Les Misérables is an 1862 novel by the famous French novelist Victor Hugo, set in the Parisian underworld. Many people know of it through the musical of the same name.

Plot

Overview

Les Misérables is the story of many people, but the thread that binds them together is the story of the ex-convict Jean Valjean, who becomes a force for good in the world, but cannot escape his past.

Within the borders of this Romantic plot, the author Victor Hugo filled many pages with his thoughts on religion, politics, and society. It has been considered inspirational to many who felt oppressed since then.

Structurally, the novel is divided into five volumes:

1. Fantine
2. Cosette
3. Marius
4. The Idyll of the Rue Plumet and the Epic of the Rue Saint Denis
5. Jean Valjean

Each volume consists of eight or more "books" divided into some number of chapters.

Synopsis

Jean Valjean is sentenced to hard labor in a penitentiary for five years for breaking into a bakery and stealing a loaf of bread in order to feed his starving sister and her children. He ultimately serves nineteen years, having received additional time for several escape attempts.

After his release, in October 1815, Valjean discovers that his yellow (ex-convict's) passport makes him an outsider; he is able to find neither decent work nor accommodation. In Digne, he is offered a meal and a room for the night by the bishop, a humble and compassionate man who donates almost all of his large salary to the poor. The bishop's only luxuries are a set of silverware and two silver candlesticks, which he keeps for sentimental reasons. In the night, Valjean succumbs to the temptation to steal the bishop's silverware; the bishop saves him from the authorities by claiming that he gave the silverware to Valjean as a gift, and as a corroborating detail gives him the candlesticks as well. The bishop tells Valjean to remain an honest man henceforth. Valjean starts anew in a town in Montreuil-sur-Mer, under the name of M. Madeleine. He invests in the local industry, and his innovations bring wealth to the region and to himself.

Among those who come to work in his factory is a young woman named Fantine, who returns to her home town from a sojourn in Paris. While in Paris, Fantine was seduced and then abandoned by a university student, to whom she bore a daughter, Cosette. To keep her illegitimate child a secret, Fantine has left her in the care of M. Thenardier and his wife, a couple who run an inn in Montfermeil. The Thenardiers keep inventing new expenses and excuses for requesting money, all the while treating Cosette terribly, feeding and clothing her with their own daughters' leftovers, and making her do all the housework.

M. Madeleine is appointed mayor of the town in recognition of his philanthropy and the prosperity he has brought the region. The town's police inspector Javert, who was once stationed at the prison that contained Jean Valjean, suspects the mayor's identity, but is unable to gather proof that will stand against a man of Madeleine's reputation.

Fantine's secret is discovered, and she is fired from the factory. Unable to pay off her debts and keep up with the Thenardiers' demands, she slides into desperate poverty, and eventually resorts to prostitution. One day, Inspector Javert finds her attacking a respectable citizen, and arrests her. Valjean, having discovered that it was the respectable citizen who provoked the incident, pulls rank on Javert to get the charges dropped; and, on learning of Fantine's plight, promises her that he will pay her debts and see to her future and that of Cosette. He sends money to the Thenardiers, instructing them to send Cosette to Montreuil. The Thenardiers delay, hoping to extract more money from him. Fantine, weakened by privation, enters what the doctor says will be a final illness.

For Javert, the Law is everything and all who break it are irredeemable scum; the mayor's intervention on behalf of a streetwalker is the final straw. He writes a letter to the Prefecture of Police declaring his conviction that M. Madeleine is really Jean Valjean. In reply, he is told that M. Madeleine can not be Jean Valjean, as Jean Valjean has recently been recaptured. The real Jean Valjean is now faced with a dilemma, but chooses to give himself up rather than let an innocent man be imprisoned in his place. Javert, triumphant, arrests Valjean. Fantine dies, and Valjean vows that he will look after Cosette. He breaks out of the jail, and makes a few final arrangements - including arranging for Fantine's funeral, and hiding the fortune he has made as M. Madeleine (over six hundred thousand francs) somewhere beyond the reach of the authorities - before being recaptured. He is sent to the galleys, from whence he escapes four months later, apparently lost overboard.

Jean Valjean rescues Cosette from the Thenardiers and travels with her to Paris, where they eventually come to reside in an isolated house in the Rue Plumet. Having learned from a close run-in with Inspector Javert, who is now stationed in Paris, Valjean also rents a number of other properties around the city, so as to always have a safe place nearby, and he and Cosette occasionally spend a few weeks living in one of these. Years pass; Cosette grows up, and becomes beautiful.

While staying at one of the other properties, a house in the Rue de l'Ouest, Valjean and Cosette are in the habit of visiting the Luxembourg Garden. On one such visit, Cosette attracts the notice of Marius Pontmercy, an impoverished law student. Over the course of subsequent visits the two fall in love, albeit at a distance, as Marius initially lacks the courage for a direct approach. Valjean, wary of attracting anybody's attention and selfishly afraid of losing Cosette, stops taking her to the Luxembourg, and, on becoming aware that Marius has discovered their address, lets the house go and returns with Cosette to the Rue Plumet.

Some months later, Jean Valjean, who has been active in doing good works among the poor, receives a message from a man who signs himself "Fabantou", requesting his attention. Valjean visits the Fabantous and discovers that they are in fact the Thenardiers, who have come to live in Paris since the failure of their inn, and now live by criminal activities among which the writing of largely-fictional begging letters is only a small, if continual, part. They are, however, genuinely poor, so Valjean conceals his knowledge of their deception and promises to return with money for them. Thenardier, on getting his first good look at the philanthropic gentleman, has also recognised Valjean, and arranges with his criminal associates to ambush Valjean on his return in the hope of extorting still more money from him. Valjean calmly bluffs his way through the situation, and has almost maneuvred himself into a position from which he can escape when the police arrive, having been tipped off by Marius, who lives in the same tenement and overheard Thenardier plotting the ambush. Seeing Inspector Javert at the head of the police, Valjean makes good his escape before Javert has a chance to recognise him, leaving Marius none the wiser about the identity and current location of the woman he loves. Thenardier and his cronies are arrested and go to prison.

Thenardier's eldest daughter, Eponine, has fallen for Marius, although she soon realised that he is interested only in Cosette. She agrees to try and discover Cosette's address for him.

Eponine discovers the address of the house in the Rue Plumet. Marius approaches Cosette one evening while she is walking in the garden of the house. Cosette and Marius declare their love for one another, and continue to meet in the garden each evening, without Jean Valjean knowing.

Thenardier and his associates break out of prison; at one point the rescue goes wrong, and Thenardier is rescued by the intervention of a street child called Little Gavroche. (Little Gavroche is, in fact, Thenardier's own son, Eponine's younger brother, who long ago chose a life on the street in preference to the neglect and hostility he suffered at home - the which is amply demonstrated by the fact that Thenardier completely fails to recognise him.) One of them has heard word of a house on the Rue Plumet which might be a good prospect for burglary, and they resolve to have a look at it for themselves.

Jean Valjean sees Thenardier prowling the neighbourhood, and, taking this into consideration with the increasing unrest in city, begins to consider moving away. On the 3rd of June, 1832, two important things happen: in the morning, Jean Valjean tells Cosette to begin preparing to leave Paris; and in the evening, while Cosette is breaking the news to Marius, Thenardier and his associates come to rob the house. The robbers are intercepted by Eponine, who unbeknownst to the two lovebirds has been keeping watch; after failing to convince them that the house is not worth their efforts, Eponine drives them away by threatening to scream and attract the police. Not a hint of this disturbs Cosette and Marius, who are busy considering their forthcoming separation; Marius has no money with which to travel after Cosette and her father. Marius comes to a decision, and tells Cosette not to expect him on the following evening, as he will be calling on somebody who might help.

Eponine slips Jean Valjean an anonymous message warning him to move away from the house in the Rue Plumet. This, on top of the various signs he has noticed that someone has been surreptitiously entering the garden, prompts him to move up the planned date of departure.

Marius goes to his closest living relative, his grandfather, M. Gillenormand, with whom he has had no contact since they quarrelled four years ago. M. Gillenormand raised Marius after his mother died giving birth to him, allowing his father (of whom M. Gillenormand had always disapproved) no contact with the family; it was over M. Gillenormand's treatment of Marius' father that they quarrelled. M. Gillenormand is delighted by the chance to reconcile with his beloved grandson, but, old ladies' man that he is, is unable to comprehend the sincerity of Marius' feelings for Cosette; he makes light of the situation, and Marius angrily departs, declaring his intention never to return.

Valjean informs Cosette that they will be spending their last few days in Paris at his house in the Rue de l'Homme Arme. Cosette gives Eponine a message for Marius, but Eponine, jealous, decides not to pass it on.

In 1832, there are rumblings of disaffection among the lower classes, who feel that their lot is not much improved by the recent July Revolution. Insurrection is in the air. Among those involved are a student named Enjolras and his friends, some of whom are also friends of Marius. The funeral on the 5th of June, 1832, of General Lamarque, who had been much loved by the people, is the trigger for armed insurrection. Enjolras and his friends head a group of fifty insurrectionists, which also includes Little Gavroche; Eponine, who had been hoping to find Marius; and an undercover Javert.

Enjolras and his group decide to site their barricade near the intersection of the Rue de la Chanvrerie and the Rue Saint Denis - and, not entirely coincidentally, near a tavern with which the students have a long acquaintance. They occupy the tavern, and set to work building the barricade. Javert is unmasked by Gavroche, and imprisoned in the tavern.

Marius goes to see Cosette again, and finds the house deserted. Having thus lost his grandfather and the woman he loves in the space of twenty-four hours, Marius is plunged into despair. While he is thus despairing, Eponine (who knew he would be here at this time) arrives with a message inviting him to join Enjolras and his friends. Marius, feeling that without Cosette he has nothing left to live for, goes to join Enjolras' group at the barricade.

Soldiers arrive and attack the barricade. The barricade is penetrated, but Marius forces the attackers to fall back by threatening to blow up the revolutionaries' ammunition store, though this would mean his own death as well. Eponine, who took a bullet for Marius during the attack, gives Marius the message from Cosette and dies. Marius concludes that, since his grandfather was no help, their love is still doomed anyway, but at least now he can send Cosette a message of farewell. He writes the message and, after the soldiers leave off for the night, sends Gavroche to deliver it, hoping thereby to get Gavroche away and save him from the fighting.

Gavroche takes Marius' note, but, eager to be back at the barricade, lets Jean Valjean take it instead of insisting on delivering it to Cosette in person. Valjean reads the note himself, and sets out to save Marius, for Cosette's sake.

Dawn approaches, and soldiers prepare a renewed attack on the barricade. It has become clear that the Parisian masses are not going to rise up and join the revolution; the revolutionaries resolve to fight on regardless, as an example, but Enjolras orders that any with families to support or loved ones who will miss them should leave before it's too late. Marius, feeling himself alone in the world, remains, and so perforce does Jean Valjean. The soldiers resume their attack, now with cannon, but the barricade holds. When the revolutionaries begin to worry about running low on ammunition, Gavroche sneaks out of the barricade to loot the ammunition-pouches of the fallen soldiers, and is killed. Around noon, the tide begins to turn in favour of the attackers, and the revolutionaries prepare for the final assault. Enjolras decides that the time has come to execute the police spy, as they are now beyond the point where one bullet might make a difference; Valjean volunteers for the job, and, taking Javert to the alley behind the tavern... lets him go, to Javert's astonishment. During the final onslaught, all the revolutionaries are killed, except for Marius, who is wounded severely, and Valjean, who escapes with the unconscious Marius through the sewers.

Valjean successfully navigates the hazards of the sewer to reach a distant exit, but it is covered by a locked grating. He is offered a key to the grating by Thenardier, who is hiding in the sewer to avoid a policeman who was tailing him; not recognising either Valjean or Marius in the poor light, Thenardier takes Valjean for a murderer trying to dispose of a body, and hopes that his appearance from the sewer will distract the policeman. To avoid suspicion at this generosity, Thenardier claims a share of the corpse's possessions, and, while searching Marius' pockets, he secretly tears a strip off his coat, hoping to turn a profit at some future point by identifying the victim and his murderer. That done, he opens the grating and lets Valjean exit the sewer, whereupon Valjean is promptly arrested by the policeman - it is Inspector Javert. Valjean submits to Javert's authority, but persuades him first to take Marius home to his grandfather and then to let Valjean say a last goodbye to Cosette. Javert stops outside Valjean's house while he says goodbye, and when Valjean emerges, Javert is gone.

Javert is disturbed: Valjean's noble behaviour challenges Javert's convictions about the degradation of all who transgress against the law, and his own instinctive reaction to it mocks his convictions about the correct attitude toward transgressors. Unable to reconcile his duty as an officer of the Law - always, until now, his highest duty in his own eyes - with his debt of honour to the man who saved his life at the barricade, he drowns himself in the Seine.

Marius gradually recovers from his injuries, and is reconciled with his grandfather and reunited with Cosette. Jean Valjean retrieves the remainder of his fortune from its hiding place and bestows it upon Cosette. Marius attempts to locate the man who saved his life, but fails: nobody at the house got a good look at the man, while Marius was unconscious for the important bit and due to the extent of his injuries remembers only vaguely the events preceding it; Jean Valjean, for his part, does his best to prevent Marius' suspicions fixing on himself.

Cosette and Marius are married on the 16th of February, 1833. Jean Valjean leaves the celebrations early, pleading illness, and spends the night solitarily considering his future.

Jean Valjean concludes that he should not intrude himself upon Cosette and Marius' life together, for fear that their happiness would be ruined if his past should catch up with him and because he feels that, as a fugitive from the law and not even Cosette's relative, he has no place in their future. On the day following the wedding, he informs Marius of his decision and his reasons. Marius is astonished and horrified - Valjean says nothing in his own favour, save only to assure Marius that the fortune he bestowed on Cosette was legally come by, and even then implying that it was Cosette's money all along - and accepts Valjean's decision.

Jean Valjean turns down Cosette's invitation to live with her and Marius, and although he visits regularly, he insists on being treated merely as an acquaintance, not as a father. Cosette is hurt and confused by his behaviour, but neither he nor Marius will explain, as neither is prepared to burden her with the knowledge of her "father"'s past. Gradually, Cosette becomes accustomed to the new situation. Jean Valjean, faced with Marius' continuing disapproval, visits less regularly and finally ceases to visit at all. Jean Valjean goes into a decline, never leaving his lodgings and ceasing to eat.

Meanwhile, Thenardier, having recognised Jean Valjean in a passing wedding cavalcade in February, has been doing some research. He comes to see Marius, hoping to to extort money out of him by revealing his father-in-law's past; he succeeds only in removing Marius' suspicions of Valjean, by revealing Valjean's career as M. Madeleine, Valjean's salvation of Javert at the barricade, and - when he thinks he is playing his trump card - that it was Valjean who saved Marius by carrying him through the sewers. Marius gives him twenty thousand francs on condition that he leave the country and never return (which condition is subsequently fulfilled). As soon as Thenardier is out of the house, Marius takes Cosette and makes haste to Jean Valjean's lodging to bring him home. But they are almost too late; there is time only for a brief joyful reunion, and then Jean Valjean dies.

Other threads

At a number of points in the novel, Hugo pauses to devote a book to detailed consideration of a particular subject that has appeared in the story; in this way are included essays on subjects as diverse as the history and purpose of religious communities, slang, the roots of armed insurrection, and the history and geography of the sewers of Paris.

Other essays, after taking up most of a book, conclude with a chapter tying them into the plot: thus a play-by-play account of the Battle of Waterloo ends in an encounter between Colonel Pontmercy, Marius Pontmercy's father, and "Sergeant" Thenardier; an essay on the Parisian street child as an idea ends by introducing the specific street child called Little Gavroche; and an essay on the significance and consequences of the July Revolution ends with a chapter showing how Enjolras and his friends are tied in with those consequences.

Similarly, at points in the novel Hugo devotes a book to detailed consideration to a particular character or group of characters who otherwise appear only briefly in the narrative: these include M. Myriel, the bishop of Digne; the nuns of the convent in the Rue Petit-Picpus, in whose school Cosette is educated; Marius' grandfather, M. Gillenormand; the group of revolution-minded students led by Enjolras; the Parisian criminal organisation known as "Patron-Minette".

One character rates an entire volume. The third volume is devoted to the life story of Marius; Jean Valjean and Cosette appear only in the sixth book, which tells the encounters in the Luxembourg Garden from Marius' point of view, and the climactic eighth, which recounts the day in which Jean Valjean comes to visit the Fabantous and finds the Thenardiers.

Other characters whose lives are woven into the narrative include Pére Fauchelevant, whose life Valjean saves in Montreuil-sur-Mer and who returns the favour in Paris; the various inhabitants of the Gorbeau tenement, where Valjean and Cosette stay when they first come to Paris; M. Mabeuf, a retired and impoverished horticulturalist, who befriends Marius' father and then Marius; Little Gavroche, whose role is considerably larger than the above synopsis suggests; and two small children who Little Gavroche takes under his wing after their previous guardian is arrested in a police raid.

Adaptations

The story has been filmed numerous times:

• 1909, directed by J. Stuart Blackton
• 1911, directed by Albert Capellani
• 1913, directed again by Albert Capellani
• 1917, directed by Frank Lloyd
• 1922, director unknown
• 1925, directed by Henri Fescourt
• 1934, directed by Raymond Bernard
• 1935, directed by Richard Boleslawski
• 1958, I Miserabili, directed by Riccardo Freda
• 1952, directed by Lewis Milestone
• 1958, directed by Jean-Paul Le Chanois
• 1982, directed by Robert Hossein
• 1990, directed by Jean-Paul Rappeneau
• 1995, directed by Claude Lelouch (a loose, multi-layered adaptation set in the 20th century)
• 1998, directed by Bille August
• 2001 - French TV miniseries directed by Josée Dayan and co-produced by Gerard Depardieu

In 1937, Orson Welles wrote, produced and directed a seven-part series for radio. Welles himself narrated the story and played the part of Valjean. The show featured Ray Collins, Alice Frost, Martin Gabel, Bill Johnstone, Agnes Moorehead and Everett Sloane, many of whom would perform for The Mercury Theatre on the Air.

In 1980, a musical (see Les Misérables (musical)) opened in Paris, written by the composer Claude-Michel Schönberg and the librettist Alain Boublil, which has gone on to become one of the most successful musicals in history.

In 2001, BBC Radio 4 produced a 25-part radio dramatisation, with a cast of 27 featuring Joss Ackland narrating, Roger Allam as Valjean, and David Schofield as Javert.

In May 2001, Francois Ceresa published Cosette, or the Time of Illusions, a sequel to Les Misérables. Victor Hugo's descendants attempted unsuccessfully to have the book banned, condemning it as a money-seeking enterprise and an attack on Hugo's work (more subjective offences aside, it is undeniable that Ceresa retconned a key scene in Hugo's novel to avoid the death of a character he wanted to use in his novel). [1] (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/1542284.stm)

External links

• Free eBook of Les Misérables (http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/135) at Project Gutenberg — English translation.