Les Misérables - Wikipedia. Les Misérables. Jean Valjean as Monsieur Madeleine. Illustration by Gustave Brion.

Author. Victor Hugo. Illustrator. Emile Bayard. Country. France. Language. French. Genre. Epic novel, historical fiction. Publisher. A. Lacroix, Verboeckhoven & Cie. Publication date. Les Misérables (French pronunciation: ​[le mizeʁabl(ə)]) is a Frenchhistorical novel by Victor Hugo, first published in 1.

In the English- speaking world, the novel is usually referred to by its original French title. However, several alternatives have been used, including The Miserables, The Wretched, The Miserable Ones, The Poor Ones, The Wretched Poor, The Victims and The Dispossessed.[1] Beginning in 1.

June Rebellion in Paris, the novel follows the lives and interactions of several characters, particularly the struggles of ex- convict Jean Valjean and his experience of redemption.[2]Examining the nature of law and grace, the novel elaborates upon the history of France, the architecture and urban design of Paris, politics, moral philosophy, antimonarchism, justice, religion, and the types and nature of romantic and familial love. Les Misérables has been popularized through numerous adaptations for the stage, television, and film, including a musical and a film adaptation of that musical. Novel form. Upton Sinclair described the novel as "one of the half- dozen greatest novels of the world," and remarked that Hugo set forth the purpose of Les Misérables in the Preface: [3]So long as there shall exist, by reason of law and custom, a social condemnation, which, in the face of civilization, artificially creates hells on earth, and complicates a destiny that is divine with human fatality; so long as the three problems of the age—the degradation of man by poverty, the ruin of women by starvation, and the dwarfing of childhood by physical and spiritual night—are not solved; so long as, in certain regions, social asphyxia shall be possible; in other words, and from a yet more extended point of view, so long as ignorance and misery remain on earth, books like this cannot be useless. Towards the end of the novel, Hugo explains the work's overarching structure: [4]The book which the reader has before him at this moment is, from one end to the other, in its entirety and details .. God. The starting point: matter, destination: the soul.

The hydra at the beginning, the angel at the end. The novel contains various subplots, but the main thread is the story of ex- convict Jean Valjean, who becomes a force for good in the world but cannot escape his criminal past. The novel is divided into five volumes, each volume divided into several books, and subdivided into chapters, for a total of 4. Each chapter is relatively short, commonly no longer than a few pages. The novel as a whole is one of the longest ever written,[5] with approximately 1,5. English- language editions,[6] and 1,9. French.[7][8][9] Hugo explained his ambitions for the novel to his Italian publisher: [1.

1. Stage actor Jon Robyns (C), as Enjolras, performs 'Do You Hear The People Sing' during a photo rehearsal for Les Miserables at the Barbican Center in London, Britain.
2. Set against the backdrop of 19th-century France, Les Misérables tells an enthralling story of broken dreams and unrequited love, passion, sacrifice and redemption-a.
3. ``Les Miserables'' is like a perfectly respectable Classics Illustrated version of the Victor Hugo novel.

· Book your tickets online for Les Miserables London, London: See 8,021 reviews, articles, and 648 photos of Les Miserables London, ranked No.1 on.

Les Misérables (French pronunciation: [le mizeʁabl(ə)]) is a French historical novel by Victor Hugo, first published in 1862, that is considered one of the.

A new behind-the-scenes clip from 'Les Misérables' features interviews with the cast discussing the benefits of singing live during filming. What's it all about? The West End's longest running musical, Les Miserables, continues to delight audiences at the Queen's Theatre and celebrated its 30th anniversary. Les Miserables movie reviews & Metacritic score: A musical adaptation of Victor Hugo's classic novel about a recently-released prisoner named Jean Valjean st. Download sheet music for Les Misérables. Choose from Les Misérables sheet music for such popular songs as On My Own, I Dreamed a Dream, and Bring Him Home. Print.

I don't know whether it will be read by everyone, but it is meant for everyone. It addresses England as well as Spain, Italy as well as France, Germany as well as Ireland, the republics that harbour slaves as well as empires that have serfs. Social problems go beyond frontiers. Humankind's wounds, those huge sores that litter the world, do not stop at the blue and red lines drawn on maps.

Wherever men go in ignorance or despair, wherever women sell themselves for bread, wherever children lack a book to learn from or a warm hearth, Les Miserables knocks at the door and says: "open up, I am here for you". Digressions. More than a quarter of the novel—by one count 9. Hugo's encyclopedic knowledge, but do not advance the plot, nor even a subplot, a method Hugo used in such other works as The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Toilers of the Sea. One biographer noted that "the digressions of genius are easily pardoned".[1. The topics Hugo addresses include cloistered religious orders, the construction of the Paris sewers, argot, and the street urchins of Paris.

The one about convents he titles "Parenthesis" to alert the reader to its irrelevance to the story line.[1. He devotes another 1. Volume II, Book I) to an account of—and a meditation on the place in history of—the Battle of Waterloo, which battlefield Hugo visited in 1.

It opens volume 2 with such a change of subject as to seem the beginning of an entirely different work. The fact that this 'digression' occupies such a large part of the text demands that it be read in the context of the 'overarching structure' discussed above. Hugo draws his own personal conclusions, taking Waterloo to be a pivot- point in history, but definitely not a victory for the forces of reaction. Waterloo, by cutting short the demolition of European thrones by the sword, had no other effect than to cause the revolutionary work to be continued in another direction. Watch War Pigs Online Forbes. The slashers have finished; it was the turn of the thinkers.

The century that Waterloo was intended to arrest has pursued its march. That sinister victory was vanquished by liberty. One critic has called this "the spiritual gateway" to the novel, as its chance encounter of Thénardier and Colonel Pontmercy foreshadows so many of the novel's encounters "blending chance and necessity", a "confrontation of heroism and villainy".[1. Even when not turning to other subjects outside his narrative, Hugo sometimes interrupts the straightforward recitation of events, his voice and control of the story line unconstrained by time and sequence. The novel opens with a statement about the bishop of Digne in 1.

Although these details in no way essentially concern that which we have to tell.." Only after 1. Hugo pick up the opening thread again, "In the early days of the month of October, 1. Jean Valjean.[1. 4]Hugo's sources. Eugene Vidocq, whose career provided a model for the character of Jean Valjean. In 1. 82. 9 Hugo started to get sources from seeing three strangers and a police officer.

One of the strangers was a man who stole a loaf of bread similar to Jean Valjean. The police was taking him to the coach. The thief also saw the mother and daughter playing with each other which would be an inspiration for Fantine and Cosette. Watch The Longest Day Online Hulu. Hugo imagined the life of the man in jail and the mother and daughter taken away from each other.[1. Valjean's character is loosely based on the life of Eugène François Vidocq. Vidocq, an ex- convict, became the head of an undercover police unit and later founded France's first private detective agency. He was also a businessman and was widely noted for his social engagement and philanthropy.

Vidocq helped Hugo with his research for Claude Gueux and Le Dernier jour d'un condamné (The Last Day of a Condemned Man).[citation needed] In 1. Vidocq, already pardoned, saved one of the workers in his paper factory by lifting a heavy cart on his shoulders as Valjean does.[1. Hugo's description of Valjean rescuing a sailor on the Orion drew almost word for word on a Baron La Roncière's letter describing such an incident.[1. Hugo used Bienvenu de Miollis (1. Bishop of Digne during the time in which Valjean encounters Myriel, as the model for Myriel.[1. Hugo had used the departure of prisoners for the Bagne of Toulon in one of his early stories, Le Dernier Jour d'un Condamné.

He went to Toulon to visit the Bagne in 1. On one of the pages of his notes about the prison, he wrote in large block letters a possible name for his hero: "JEAN TRÉJEAN".