Les Miserables

I read this book over a period of many days. At times I had to hang in there because of the digressions or gratuitous content from contemporary France. But the overall achievement of reading the book lies in having read one of the longer books in our literary heritage and one of the major works in the European novel.

I am an old soul who loves historical fiction, and this is one of the greatest historical fiction novels of all time. I had read Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame but not this one. What better year to read it than when the Olympics were in Paris!

My husband and I were also going to watch the stage version of Les Misérables on Broadway again. Reading the novel enriched the musical and made me enjoy it even more. I learned character backstories and side stories that the musical is unable to feature in its limited time. If you love… show more.

I thought I was rereading this, but obviously, I read a highly expurgated version in my youth. Victor Hugo has to be one of the greatest and most idiosyncratic writers ever. He has nudged my beloved Dickens out of his spot in my personal pantheon.

This is the story of Jean Valjean, who was jailed for stealing a loaf of bread and hunted down by a zealot of a police officer for not reporting to the parole board once he had been released from prison. It is the story of good and evil, of revolution and the Republic, and of… show more.

We all know the title. It’s become a record-breaking musical phenomenon. The book is a phenomenon in itself. It was a voyage I took for a few spellbound weeks, and I read it in a stone house in a small village in the South of France. It is a book of great sympathy and grace. 

Victor Hugo’s heart is large—at least measured by this story of an escaped prisoner who tries to do good with his life but is pursued relentlessly by a police officer, Javert. I found with this book, as the great writers always show me, that character… show more.

This book portrays the emotional conspiracies involving rape, wild sex, cruelty, miseries, and the poverty-stricken French people during the 19th century. 

The book resonates with the life of the upper and lower classes of society. There is hatred between the gendarme Javert and Jean Valjean, a poor man. The gendarme is looking for any reason to put the poor man in jail, who has already been in jail for 17 years for stealing a loaf of bread. 

I love this book because you can compare life between the past and the present and find a lot of similarities between now… show more.

Another classic, and quite possibly my favorite. It has been dramatised many times, though nothing beats the full novel.

Admittedly with a slow-paced start, the narrative soon grips you with the intensity of its plot and unforgettable characters – most prominent, of course, being the protagonist (Jean Valjean). After serving a long sentence, he then must contend with the prospect of a lifetime of prejudice and discrimination by being an ex-con, but he escapes this and, with the help of a kind bishop, sets himself up under a different name.

Here he transforms into Monseiur Madeleine, a philanthropic businessman who… show more.

Les Misérables showcases the terrible power imbalance between the poor and the morality police. Jean Valjean is irredeemable in the eyes of Inspector Javert for stealing a single loaf of bread. Fantine is forever tainted by one dalliance with a boy of privilege. Her daughter Cosette is considered illegitimate at birth and exploited at every turn.

These rag-tag individuals find solidarity in the gutter. They reinvent themselves as needed, care for the lost children of others, and fall in love with hope for the future. Some even take to the streets in a revolt inspired by the bloody Paris Uprising… show more.

I could relate to the convict who found the path toward redemption by helping other people. I believe that directing our thoughts and actions toward other people could be the only way to redeem ourselves from crimes we have committed and to attain forgiveness. The convict persists on this path despite being persecuted for crimes of his past. The minor characters are on this same path, which exemplifies the saying that love is not a feeling, it’s action.

Les Miz was the first book I truly read as a kid. I was in high school, and we mostly read boring old textbooks and I never had an interest in reading anything outside of what was required. That all changed when I was assigned to read Hugo’s novel in sophomore English class. Not only did I learn about the turbulent history of France, but I saw it through the eyes of Jean Valjean. Jean fought against all odds to live the life he wanted to live and change the lives of people around him. I’ll never forget that twist midway through… show more.

Victor Hugo is a consummate novelist with his finger on the pulse of the social and political history of his time, coupled with an ability to create strong and vibrant characters. You just have to look at the chapter "Petit Gervais" or the one in which Valjean gives himself up rather than see an innocent man suffer to understand this. Les Miserables is his undoubted masterpiece and if you read it, it will stay with you forever. It's hard to put a choice of favourite books in order because, like friends, you value books equally for different qualities, but this… show more.