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Les Misrables

The authorBackgroundsMain charactersSummaryValueThemeClassical songs in movieMy thoughts

Backgrounds Hugo began planning a major novel about social misery and injustice as early as the 1830s, but it took a full 17 years for his most popular work, Les Misrables, to be realized and finally published in 1862.

Victor Hugo was a French poet, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist .In France, his literary reputation rests primarily on his poems and dramas and only secondarily on his novels. He is sometimes identified as the greatest French poet. Outside France, his best-known works are the novels Les Misrables and Notre-Dame de Paris.

The main charactersJean Valjeanthe prisoner. Javertthe policeman. Cosette Fantines daughter. MariusCosettes lover Fantinea woman cheated by a dissolute manage. Thnardiersthe couple raise Cosette at first, Mariuss fathers lifesaver. ponine elder daughter,love Marius very much .

Jean Valjean was convicted for stealing a loaf of bread, he is punished in prison for nineteen years. Rejected as former convict, Bishop Myriel turns his life around. He assumes a new identity to pursue an honest life, becomes a factory owner and a mayor. He adopts and raises Fantine's daughter, Cosette, and dies at an old age.

Javert An obsessive police inspector who continuously hunts, tracks down, and loses Jean Valjean. He goes undercover behind the barricade, but is unmasked. Jean Valjean has the chance to kill Javert, but lets him go. Later Javert allows Jean Valjean to escape. Javert is in a situation in which to act lawfully is immoral. His inner conflict leads him to jumping into the River Seine.

Fantine A beautiful girl abandoned by her lover, she leaves her daughter Cosette in the care of the Thnardiers. She finds work at the factory runned by Jean Valjean, but is fired by a woman because she is an unmarried mother. To meet the demands for money from the Thnardiers, she sells her hair, then her front teeth, and finally turns to prostitution. Jean Valjean learns of her situation when Javert arrests her. She dies before Jean Valjean is able to reunite her with Cosette.

Cosette The daughter of Fantine, she is raised by Jean Val jean after her mother dies.For the first few years she is raised, she is used as a worker and beaten by the Thnardiers. She falls in love with Marius , and marries him at the end of the novel.

Marius An aristocrat who fell out with his royalist grandfather after discovering his father was an officer under Napoleon. He studies law, joins the revolutionary ABC students and later falls in love with Cosette.

Thnardiers They take in Cosette in her first years, mistreating and abusing her. They end up losing the inn and move to Paris. Thnardier is later the head of a criminal gang called the Patron-Minette. The family also live next door to Marius, who recognizes Thnardier as the man who saved his father at Waterloo.

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The Thnardiers' elder daughter. She participates in her father's crimes to obtain money. She is also in love with Marius. At Marius' request, she finds Cosette's address for him and leads him to her. She dies at the barricades when she reaches out her hand to stop a soldier's bullet heading for Marius: she is mortally wounded as the bullet goes through her back and dies. Her final request is that once she has passed, Marius will kiss her on the forehead. Of course ,he does.

Summary The novel basic plot is Jean Valjeans pitiful life. He once is a poor background worker, because the incomes cant be enough for the family members life, once upon a time , he stole the bread and was arrested, which makes him pass 19 years firm bitter service life. After the punishments , he uses an alias Madland, works as the entrepreneur, and is pushed for mayor. But soon and further because his exposing , he was arrested again , after another escape , he rescues the poor female worker -- Fantins daughter --Cosette. Then , he and Cosette have the peaceful life . When Cosette grows up , she marries to a young man called Marius . At last ,this old man dies at an old age ,quietjust like the angle .The value " Les Miserables " (1862) is the representative work of Victor Hugo, as one of the famous novels in the worldwide literature. It is the representative work of realism and romanticThe themeThis story tells us about kind. Hugo hopes the society becomes clear and human. All these stories have common that is the miserable life because of the persecution of the upper class. In facts, Hugo was raging of the present society. Thank You !