Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

First published: 1862 (English translation, 1862)

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Social realism

Time of plot: c. 1815-1835

Locale: France

Principal characters

• Jean Valjean, later known as Father Madeleine
• Fantine, a woman befriended by Valjean
• Cosette, her daughter
• Monsieur Javert, the inspector of police
• Marius Pontmercy, in love with Cosette
• Monsieur Thénardier, known also as Jondrette, a rogue
• Eponine Thénardier, his daughter

The Story:

In 1815 in France, a man named Jean Valjean is released after nineteen years in prison. He had been sentenced to a term of five years because he stole a loaf of bread to feed his starving sister and her family, but the sentence was later increased because of his attempts to escape. During his imprisonment, he astonished others by his exhibitions of unusual physical strength.

Freed at last, Valjean starts out on foot for a distant part of the country. Innkeepers refuse him food and lodging because his yellow passport reveals that he is a former convict. Finally, he comes to the house of the bishop of Digne, a saintly man who treats him graciously, feeds him, and gives him a bed. During the night, Jean steals the bishop’s silverware and flees. He is immediately captured by the police, who return him and the stolen goods to the bishop. With no censure, the priest not only gives Valjean what he had stolen but also adds his silver candlesticks to the gift. The astonished gendarmes release the prisoner. Alone with the bishop, Valjean is confounded by the churchman’s attitude, for the bishop asks only that he use the silver as a means of living an honest life.

In 1817, a beautiful woman named Fantine lives in Paris. She gives birth to an illegitimate child, Cosette, whom she leaves with Monsieur and Madame Thénardier to rear with their own children. As time goes on, the Thénardiers demand more and more money for Cosette’s support, yet they treat the child cruelly and deprive her even of necessities. Meanwhile, Fantine goes to the town of M—— and obtains a job in a glass factory operated by Father Madeleine, a kind and generous man whose history is known to no one, but whose good deeds and generosity to the poor are public information. He had arrived in M—— a poor laborer, and through a lucky invention he was able to start a business of his own. Soon he built a factory and employed many workers. After five years in the city, he was named mayor and is now beloved by all the citizens. He is reported to have prodigious strength. Only one man, Javert, a police inspector, seems to watch him with an air of suspicion.

Javert was born in prison. His whole life is influenced by that fact, and his fanatical attitude toward duty makes him a man to be feared. He is determined to discover the facts of Father Madeleine’s previous life. One day he finds a clue while watching Father Madeleine lift a heavy cart to save an old man who had fallen under it. Javert realizes that he has known only one man of such prodigious strength, a former convict named Jean Valjean.

Fantine has told no one of Cosette, but knowledge of her illegitimate child spreads and causes Fantine to be discharged from the factory without the knowledge of Father Madeleine. Finally, Fantine becomes a prostitute in an effort to pay the increasing demands of the Thénardiers for Cosette’s support. One night, Javert arrests her while she is walking the streets. When Father Madeleine hears the details of her plight and learns that she has tuberculosis, he sends Fantine to a hospital and promises to bring Cosette to her. Just before the mayor leaves to get Cosette, Javert confesses that he has mistakenly reported to the Paris police that he suspects Father Madeleine of being the former convict, Valjean. He says that the real Valjean has been arrested at Arras under an assumed name. The arrested man is to be tried in two days.

That night, Father Madeleine struggles with his own conscience, for he is the real Valjean. Unwilling to let an innocent man suffer, he goes to Arras for the trial and identifies himself as Valjean. After telling the authorities where he could be found, he goes to Fantine. Javert arrives to arrest him. Fantine is so terrified that she dies. After a day in prison, Valjean escapes.

Valjean, some time later, is again imprisoned by Javert, but once more he makes his escape. Shortly afterward he is able to take Cosette, now eight years old, away from the Thénardiers. He grows to love the child greatly, and they live together happily in the Gorbeau tenement on the outskirts of Paris. When Javert once more tracks them down, Valjean escapes with the child into a convent garden, where they are rescued by Fauchelevant, whose life Valjean had saved when the old peasant had fallen beneath the cart. Fauchelevant is now the convent gardener. Valjean becomes his helper, and Cosette is put into the convent school.

Years pass. Valjean leaves the convent and takes Cosette, her schooling finished, to live in a modest house on a side street in Paris. The old man and the girl are little noticed by their neighbors. Meanwhile, the blackguard Thénardier had brought his family to live in the Gorbeau tenement. He now calls himself Jondrette. In the next room lives Marius Pontmercy, a young lawyer estranged from his aristocrat grandfather because of his liberal views. Marius is the son of an officer whose life Thénardier had saved at the battle of Waterloo. The father, now dead, had asked his son someday to repay Thénardier for his deed. Marius never suspects that Jondrette is really his father’s benefactor. When the Jondrettes are being evicted from their quarters, however, he pays their rent from his meager resources.

During one of his evening walks, Marius meets Cosette and Valjean. He falls in love with the young woman as he continues to see her in the company of her white-haired companion. At last he follows her to her home. Valjean, noticing Marius, takes Cosette to live in another house. One morning, Marius receives a begging letter delivered by Eponine Jondrette. His neighbors are again asking for help, and he begins to wonder about them. Peeping through a hole in the wall, he hears Jondrette speak of a benefactor who would soon arrive. When the man comes, Marius recognizes him as Cosette’s companion. He later learns Cosette’s address from Eponine, but before he sees Cosette again he overhears the Jondrettes plotting against the man whom he believes to be Cosette’s father. Alarmed, he tells the details of the plot to Inspector Javert.

Marius is at the wall watching when Valjean returns to give Jondrette money. While they talk, heavily armed men appear in the room. Jondrette then reveals himself as Thénardier. Horrified, Marius does not know whom to protect, the man his father had requested him to befriend or the father of Cosette. Threatened by Thénardier, Valjean agrees to send to his daughter for more money, but he gives a false address. When this ruse is discovered, the robbers threaten to kill Valjean. Marius throws a note of warning through the hole in the wall as Javert appears and arrests all but Valjean, who makes his escape through a window.

Marius finally locates Cosette. One night she tells him that she and her father are leaving for England. He tries, unsuccessfully, to get his grandfather’s permission to marry Cosette. In despair, he returns to Cosette and finds the house where she had lived empty. Eponine meets him there and tells him that his revolutionary friends have started a revolt and are waiting for him at the barricades. Cosette has disappeared, so he gladly follows Eponine to the barricades, where Javert had been seized as a spy and bound. During the fighting, Eponine gives her life to save Marius. As she dies, she gives him a note that Cosette had given her to deliver. In the note, Cosette tells him where she can be found.

In answer to her note, Marius writes that his grandfather will not permit his marriage, that he has no money, and that he would be killed at the barricades. Valjean discovers the notes and sets out for the barricades. Finding Javert tied up by the revolutionists, he frees the inspector. The barricades fall. In the confusion, Valjean comes upon the wounded Marius and carries him into the Paris sewers.

After hours of wandering, Valjean reaches a locked outlet. There, Thénardier, unrecognized in the dark, meets him and agrees to open the grating in exchange for money. Outside, Valjean meets Javert, who takes him into custody. Valjean asks only that he be allowed to take Marius to his grandfather’s house. Javert agrees to wait at the door, but suddenly he turns and runs toward the river. Tormented by his conscientious regard for duty and his reluctance to return to prison the man who had saved his life, he drowns himself in the River Seine.

When Marius recovers, he and Cosette are married. Valjean gives Cosette a generous dowry, and for the first time Cosette learns that Valjean is not her real father. Valjean tells Marius only that he is an escaped convict, believed dead, and he begs to be allowed to see Cosette occasionally. Gradually, Marius banishes him from the house. Marius then learns from Thénardier that Valjean had rescued Marius at the barricades. Marius and Cosette hurry to Valjean’s lodgings, to find him on his deathbed. He dies knowing that his children love him and that all his entangling past is now clear. He bequeaths the bishop’s silver candlesticks to Cosette, with his last breath saying that he has spent his life in trying to be worthy of the faith of the bishop of Digne. He is buried in a grave with no name on the stone.

Bibliography

Brombert, Victor. The Romantic Prison: The French Tradition. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1978. Points out that in Les Misérables the most significant reference to Hell is its embodiment in the sewers of Paris, through which Jean Valjean carries Marius as the final part of his quest—through death to resurrection.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Victor Hugo and the Visionary Novel. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1984. A sophisticated study of Hugo’s fiction. Notes Hugo’s use of digressive patterns and impersonal, realistic narration. Draws on a wealth of French criticism.

Frey, John Andrew. A Victor Hugo Encyclopedia. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1999. A comprehensive guide to the works of Hugo. Addresses Hugo as a leading poet, novelist, artist, and religious and revolutionary thinker of France. The balance of the volume contains alphabetically arranged entries discussing his works, characters, and themes, as well as historical persons and places. Includes a foreword, biography, and bibliography.

Grant, Richard B. The Perilous Quest: Image, Myth, and Prophecy in the Narratives of Victor Hugo. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1968. An exhaustive study of Hugo’s use of image, myth, and prophecy. Notes, among other images and uses of myth, the christological references to Jean Valjean, who finds redemption in saving others.

Grossman, Kathryn M.“Les Misérables”: Conversion, Revolution, Redemption. New York: Twayne, 1996. Recounts the historical events leading up to the novel’s publication, discusses the importance of the book, describes how Hugo’s political and philosophical ideas are expressed in the work, and analyzes the character of protagonist Jean Valjean. Includes bibliographical references and an index.

Houston, John Porter. Victor Hugo. Rev. ed. Boston: Twayne, 1988. An indispensable starting guide to the works—drama, poetry, and novels—and life of Hugo.

Porter, Laurence M. Victor Hugo. New York: Twayne, 1999. A study of Hugo and his works, providing a biography, a chapter analyzing Les Misérables, and discussions of his plays and poetry. Includes a bibliography and an index.

Raser, Timothy. The Simplest of Signs: Victor Hugo and the Language of Images in France, 1850-1950. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2004. Raser analyzes the relationship of Hugo’s works to French architecture and other visual arts, examining Hugo’s aesthetics and politics and how he uses language to describe time, place, and visual details.

Robb, Graham. Victor Hugo. New York: W. W. Norton, 1998. Thorough biography reveals many previously unknown aspects of Hugo’s long life and literary career. Robb’s introduction discusses earlier biographies. Includes detailed notes and a bibliography.

Roche, Isabel. Character and Meaning in the Novels of Victor Hugo. West Lafayette, Ind.: Purdue University Press, 2007. Focuses on Hugo’s creation of characters, placing his novels within the broader context of nineteenth century French fiction.

Vargas Llosa, Mario. The Temptation of the Impossible: Victor Hugo and “Les Misérables.” Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2007. A fascinating look at Hugo’s writing of Les Misérables, including an examination of the work’s structure and narration.