“Les Misérables” is Victor Hugo’s masterpiece exploring human suffering, love, forgiveness, and justice. It delves into the nobility of the human spirit striving for justice and peace, offering timeless inspiration and lessons.
Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo was born in Besançon, France, in 1802. Because his father was a soldier, he spent his childhood moving around various regions of France, as well as Italy and Spain. After entering boarding school at age ten, Victor Hugo became captivated by reading and poetry. The following year, he wrote in his diary, “Je veux être Chateaubriand,” vowing at a young age to become a literary giant of France.
When Louis Napoleon III staged a coup in 1851, Victor Hugo opposed him and spent nearly 20 years in exile. During this period, he was recognized as the conscience of France resisting the absolute monarch. Though initially forced into exile, he remained in his place of exile even after being pardoned, leading to strong suspicions that his exile was a voluntary gesture and an act of pride. Regardless, his imagination reached its peak around this time, and almost all his original works were written during his exile. Victor Hugo returned to Paris in 1870 and was welcomed as a hero. On his eightieth birthday in 1882, a staggering 600,000 people marched past his home for six hours, chanting “Long live the Republic! Victor Hugo!” Three years later, when he finally passed away, a state funeral was solemnly held. It is said that a staggering two million people followed his coffin along the funeral procession route from the Arc de Triomphe to the Panthéon.
Victor Hugo wrote freely across all literary genres, including poetry, plays, and novels. Regardless of the genre, he championed Romanticism against Classicism. His plays include Cromwell and Hernani. However, it was his novels that established Victor Hugo as France’s foremost literary figure. His most famous novels are The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and Les Misérables.
Les Misérables Work Overview
Les Misérables is a novel published by French author Victor Hugo in 1862. The title Les Misérables means ‘The Miserable Ones’.
This epic novel depicts the tumultuous lives of numerous characters, including the protagonist Jean Valjean. It grandly unfolds the life journey of Jean Valjean, an escaped convict seeking light in the darkness, against the backdrop of defining historical events of 19th-century Europe, such as the Battle of Waterloo and the French Restoration.
Les Misérables presents diverse elements of human existence: good and evil, war and famine, love and hatred, cruelty and brutality. The author unites all these through a humanitarian worldview, emphasizing that even within history, which flows relentlessly while ignoring individual misfortune, what is most essential is ‘love’. It reminds us that everyone needs the love of others, and without it, one inevitably becomes more miserable and unhappy. Furthermore, Les Misérables stands as a quintessential work of Romantic literature that appeals to the individual’s free emotions. Over 160 years after its publication, it continues to be read worldwide and is actively adapted into films, musicals, and other media.
Les Misérables Synopsis
Young Jean Valjean stole a loaf of bread and, compounded by a failed escape attempt, served 19 years in prison.
Released in middle age, he stole silverware from a bishop’s house and fled, only to be caught by the police. However, Bishop Myriel claimed he had given it to him, not only saving Jean Valjean but also adding a silver candlestick and urging him to become an honest man. Jean Valjean, hiding his identity under the name Madeleine, achieved business success and even became mayor.
But the relentless prosecutor Javert never gave up, doggedly pursuing him. Jean Valjean, who had been doing good deeds, learned that an innocent man was being mistaken for him. To save him, he revealed his true identity and went to prison. But he escaped again and took in the orphan Cosette as his foster daughter.
The beautifully grown Cosette fell in love with a young man named Marius. Jean Valjean rescued Marius, who had been wounded during a riot, and arranged for him to marry Cosette. Jean Valjean revealed his true identity to Marius and then left them. Learning the whole truth, Marius searched for Jean Valjean with Cosette. Jean Valjean quietly passed away while Cosette and her husband watched over him.
Les Misérables Character Introduction
Jean Valjean
He steals a loaf of bread and serves 19 years in prison. Thanks to Bishop Myriel, he becomes a new man, helping the poor and raising the pitiful orphan Cosette as his own daughter. Though constantly anxious due to Javert’s pursuit, he desperately strives to atone for his past.
Bishop Myriel
By forgiving Jean Valjean for stealing a silver platter, he opened the door to a new life for him. He is a frugal clergyman who prioritizes the unfortunate and practices God’s love in his daily life.
Cosette
Fantine’s daughter, entrusted to the Thénardier couple and cruelly abused. After becoming Jean Valjean’s foster daughter, she grows into a beautiful young woman under his care. She meets the passionate young man Marius, falls in love, and eventually becomes his wife.
Fantine
A factory worker at the factory run by Jean Valjean, she later resorts to prostitution to pay for the upbringing of her daughter, left in the care of the Thénardier couple. She dies miserably without ever seeing her daughter again.
The Thénardiers
A greedy couple who run an inn, treating Cosette like a servant while ruthlessly extorting money from Fantine for her upkeep. After their inn fails, they become city paupers and blackmail Jean Valjean.
Javert
An exceptional police officer with a deep hatred for criminals. He relentlessly pursues Jean Valjean but repeatedly fails to catch him. While tracking Jean Valjean’s movements, he gradually realizes his own convictions are beginning to waver.
Marius
Gillenormand’s grandson, who grew up without ever knowing his father. After his father’s death, resentful of his grandfather, he runs away from home and lives in the slums. He accidentally meets Cosette in the park and falls in love with her, only to be wounded in the turmoil of the revolution.
Gillenormand
He is the man who disowned his son-in-law due to differing political views, thereby separating his son-in-law from his grandson Marius. He opposes Marius’s marriage to Cosette, but later marries them off.
Fauchelevent
His life is saved by Jean Valjean when he is run over by a carriage. Later, in a life-threatening crisis, he helps Jean Valjean and Cosette, arranging for them to hide safely in a convent.
Les Misérables Work Commentary
While some may not know Victor Hugo (1802–1885), almost no one is unfamiliar with the work Les Misérables. Jean Valjean’s tumultuous life—serving 19 years in prison for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his starving sister and her child, then spending the rest of his life on the run after his release—remains deeply etched in the collective memory. Made even more famous by its protagonist Jean Valjean, Les Misérables stands as a classic among classics, towering not only in 19th-century French literary history but also in the history of world literature.
Throughout the history of world literature, it is difficult to find another work that achieved such immense popularity as Les Misérables. Its popularity was so overwhelming that the first edition sold out within 24 hours of its publication in Paris, leaving little doubt about its immense appeal. Its popularity swept through France, needless to say, and also took Britain and other countries by storm. During the American Civil War, the novel was so popular among soldiers that it was widely read in the field.
Around this time, the popularity of Victor Hugo’s works, including Les Misérables, was truly immense. The French naturalist novelist Émile Zola remarked:
“I know well of workers who would give up smoking to buy Victor Hugo’s works when they were published at ten sous a copy. They don’t read them; they bind them up and keep them at home like fine furniture, taking great pride in them.”
It is said that this single novel earned Victor Hugo enough income to sustain him for nearly his entire life without needing to do much else. This novel has since been adapted into musicals, plays, puppet shows, and of course films, receiving immense love worldwide.
Background and Content of Les Misérables
Les Misérables means ‘The Miserable Ones,’ a title reflecting the miserable lives of the French people. In Korea, it was widely read under the title Jean Valjean, named after the protagonist. Unlike his other works, Victor Hugo wrote this novel over a long period, bit by bit. In 1845, his newlywed daughter, Léopoldine Hugo, drowned along with her husband, Charles Vacquerie. Deeply grieved, Victor Hugo sought solace in writing Les Misérables. He initially began writing the work titled ‘Les Misérables’ but set it aside when he became involved in politics.
It wasn’t until 1860 that Victor Hugo returned to this work. From this point on, he wrote this vast work almost in one go, despite it seeming impossible to complete. While writing this work, Victor Hugo inserted passages expressing his political views throughout. He wrote the final scene of the Battle of Waterloo while listening to the actual cannon fire at the historic battlefield. Les Misérables finally saw the light of day in 1862, a full twenty years after he began writing it, when the author was sixty years old.
Les Misérables opens with the protagonist, Jean Valjean, finally being released after many years of imprisonment. Sentenced to five years for stealing a loaf of bread, he spends a total of nineteen years in prison after an additional charge of attempted escape is added. Having spent the prime of his life largely behind bars, Jean Valjean faces hostility upon his release but finds temporary shelter in Bishop Myriel’s home through the bishop’s kindness.
However, Jean Valjean betrays Bishop Myriel’s kindness and steals silverware from the church. The bishop generously forgives him and even gives him the candlesticks as a gift. Finally repenting his sins, Jean Valjean transforms himself into Madeleine, starts a business in an unfamiliar city, becomes highly successful, and is eventually elected mayor of that town. However, to save an innocent prisoner arrested because of him, he confesses his true identity and is imprisoned again. Escaping prison once more, Jean Valjean is pursued by Inspector Javert and betrayed by villains. He gives the silver candlesticks, once gifted by the bishop, to Cosette, the orphan he has cared for his entire life, and finally passes away.
The Central Theme of Les Misérables
At first glance, Victor Hugo seems to address the problem of fate or destiny suppressing human free will in Les Misérables. For the protagonist Jean Valjean, fate or destiny constantly follows him like a dark shadow, tormenting him. As Victor Hugo put it, the protagonist tries to chip away at the ‘mysterious stone’ called life with a chisel, but he constantly collides with the ‘black stone of destiny’. Until their final breath, humans cannot know what fate or destiny awaits them.
In this respect, Les Misérables brings to mind the novels of the naturalist writer Émile Zola, who emerged decades later. In Victor Hugo’s work, fate or destiny manifests itself in the form of Inspector Javert. Whenever Jean Valjean attempts to act of his own free will, Inspector Javert invariably appears to obstruct him. Yet Javert views things solely from his own perspective, never attempting to see them from another’s viewpoint. He is a character who stubbornly clings only to the abstract concept of duty. Consequently, justice in his hands inevitably becomes distorted and warped beyond recognition.
Moreover, Victor Hugo sharply critiques 19th-century French society in Les Misérables. In this respect, the work can easily be read as a novel of social resistance. For instance, the scene where Jean Valjean helps Marius, wounded and hunted after participating in the citizens’ revolution and facing government suppression, escape through the sewers reveals Victor Hugo’s interest in social movements.
Victor Hugo depicts the social conditions and political realities of France during the Napoleonic era and its aftermath with mirror-like starkness. He paid particular attention to the destitute and starving children of the time, young women forced to sell their bodies and souls due to poverty, and prisoners branded for life as criminals simply for having made one mistake.
He also unleashed sharp criticism on the various inhumane institutions that turned a blind eye to these human tragedies, and on the political powers that tolerated or even fostered such systems. In the preface to the first edition of this work, Victor Hugo declared, ‘As long as ignorance and misfortune remain on this earth, such books will still be useful.’ Therefore, from its initial publication to the present day, the story of Jean Valjean, who suffers and is frustrated by poverty and ignorance, has been nothing less than a gospel for the poor and oppressed. In this cry for humanism, the work is often compared to the novels of the later Russian author Leo Tolstoy.
In one scene of this work, Victor Hugo cries out, perhaps to the point of sounding trite:
“Above all, consider the plight of those who suffer with nothing, comfort them, give them air and light, love them, open up a broad horizon for them, provide education in every form without stint (……) In short, to draw greater light and welfare from the social organization for the suffering and the ignorant—this is the foremost duty of the nation that compassionate people must not forget, and the urgent priority of politics that selfish people must recognize.”
Yet if we speak of the most crucial theme in Les Misérables, we cannot overlook the importance of love and forgiveness. Victor Hugo demonstrates in this work the immense power love can wield. The protagonist, Jean Valjean, endures every suffering and setback yet ultimately triumphs over evil. The weapon he uses to fight this evil is none other than love and forgiveness. Through love and forgiveness, he vanquishes not only the evil within himself but also the evil in others.
In the history of world literature, few works convey the gospel of love as persuasively as this novel. Through Jean Valjean, Victor Hugo conveys the precious message that no matter how much evil a person commits, they can always be redeemed through good deeds. This is precisely why the author calls this novel a ‘religious’ work. Good and evil, and love, stand out as the foremost themes within this work.
Yet Jean Valjean can love others and show such tolerance precisely because he himself endured unspeakably great suffering. Unlike those who easily succumb to despair when suffering, the more pain he endures, the more love and forgiveness surge within him. Like Midas of Greek mythology, who turned everything he touched to gold, he possesses the astonishing power to transform suffering and despair into love and forgiveness. For Victor Hugo, despair is not the end of life, but the starting point of salvation.
