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Les Miserables When Victor Hugo's novel Les Miserables first came out in 1862, people in Paris and elsewhere lined up to buy it. Although critics were less re- ceptive, the novel was an instant popular success. The French word "miserables" means both poor wretches and scoundrels or villains. The novel of- fers a huge cast that includes both kinds of "mis- erables." A product of France's most prominent Romantic writer, Les Miserables ranges far and wide. It paints a vivid picture of Paris's seamier side, discusses the causes and results of revolution, and includes discourses on topics ranging from the Battle of Waterloo to Parisian street slang. But the two central themes that dominate the novel are the moral redemption of its main character, Jean Val- jean, an ex-convict, and the moral redemption of a nation through revolution. Victor Hugo said: "I condemn slavery, I banish poverty, I teach igno- rance, I treat disease, I lighten the night, and I hate hatred. That is what I am, and that is why I have written Les Miserables." The novel is a critical statement against human suffering, poverty, and ig- norance. Its purpose is as much political as it is artistic. As a novelist, poet, political activist, and painter, 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 Huigo 1862 V o I u m e 5 2 3 1

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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

    V o I u m e 5 2 3 1

  • L e s M i s e r a b I e s

    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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    FOL'inglill,mil----

  • L e s M i s e r a b I e s

    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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  • Les M is e r a b I es

    ,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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  • L e s M i s i r a b I e s

    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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  • L e s M i s e r a b I e s

    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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  • L e s M i s e r a b I e s

    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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  • L e s M i s e r a b I e s

    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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  • Les Miserables

    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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  • L e s M i s e' r a b I e s

    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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