Les Miserables Summary & Study Guide Description

Liberated from prison, Valjean hides his identity and becomes a successful man, as charitable as he is rich and powerful. His altruism leads him to promise Fantine, a dying prostitute, that he will seek out her exploited young daughter Cosette after her death. To some extent, Hugo also was seeking redemption, having, for much of his youth, ignored the populist concerns of Republican France. The Revolution and Republic of France had failed to redress the unconscionable social conditions in which many French citizens languished.

The closest thing to a homeless shelter was prison, a macabre dungeon where inmates slept on bare planks and ate rancid food. To this place the disabled, insane, hungry, or desperate citizens of France eventually found their way. The one hope of the poor for relief was charity from those who were, if not indifferent to their plight, outright hostile to it.

Workers pooled their money to buy the book not one of them could afford on their own.


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The struggling people of France had found an articulate illustration of the unjust forces arrayed against them. Hugo sees the world as a convoluted pattern: The immense popularity of this story has not diminished over time. Why does this story continue to charm and inspire audiences and readers?


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Hugo illustrates how the most profound revolution takes place in our individual consciences, how every moment we are faced with decisions to do right or wrong, and how to make in our hearts pitched battles against our own worst impulses. Time cannot change the necessity or urgency of that message—only people can.

Victor Hugo died in as one of the most famous Europeans in history. At eighty-three years old, Hugo had outlived two siblings, his wife, three out of four of his children, and thousands of admirers and critics who had watched his career transform and flourish. Prolific and protean as an artist, a politician, and a man, Hugo was capable of testing the limits of extremes, having learned the tension of polar opposites from his parents early in life.

Under the care of his stoic mother, Hugo grew into a traditionalist, sworn to preserving the neo-Classical tradition of French literature and the rights of the French monarchy. These writings all supported traditional French literature and castigated early Romanticism, an ideology that soon thereafter lured Hugo to its camp with its irresistible ideals of freedom, honesty, and originality.

Thus began a volatile and prolific career, each work fresh, surprising, and loaded with that Hugolian tendency to incite controversy. Add to this his political and cultural commentary, his travelogues, letters, speeches, and plays, and you have a corpus of work that scholars are still compiling, publishing, and analyzing. Hugo made no attempt to separate his life as a writer from his life as a citizen.

In , Hugo was made a pair de France life peer and member of the Upper House , a position which should have endeared him to powerful circles and alienated him from the people.

Les Miserables | Introduction & Overview

For the next twenty years, Hugo disseminated his works from Belgium and the small islands in the English Channel, smuggling political satires and polemical verse in sardine tins, walking sticks, and baggy trousers. Throughout his life, Hugo worked to further Republican virtues, affirming education and a democratic distribution of property, denouncing the unbalance of power and capital punishment.

This family avoided the actress and ex-prostitute who resided down the street from them, Juliette. Her affair with Hugo lasted for fifty years, perhaps the longest extra-marital affair in history.

Les Misérables (2012) - "Look Down" intro scene - Spanish Sub (HD)

Neither a model of virtue or simplicity, Hugo nonetheless inspired the people of many nations and many generations to act with greater regard for others. Today it is hard to imagine a playwright whose works young men die defending, a poet whose followers cry for revolution, a thinker whose thoughts change world history. Hugo was all of these and his legacy survives through his tremendous literary bequest. He lived in a time when children were shot in the streets of Paris and governments were violently overthrown every twenty years.

His presence was a beacon and a pillar, a palpable force to struggle against or with, a mad blend of courage, genius, and kindness. In order to be enjoyed by generations, a book has to have certain qualities.

The Novel of the Century by David Bellos review – the story of Les Misérables

The book has to touch the reader both in his mind and in his heart. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo has achieved what few others have. For many generations, Les Miserables has been touching the lives of its readers. The book also teaches reader such important life lessons that they are.

Quotes By Topic

A book by book character analysis, main idea, and connection to history of Victor Hugo's Les Miserables words - 10 pages them that he gave Jean Valjean the silver. He then gives Jean Valjean the candlesticks as well. Victor Hugo criticizes the Catholic Church of France at this time.

An example of this is when Monseigneur Bienvenu sees. Aussi, c'est fictif parce que. French Revolution Left France Impoverished: In the astounding novel of Les Miserables written by Victor Hugo, Victor Hugo expressed his concern on the poor people of France when he wrote a story about the life of a philanthropist. The philanthropist's name was Jean Valjean and the audience can see Victor Hugo's emphasization on his care for the poor through Jean Valjean.

Biography and Critical Analysis of Lewis Carrol and his work "Alice in Wonderland" words - 6 pages orders and became a mathematics professor at Oxford until influenza caused death. Alice in Wonder is the work Dodgson, recognized by his pseudonym Lewis Carroll in this story, is most famous for. He created the story for the one of the three daughters of Henry Liddell, dean of Chirst Church who introduced Dodgson to photography. This work is a perfect example to show the witty and humorous yet intellectual and puzzling style of Dodgson's fictional. Biography and Critical Analysis of James Weldon Johnson and his work "The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man" words - 9 pages raising his two children he thinks of his life and people in it.

He then realizes he wants to go back to being black because he could be his true self then, but can't for the sake of his children. Many in a society say the eyes a black man sees the world through and those of whites are extremely different. In Johnson's work, he ingeniously creates a tale of a man, the narrator, who is given the rare opportunity to see through both.

However, it is not. In Congo, there is a hospital named Panzi in which just one doctor here. It is not possible to take care of so many patients for one doctor. Fortunately, this doctor reported what was happening in that hospital, so that it would be paid attention by everyone and get help from them.

However, it did not work well as this doctor thought. The Congo army tried to kill him to keep the event as a secret. After schooling in France Hugo married his childhood lover in In he was active in the revolution, which gave.

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This novel shows that an individual can overcome these miseries and live in peace. Les Miserables, By Victor Hugo: When introduced into the.