But each new gen-eration of the poor and
uneducated faced the samephysical, psychic, and moral
disintegration."
Because he wrote Les Mis6rables late in hislife, Hugo also
wanted to leave a personal testi-mony on his own political fights.
One of the cen-tral characters in the novel, Marius, passes
throughan intellectual evolution closely similar to the au-thor's:
at first strongly royalist, then Bonapartist,later Republican. He
fights for his convictions onthe barricades. Hugo was born in 1802
to a royal-ist mother and a republican father who was one
ofNapoleon's generals. By the time he was a year old
his parents were not living together anymore. Hugosought
fulfillment in and through art, as he was of-ten left by himself.
As one of his biographers noted,"Hugo was terribly precocious. He
began writingcomplete plays, echoing his fondness for populardrama,
at the age of fourteen; he devoured WalterScott's historical novels
as soon as each translationrolled off the press; and he penned his
first workof fiction-whose black rebel hero foreshadowedJean
Valjean-when he was sixteen; finally, hecomposed poetry that gave
him national recogni-tion, including a royal pension, before he
hadturned eighteen."
At first aesthetically and politically conserva-tive, within
years he backed the new school of in-novators-Lamartine, Musset,
Nodier, Vigny-who were labeled romantics. In 1830 his first
play,Hernani, broke completely with dramatic conven-tions. Hugo
became the leader of this group of writ-ers, most of them democrats
in a regime that killedcivil liberties. However, only the 1848
Revolu-tion-the model for the insurrection described inthe
novel-spawned a republic, which Hugo sup-ported vigorously. He was
even elected to the Par-liament, on the left. The Republic did not
last long.Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, whom Hugo had firstsupported,
overthrew the young republic threeyears later in 1852 and became
emperor. Hugo,who never hid his own republicanism, had to
fleeabroad to avoid arrest. It was from exile that hewrote Les
Miserables.
Since his earlier work, Hugo believed in theimportance of the
illusion of reality, what he calledverisimilitude. Very often in
the novel, Hugo pre-tends that he is copying from notes left by
Myrielor Valjean. He quotes pseudo-newspaper articlesand letters
that came into his possession, everythingsuggesting authenticity.
Indeed, he always workeda great deal on sources, and at least two
charactersof the novel, Bishop Myriel and Valjean, were in-spired
by real people whose stories Hugo had read.Finally, Hugo was
careful to have each characterspeak according to the language of
his or her so-cial class; so much so that when the novel cameout he
was accused by some critics of being "low."For example, Gavroche,
the street urchin, alwaysspeaks slang, including his words to the
two littleorphans he has just met and for whom he buys
somebread.
Finally, like The Hunchback of Notre-Dame,Hugo's earlier
historical novel, Les Mise'rablesmultiplies the digressions-on
Waterloo, on slang,on the sewers-in an effort to give the
historical
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background of the story. According to one critic,"stripped of
all its digression, Les Miserableswould still be an interesting
book, containing anessentially great lesson, but it would be much
lessa book extraordinarily representative of the nine-teenth
century. In its final form it gives us not onlythe lesson of
Valjean, but it gives us some of thegreat deeds and ideas of the
century." Hugo justi-fied his all-encompassing approach by saying
hewanted to create a contemporary work of fictionthat would rival
such great national verse epics asHomer's Iliad and Odyssey and
John Milton's Par-adise Lost.
The strong political content of the novel di-vided the critics
of the time. While popular opin-ion was virtually unanimous, the
many critical as-sessments-by about one hundred and fiftyreviewers
in 1862 alone-fell into two camps. Po-litical, social, and
religious conservatives assailedthe author's intellectual
integrity, his motives, hisintentions: to blame society for human
sufferingwas, according to them, to deny individual re-sponsibility
and to undermine existing institutions.The more progressive,
republican critics, on theother hand, defended the novel as
profoundlymoral. Imbued with the New Testament notions ofgrace,
charity, and self-sacrifice, the novel depictedthe struggles of
human conscience with temptationand the eventual triumph of duty
over passion, offreedom over nature.
Critics were also uncertain about the genre andthe composition
of the book. Indeed, Hugo's am-bitious goal complicated the
structure of the book.There is very little linearity and numerous
echoesand parallels, while the narration goes back andforth in
time. The effect is a little disorienting forthe reader who has
problems following the narra-tion, as if Hugo were playing with his
reader's pa-tience. In addition to this unconventional
composi-tion, it defies any attempt at classification. Themingling
of literary styles-le melange des gen-res-was a hallmark of French
romanticism sincethe 1820s. As a consequence, Les Miserables is
ablend of epic, myth, dramatic and lyrical compo-nents; grotesque
and sublime; satire and romance;comedy and tragedy; realism and
romanticismwhich led many critics to describe the novel as
a"monster." Maybe it is, and yet, it still makes peo-ple dream.
Source: Anne-Sophie Cerisola, in an essay for Novels
forStudents, Gale, 1999.
Edward SagarinIn thefollowing excerpt, Sagarin argues that
Valjean fails as a symbol of redemption becausehis
crime-stealing a loaf of breadfor his sister'schildren-was an act
of altruism.
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Source: Edward Sagarin, "Jean Valjean: For Stealing a Loafof
Bread," in his Raskolnikov and Others: Literary ImagesofCrime,
Punishment, Redemption, andAtonement, St. Mar-tin's Press, 1981,
pp. 60-76.
The Southern Literary MessengerIn thefollowing excerptfrom a
review ofPart
I of the novel, in contrast to most critics of the pe-riod
following the initial publication of Les Mis-erables, this
anonymous reviewer gives the novelunqualified praise.
[Les Miserables] is the greatest and most elab-orate work of
Victor Hugo's fruitful genius.... Anovel, in the ordinary
acceptation of that term,[Fantine] is not. The ordinary novel,
according toCarlyle, is a "tale of adventures which did not oc-cur
in God's creation, but only in the Waste Cham-bers, (to be let
unfurnished,) of certain humanheads, and which are part and parcel
of the Sum of
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No-things; which, nevertheless, obtain some tem-porary
remembrance, and lodge extensively, at thisepoch of the world, in
similar still more unfur-nished chambers." These productions have
won-derful plots and still more wonderful machinery.Fantine has
simply dramatic situations, and there-fore Fantine is no novel.
They are remarkable formany words and few ideas; every page of
Fantinecontains some beautiful thought, poetically ex-pressed, or
some brilliant passage upon Life, Law,Religion, or Philosophy;
hence Fantine is not anovel. People with waste chambers, (to let
unfur-nished,) need not read it; it was never written forthem. But
to the thinker it will be a solace and de-light, albeit its lessons
may excite some saddenedreflections in sympathetic minds.
We have stated that Fantine had not the plotof the ordinary
novel; but dramatic situations, in-stead. Let us add, that the work
is composed of aseries of brilliant pictures, boldly touched off by
amaster-hand, as in the case of the great works ofNiccola Poussin
and Claude Loraine.... There isnot in the literature of fiction a
finer portraiturethan that given of [M. Charles Fran,ois
BienvenuMyriel, Bishop of D-]. His every trait of charac-ter,
objective and psychological, is elaborately de-picted. It is, for
several pages of the book, a lonesketch, nothing to heighten the
interest thereofsave two old virtuous ladies of his household;
whoare about as important to the theme, as the occa-sional and
indifferent tree in some of Raphael'spaintings. It is quite as
powerful and much moreelaborate, yet not quite so fearful or
mysterious,but far more genial and beautiful in type than, By-ron's
grand portrait of Lara; and equally well sus-tained in power
throughout. But the character ofLara is dark and gloomy; that of M.
Myriel radi-ant with spiritual beauty. We are permitted to look,not
only upon the objective form and actions ofthe man, but as if his
mind were spread open toview, we have a full revelation of his
psychol-ogy-we gaze into the divine depths of his im-mortal soul.
Indeed so beautiful is the moral por-traiture of that simple but
good man, that one ofour contemporaries has pronounced such a
beingan impossibility! We cannot think so-and if mis-taken, our
historic lessons, standard of ideal virtue,and belief in the true,
beautiful and good, musthave rested upon shifting sands.... But
concedingthe supposed fact, that we eff-surely it is
highlycreditable to the genius of M. Hugo, that out of thedepths of
his contemplation he could create anIdeal Character, so perfect as
to be an impossibil-ity in humanity; a concession which,
however,
must greatly reflect upon, and detract from, theboasted grandeur
of the human soul.
But, be this as it may, two personages of op-posite opinions are
brought in contact with theBishop-one, a Senator, and the other, a
Conven-tioner, persecuted by the ruling power which suc-ceeded to
the French Revolution. The former is akind of little Atheist-a
scoffer at the establishedforms of religion, after the manner of
Voltaire. Thelatter is a bold intellectualist; a master of the
syl-logistic forms of logic; a dogmatic denunciator oflegitimacy
and royalty; and a mystic in Deism. Indetailing the particulars of
M. Myriel's interviewswith these men, Victor Hugo has carried to
its high-est point of delicacy, that civilization in Art,
whichpervades modern French authorship. The Atheist'ssneers against
revealed religion, is treated with re-spectful silence, or returned
only with Christianpity. The bold sallies and loud declamations of
theold Conventioner, are met with pastoral humilityuntil he is half
subdued. And when death is aboutto close his eyes, the good Bishop
is his onlyfriend-the only witnesser of his spirit's flight. Itis
as if the Lion had made of the Lamb its confi-dant and friend. This
is the place to remark, how-ever, that Senator and Conventioner,
are simplymachinery whereby lessons upon life, history, andmorality
are promulged; as with many of the seem-ingly nonessential
characters in Goethe's Faust...
[We] do not hesitate to pronounce [Les Mis-e'rables] the ablest
novel-after Goethe's WelhelmMeister-of this century.
Certain supercilious young gentlemen, of mostquestionable
principles, and certain publicists ofstill more questionable
morals, think it fashionableand brilliant to decry Les Miserables
as an immoralbook; simply because they have not the brains
tounderstand it. To us, it is a Bible in the fictitiousliterature
of the nineteenth century. To them, it ismerely a translation of a
French novel; and allFrance is but their second Sodom: we know
thatFrance is not morally worse than America. Tothem, it is a
production by Victor Hugo; to us it isa protest of genius against
universal crimes-theplea of one who advocates, in the face of
obloquyand contumely, the cause of the Life-Wretched. Tothem, it is
a proclamation of war against society;to us, it is a grand sermon
in behalf of primitiveChristianity-a splendid endeavour to have
Chris-tendom permeated by the rules and regulations ofthe "Church
and House Book of the Early Chris-tians," and of the "Law-Book of
the Ante-NiceneChurch." To them, it is massive, grand, unusual,
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and incomprehensible; to us, it is beautiful as theIliad of
Homer-real as a play by Shakespeare. LesMise'rables is an event-it
is a new jewel in the lit-erary crown of our century....
[Les Mise'rables] should awaken the con-science of society from
its dismal lethargy of evil.For it is profound, straight-forward,
and mar-velously eloquent. "But then, it is a Frenchnovel"-say its
critics. So much the better, is ourresponse; because it is greater
than all of the Eng-lish novels, gathered together and massed into
one,which have appeared during the past quarter of acentury. "But,"
repeat its critics, "it contains exag-gerations." No doubt of it;
we admit the fact. Butare there not exaggerations in all novels?
Was thereever one printed that contained them not? Are therenot ...
more absurdities and vulgar caricatures in[Dickens's] Great
Expectations, than there couldbe found in so many of such books as
Les Mis-e'rables, as would sink the Great Eastern?A Frenchnovel! Is
this phrase used as a term of reproach, ap-plicable to the
literature of the most civilized andcultivated empire upon the
globe? If so, is thenovel, or its ignorant assailant, to be
blamed-andwhich? Why the latter. Who is the French Novel-ist, and
what is the French Novel? The one, is ascholar of genius and
refinement; the other, a re-flex of life and society. What English
writers-what American writers-can be compared withsuch authors, in
points of power and art, as VictorHugo, Alfred de Musset, Alphonse
Karr, EdmundAbout, Emile Souvestre, Octave Feuillet, Alexan-dre
Dumas, Michelet and Sue? Here are no con-tortionists-no forced
humorists-no retailers ofvulgar and far-fetched wit-no writers of
dreary,idealess wilderness-pages; but gentlemen of power,large and
well digested observation, polished wit,noble satire, keen irony,
and great Philosophy....[To] such as find fault with Hugo's humble
char-acters, we would say: first remove Reynold'sDunghill, or clean
out Dickens's Augean stables.If they think that the Frenchman
crushes society,why, let them the more enjoy Thackeray's crunch-ing
and mastication of it. Or if they dislike JeanValjean, because he
was a reformed criminal, thenlet them revel in the irreclaimable
hideousness ofBulwer's Villains. For there are no gracelessscamps
or vagabonds in the chambers ofM. Hugo'smind. His most infamous
creation has some prin-ciple of homogeneity left; but the vagabond
of one
English novel, like the sinner of Jonathan Edwards'theology, is
past redemption. In short, the Frenchnovel is civilization; the
English novel affecta-tion-semi-nude barbarism. It is not,
however,much to the credit of our vaunted enlightenment,that the
greatest of recent Fictions-this very LesMiserables-should have
been but poorly receivedby the press.... [It] is safe to say, at
the least, thatanother so grandly brilliant a book, of its class,
willnot appear in the lifetime of the youngest of
thisgeneration!Source: T.W.M., in a review of"Les
Miserables-Fantine,"in The Southern Literary Messenger, July, 1863,
pp. 434-46.
Victor Brombert, VictorHugo and the Visionary Novel, Har-vard
University Press, 1984.Matthew Josephson, Victor Hugo: A Realistic
Biography ofthe Great Romantic, Doubleday, 1942.Joanna Richardson,
Victor Hugo, St. Martin's Press, 1976.
Elliot Grant, The Career of Victor Hugo, Harvard Univer-sity
Press, 1945.A very basic and useful study of Hugo's main nov-els
and poetry.
Richard B. Grant, The Perilous Quest: Image, Myth, andProphecy
in the Narration of Victor Hugo, Duke UniversityPress, 1968.
Hugo described himself as a "prophef' among men,as a translator
of myths. This book analyzes thistheme by examining Hugo's major
novels.
Kathryn M. Grossman, Les Mise'rables: Conversion, Revo-lution,
Redemption, Twayne, 1996.
Aimed specifically toward students, this workpraises the novel
as a book that "enables us to escapeinto the adventures of others:
it brings us back to our-selves."
John Porter Houston, Victor Hugo, Twayne, 1988.A good
introduction to Hugo's life and works.
Patricia Ward, The Medievalism of Victor Hugo, Pennsyl-vania
State University Press, 1975.
Hugo was fascinated by the mysteries and secrets ofmedieval
times. Although Les Miserables cannot re-ally be called a Gothic
novel, some of its episodes,like those in the sewers, belong to the
genre.
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