Les Misérables is Victor Hugo’s masterpiece about human suffering, love, forgiveness and justice. It explores the nobility of the human spirit for justice and peace, and provides timeless inspiration and lessons.
Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo was born in Besançon, France in 1802. His father was a soldier, and he spent his childhood moving between France, Italy, and Spain. Fascinated by reading and writing poetry from the time he entered boarding school at the age of ten, Victor Hugo vowed to become a great French writer at an early age, writing in his diary the following year, “I want to be Chateaubriand.
When Louis Napoleon III launched a coup d’état in 1851, Victor Hugo, who opposed it, spent nearly 20 years in exile. During this time, he was recognized as the conscience of France, opposing the absolute monarch. At first, it was a forced exile, but even after his pardon, he remained in the exile destination, which was a voluntary gesture and was strongly suspected of being a show of pride. In any case, his imagination was at its peak at this time, and almost all of his original works were written during his exile. When Victor Hugo returned to Paris in 1870, he was treated like a hero. On his 80th birthday in 1882, up to 600,000 people marched in front of his house for six hours, shouting “Long live the Republic! Victor Hugo!” When he finally died three years later, a state funeral was held and it is said that as many as two million people followed his coffin in the funeral procession from the Arc de Triomphe in Paris to the Pantheon.
Victor Hugo wrote freely in all literary genres, including poetry, drama, and novels. No matter what genre of work he wrote, he cried out for romantic literature against classicism. His plays include Cromwell and Hernani. However, it was his novels that made Victor Hugo a leading French literary figure. His novels include The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and Les Misérables.
Les Misérables summary of the work
Les Misérables is a novel written by French author Victor Hugo and published in 1862. The title Les Misérables means “The Wretched”.
This work is an epic poem that tells the eventful lives of many characters, including the main character, Jean Valjean. Although he is an escaped prisoner, Jean Valjean’s life’s journey to find light in the darkness is grandly unfolded against the backdrop of historical events that defined the times, such as the Battle of Waterloo in 19th-century Europe and the restoration of the monarchy in France.
Les Misérables presents various elements of human affairs, including good and evil, war and famine, love and hate, and cruelty and brutality. The artist embraces all of this with a humanitarian worldview, emphasizing that the most important thing in history, which flows regardless of individual misfortune, is “love. He reminds us that everyone needs the love of others, and that without it, we are bound to become more miserable and unhappy. Les Misérables is also a representative work of romantic literature that appeals to the free emotions of the individual, and it is still read all over the world today, more than 160 years after its publication, and is actively produced in films and musicals.
Les Misérables Synopsis
The young Jean Valjean was sentenced to 19 years in prison for stealing a loaf of bread and was also convicted of attempting to escape from prison. When he is released as a middle-aged man, he steals a silver plate from the bishop’s house and is caught by the police while trying to escape. However, Bishop Myriel said he had given it to him and not only saved Jean Valjean, but also gave him a silver candlestick and asked him to become an honest man.
Jean Valjean, who hid his identity under the name Madeleine, became a successful businessman and even a mayor. But the prosecutor, Javert, did not give up and pursued him relentlessly. Jean Valjean, who had done good deeds, found out that a wrong man was being mistaken for him, so he went to prison to save him by revealing his identity. However, he escaped again and took the orphan Cosette as his foster daughter to care for her.
Cosette, who had grown up beautifully, fell in love with a young man named Marius. Jean Valjean rescued Marius from the scene of the riot and married him to Cosette. Jean Valjean revealed his identity to Marius and left them. After learning the whole truth, Marius went with Cosette to find Jean Valjean, who died quietly while Cosette and her husband watched.
Les Misérables Character Introduction
Jean Valjean
He stole a loaf of bread and spent 19 years in prison. Thanks to Bishop Myriel, he becomes a new man, helping his poor neighbors and raising the poor orphan Cosette as his own daughter. Javert’s persecution always makes him anxious, but he desperately tries to atone for his past.
Bishop Myriel
is the person who opened a new life for Jean Valjean by forgiving him for stealing the silver plate. He is a priest who is frugal, thinks first of his less fortunate neighbors, and practices God’s love in everyday life.
Cosette
The daughter of Fantine, she is abused by the Thénardier couple. After being adopted by Jean Valjean, she grows into a beautiful young woman under his care. She meets and falls in love with the passionate young man Marius and eventually becomes his wife.
Fantine
A factory worker hired by Jean Valjean, she later becomes a prostitute to pay for the education of her daughter, who was entrusted to the Thénardier couple. She dies in misery without ever seeing her daughter again.
The Thénardier Couple
A greedy couple who run an inn, they treat Cosette like a servant while mercilessly extorting child support from Fantine. After the inn goes bankrupt, they become the poor of the town and threaten Jean Valjean.
Javert
A brilliant policeman with a strong hatred for criminals. He relentlessly pursues Jean Valjean, but always misses him. As he follows Jean Valjean’s footsteps, he realizes that his faith is beginning to waver.
Marius
Gillenormand’s grandson, who grew up without knowing his father’s face. After his father’s death, he resents his maternal grandfather and leaves home to live in a slum. He meets Cosette by chance in a park and falls in love with her, only to be injured in the whirlwind of the revolution.
Gillenormand
This is the person who rejected her son-in-law because of his political views and separated him from his son-in-law and grandson, Marius. He opposes Cosette’s marriage to the Duke, but later arranges their marriage.
Fauchelevent
When Jean Valjean is run over by a carriage, he saves his life. Later, he helps Jean Valjean and Cosette in a desperate situation and arranges for them to live safely in a convent.
Les Misérables: A Commentary on the Work
There may be people who are not familiar with Victor Hugo (1802-1885), but there are probably few people who are not familiar with the work Les Misérables. Jean Valjean’s eventful life, in which he stole a piece of bread for his starving sister and her child, spent 19 years in prison, and even after his release had to live in exile for the rest of his life, is still deeply etched in the minds of many people. Les Misérables, made even more famous by its main character, Jean Valjean, is a classic not only in the history of 19th century French literature, but also in the history of world literature.
In the history of world literature, it is difficult to find a work that has been as popular as Les Misérables. It is said that the first edition was sold out within 24 hours of its publication in Paris, which gives us a good idea of its popularity. It became a huge hit not only in France, but in other countries as well, including Great Britain. During the American Civil War, the novel was so popular with soldiers that it was even banned from the battlefield.
Around this time, the popularity of Victor Hugo’s works, including Les Misérables, was truly enormous. The French naturalist novelist Émile Zola said the following.
I know workers who don’t even smoke to buy Victor Hugo’s works when they are published for the price of a ten-cent piece. They don’t read them, but they bind them and keep them in their homes like fine furniture, and they are proud of them.
It is said that this single novel earned Victor Hugo enough money to support himself for most of his life without having to do anything else. The novel has been adapted into musicals, plays, and puppet shows, not to mention films, and is beloved around the world.
Background and Content of Les Misérables
Les Misérables is a title given to the miserable life of the French people. In Korea, it was widely read under the name “Jean Valjean” after the main character. Unlike his other works, Victor Hugo wrote this work over a long period of time, bit by bit. In 1845, his daughter Léopoldine Hugo, who had just married, drowned with her husband Charles Vacquerie. Victor Hugo was deeply saddened by this event and tried to alleviate his grief by writing Les Misérables. At first he started to write a work called ‘Les Misérables’ but gave up when he got involved in politics.
It was not until 1860 that Victor Hugo revisited the work. From then on, he wrote this massive work, which he never thought he would be able to complete, in one go. While writing this work, Victor Hugo inserted parts here and there to express his political views. The final scene of the Battle of Waterloo was written while listening to the sound of cannons on the actual battlefield. Les Misérables finally saw the light of day in 1862, twenty years after he began writing it, when the author was sixty years old.
Les Misérables begins with the scene where the main character, Jean Valjean, is finally released after many years in prison. Sentenced to five years for stealing a loaf of bread, he is also charged with attempting to escape and spends a total of 19 years in prison. After spending most of his golden years in prison and being released, Jean Valjean is treated coldly by the people, but he stays with Bishop Myriel for a while.
This time, however, Jean Valjean betrays Bishop Myriel’s favor by stealing silverware from the cathedral. The bishop generously forgives him and even gives him a silver candlestick. Eventually, Jean Valjean repents for his sins and transforms into Madeleine, who then goes into business in a strange city, becomes very successful, and is eventually elected mayor of the city. However, he confesses his identity and is imprisoned again to save a prisoner who has been arrested for no reason. Having escaped from prison again, Jean Valjean is pursued by Inspector Javert and betrayed by a villain. He finally dies, giving Cosette, the orphan he has cared for all his life, the silver candlestick the bishop gave him long ago.
The Central Theme of Les Misérables
At first glance, it seems that Victor Hugo is concerned in Les Misérables with the question of fate or destiny suppressing human free will. For the main character, Jean Valjean, fate or destiny always follows him like a dark shadow, tormenting him. As Victor Hugo said, the protagonist tries to chisel the “mysterious stone” called life, but he keeps hitting the “black stone of fate. Man does not know what fate or destiny awaits him until he takes his last breath.
In this respect, Les Misérables reminds me of the novels of the naturalist writer Émile Zola, which were published a few decades later. In Victor Hugo’s work, fate or destiny is represented by the character of Inspector Javert. Whenever Jean Valjean tries to do something of his own free will, Javert, the investigator, usually appears and interferes. However, Javert only sees things from his own perspective and never tries to see things from another person’s perspective. He is a person who obsessively clings to the abstract concept of duty. Therefore, in his hands, justice is distorted and twisted beyond recognition.
In addition, Victor Hugo sharply criticizes 19th century French society in Les Misérables. In this respect, the work can be read as a novel of social resistance. For example, we can see Victor Hugo’s interest in social movements in the scene where Jean Valjean takes refuge in the sewers with Marius, who was injured during the suppression of the government forces after joining the Citizens’ Revolution and is being hunted.
Victor Hugo describes the social landscape and political realities of France during the Napoleonic era and beyond in a mirror-like, starkly honest manner. In particular, he was deeply concerned about the naked and starving children, the young women who were forced to sell their bodies and souls because of poverty, and the prisoners who had to live with the stigma of being a convict for the rest of their lives because of a single mistake.
He also pointed out the inhuman systems that turned a blind eye to these human tragedies, and the political powers that condoned or encouraged these systems. In the preface to the first edition of the novel, Victor Hugo wrote: “As long as ignorance and misery remain on this earth, such books will continue to be useful. Thus, the story of Jean Valjean, who suffers and is frustrated by poverty and ignorance, has been like a gospel to the poor and oppressed from the time of its first publication to the present day. In this way, the work is often compared to the later novel by the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy.
In one scene of the work, Victor Hugo exclaims what may seem a cliché.
“First of all, we should think of the plight of those who suffer without anything, comfort them, give them air and light, love them, open a wide horizon for them. In short, we should bring more light and prosperity to society for the suffering and ignorant. This is the first duty of man, which compassionate people should not forget, and the first priority of politics, which selfish people should know. “
However, if we were to talk about the most important theme of Les Misérables, we could not leave out the importance of love and tolerance. Victor Hugo shows in this work how great a force love can be. The main character, Jean Valjean, goes through all kinds of suffering and frustration, but ultimately triumphs over evil. The weapon he uses to fight evil is none other than love and tolerance. He defeats the evil in others, not to mention the evil lurking within himself, with love and tolerance.
There are few works in the history of world literature that preach the gospel of love as convincingly as this novel. In this work, Victor Hugo conveys the precious message that no matter how evil a person is, he or she can be saved by good deeds through Jean Valjean. That is why the author calls this novel a “religious” work. Good and evil and love are the main themes of this work.
However, Jean Valjean is able to love others and show tolerance because he has suffered great pain that he cannot express in words. Unlike people who are easily discouraged when they suffer, the more he suffers, the more love and tolerance he feels. Like Midas in Greek mythology, who turned everything he touched into gold, he has the amazing power to turn pain and despair into love and tolerance. For Victor Hugo, despair is not the end of life, but the beginning of salvation.
