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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, each containing eight or more "books" divided into some number of chapters.
Charles Myriel, a humble parish priest, is appointed bishop of Digne following a chance meeting with the Emperor Napoleon. He continues in his humble and compassionate way, donating almost all of his large salary to the poor, and living in a small house while allowing the local hospital to occupy the episcopal palace. The only luxuries he permits himself are a set of silverware and two silver candlesticks, which have sentimental value.
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 three additional years for each of four escape attempts, and two more for resisting arrest following the second attempt. After his release, in 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. 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.
Fantine, an innocent young woman who has come to Paris to seek her fortune, falls in love with a university student. The man, after getting her pregnant, abandons her, leaving her to raise an infant daughter on her own.
Fantine resolves to return to her home town in Montreuil-sur-Mer. Realising that she must keep her illegitimate child a secret, she finds a couple - M. Thenardier and his wife, who run an inn that Fantine passes on her journey - who are prepared to look after the girl, whose name is Cosette. Fantine finds work in a factory in Montreuil, and regularly sends money to the Thenardiers. The Thenardiers keep inventing new expenses and excuses for requesting money, all the while treating Cosette terribly, feeding and clothing her with their own childrens' leftovers, and making her do housework as soon as she is old enough to carry a broom.
M. Madeleine, the owner of the factory where Fantine works, is appointed mayor of the town in recognition of his philanthropy and the prosperity he has brought the region; he is in fact Jean Valjean, who has taken an opportunity to start anew under a false name. The town's police inspector Javert, who had met Valjean when Valjean was a convict, suspects the mayor's identity, but is unable to gather proof that will stand against a man of Madeleine's reputation. Meanwhile, 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, who was passing and knew 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.
Valjean 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, to whom 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. Valjean resolves to fetch Cosette himself, and has Fantine sign a message authorising him to collect her. His mission is forestalled when Javert receives a reply to his letter - which says that M. Madeleine can not be Jean Valjean, as Jean Valjean has recently been recaptured.
The real Valjean is now faced with a dilemma, but chooses to give himself up rather than let the innocent Champmathieu be imprisoned in his place. In the confusion caused by the revelation of his identity, it is some time before arrangements can be made to have him arrested.
Valjean goes to see Fantine in the hospital, and promises her he will look after Cosette. Fantine dies. Javert, triumphant, arrests Valjean. Valjean breaks out of the jail, makes a few final arrangements, including arranging for Fantine's funeral, and leaves town.
A flashback to 1815, and the Battle of Waterloo. In the aftermath of the battle, a looter discovers a still-living body buried amid a pile of corpses. He helps the survivor out from the crushing pile (and the survivor's valuables out from their owner's pockets). The soldier is a colonel by the name of Pontmercy; his rescuer, when asked, claims to be a sergeant and gives his name as Thenardier.
Jean Valjean is recaptured after only a few days - which is, however, sufficient for him to visit his bank in Paris, withdraw all his money (over six hundred thousand francs), and hide it somewhere beyond the reach of the authorities. He is sent to the galleys, from whence he escapes four months later, apparently lost overboard.
Valjean rescues Cosette from the Thenardiers and travels with her to Paris.
Valjean and Cosette live together in an out-of-the-way apartment in a poor part of Paris, and are happy. However, Valjean's manner of living - he dresses and lives poorly, but gives money to every beggar he meets, and is seen by his landlady with an extraordinary amount of money - causes gossip, which by and by comes to the ear of Inspector Javert, who is now stationed in Paris. Javert comes to investigate. Javert sees Valjean, but is unsure that it's Valjean (who, after all, is supposed to be dead); Valjean sees Javert, but convinces himself he was mistaken. Javert visits the Gorbeau tenement in the hope of getting a better look at his quarry; he fails, but his quarry gets another look at him, and decides that it is time to move on.
Valjean and Cosette leave their apartment after nightfall, and are tailed by watchers set by Javert. During the pursuit Valjean becomes sure that his pursuer is his old adversary Javert, and Javert that his quarry is his old and presumed-dead adversary Valjean. Eventually, Valjean and Cosette are pinned down in a blind alley, but while Javert goes to fetch reinforcements, Valjean manages to transport himself and Cosette over a wall; Javert is unable to determine which wall, and calls the pursuit off. Valjean and Cosette find themselves in the back garden of a convent - where, by chance, the gardener is a man from Montreuil-sur-Mer, whose life Valjean saved during his days as mayor.
A history of the convent in the Rue Petit-Picpus, and of the associated boarding school.
An essay on religious communities in general.
Fauchelevant, the gardener, obtains a position as assistant gardener for his "brother", and a place in the boarding school for his "niece". The trouble is that in order to take their new places, Valjean and Cosette must enter the convent - which means first departing the convent without anyone but Fauchelevant knowing that they were there already. Cosette is small enough to smuggle easily, but Valjean is more difficult, especially with Javert's men still watching the area. The day after Valjean's arrival, one of the nuns dies, and is interred in the vault under the convent's chapel, in accordance with her last wishes but in defiance of a secular regulation requiring the dead to be buried in an official cemetery; to satisfy the regulation, a second coffin officially containing the nun's mortal remains but in fact only containing ballast is to be buried in the cemetery. In the event, the ballast is Jean Valjean; when the funeral is done, Fauchelevant distracts the gravedigger and extricates Valjean. "Ultime Fauchelevant" and his "daughter" take their places at the convent. Years pass; Cosette grows up.
An account of the Parisian street child, and in particular of one called "Little Gavroche", who is not an orphan but lives on the streets in preference to the neglect and hostility he suffers at home. His parents, and his two sisters (on whom his mother dotes), are among those who have come to live in the Gorbeau tenement in the years since the departure of Jean Valjean.
An account of M. Gillenormand, a proud and lively old man who had been a fixture of Paris society well into his eighties. His younger daughter, disregarding his low opinion of the RevolutionThe period of the French Revolution in the history of France covers the years between 1789 and 1799, in which democrats and republicans overthrew the absolute monarchy and the Roman Catholic Church perforce underwent radical restructuring. While France wo and its consequences, had married Georges Pontmercy, a soldier in the service of the RepublicThe French people proclaimed France's First Republic on 21 September 1792 as a result of the French Revolution and of the abolition of the French monarchy. This marked the first occasion in many centuries where a major European state moved from monarchica and the EmpireThe First French Empire commonly known as the French Empire the Napoleonic Empire or simply as The Empire covers the period of the domination of France and of much of continental Europe by Napoleon I of France. Constitutionally, it refers to the period of who was made a colonel and a baron by Napoleon at Waterloo; she died giving birth to a son, Marius, who was claimed and raised by his grandfather.
Marius Pontmercy, now a young man, thinks little of his father, by whom he feels abandoned. This changes when, some time after his father's death, he happens to meet M. Mabeuf, a friend of his father's, who reveals that M. Gillenormand had threatened to disinherit Marius if his father did not leave and promise to have nothing further to do with the family. Marius sets out to find out all he can about his father, whom he grows to admire greatly. He resolves to honour the two duties with which his father had charged him in a letter written on his death-bed: first, to carry on and be worthy of the title of Baron Pontmercy (the title, like the promotion to colonel, had been disallowed following Napoleon's downfall, but Marius' father had continued to lay claim to both, feeling that he had earned them); second, to repay, should the opportunity ever present itself, the debt owed to that Sergeant Thenardier who had saved Colonel Pontmercy's life at Waterloo. As Marius' respect for his father grows, so too does his resentment toward his grandfather. Things come to a head in a blazing row, which ends with M. Gillenormand ordering his grandson to leave the house forthwith.
Marius, on quitting his grandfather's house, meets a fellow-student who did him a favour once and now does him another, finding him accommodation with a friend. Through these two new friends, Bossuet and Courfeyrac, Marius falls in with a group of students, led by one named Enjolras, who aspire to better the lot of the common man. Without his grandfather's support, Marius quickly runs short of money; although his grandfather soon unbends so far as to offer him (through an intermediary) a living allowance, Marius refuses it, claiming that he is doing fine on his own.
Marius moves to cheaper lodgings, and takes up a clerical job found for him by Courfeyrac. He completes his law-school studies and qualifies as a lawyer, but continues in his clerical work, having come to feel that he would rather be poor than accept the limits and compromises of the legal profession. He comes to feel that the courage with which he accepts his condition is his opportunity to prove himself worthy of his father's title, as his father proved himself worthy by the courage with which he faced battle. Marius finds new ways of saving money, and moves to even cheaper lodgings in the Gorbeau tenement, in the flat next to the Jondrettes, Little Gavroche's family. He associates with few people, only sometimes Courfeyrac and his friends, and sometimes M. Mabeuf, who has himself fallen on hard times.
Marius, on one of his habitual walks in the Luxembourg GardenThe Luxembourg Garden Jardin du Luxembourg familiar nickname Luco is a 224,500 m² public park in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, France. It is the garden of the French Senate, which is itself housed in the Luxembourg Palace. The garden is enjoyable for i, sees and falls in love with a girl who is there with her father. He goes more often to the Luxembourg in hope of seeing her, and even follows her home, but can not summon the courage to talk to her. After a time, the girl and her father stop coming to the Luxembourg; on making enquiries at the house where they had been living, Marius is informed that they have moved, leaving no forwarding address.
An account of the Parisian criminal underworld at this point in its existence, and of a particular organisation known as "Patron-Minette".
A chance encounter with Eponine and Azelma, the daughters of the family next door, leads Marius to become aware of the family's miserable condition; they live together in a single room, with no visible income; M. Jondrette is reduced to writing carefully calculated begging letters to rich philanthropists. One of these philanthropists comes to see the Jondrettes' plight for himself, and to Marius' delighted surprise, it is the father of the girl from the Luxembourg. To Jondrette's angered surprise, it is Jean Valjean. Valjean has little money on him, but promises to return in the evening with more. Marius overhears Jondrette plotting with associates of Patron-Minette to ambush Valjean, and - since he can't warn Valjean directly because he still doesn't know his name or address - goes to the police. The case is taken by Inspector Javert, who decides that the best course is to wait and catch the felons in the act; Marius is deputed to watch the action from his own room (the wall he shares with the Jondrettes is thin, and has a hole in it through lack of maintenance) and to signal with a pistol-shot at the appropriate moment. When Valjean returns, Jondrette reveals the cause of his anger: he is, in fact, not Jondrette but Thenardier, and he's still angry about losing his cash-cow Cosette all those years ago. This revelation puts Marius in an impossible position: delivering his father's saviour to the police no way to go about repaying the debt. Valjean, on the other hand, never loses his cool, and calmly bluffs his way through the situation until the police arrive on the scene, Javert having decided the time was ripe, signal or no signal. Thenardier and his cronies are arrested; Valjean escapes before Javert has an opportunity to recognise him.
An account of the July RevolutionLiberty Leading the People by Eugene Delacroix commemorates the July Revolution The French Revolution of 1830 also known as the July Revolution was a revolt by the middle class against Bourbon King Charles X which forced him out of office and replaced him of 1830Events February 3 The previously autonomous state of Greece gains full independence from the Ottoman Empire as the final result of the Greek War of Independence. Negotiations for the borders between the two states continue until 1832, under the supervisio and its consequences. By 1832Events February 12 Ecuador annexes the Galapagos Islands February 12 serious cholera epidemic begins in London from the East London. It is declared officially over in early May but deaths continue. At least 3000 victims March 24 In Hiram, Ohio a group of, there are rumblings of disaffection among the lower classes, who feel that their lot is not much improved. Insurrection is in the air. Among those involved are Enjolras and his friends.
Marius moves out of the Gorbeau tenement and goes back to living with Courfeyrac. He manages to avoid being called on to testify against Thenardier, who nonetheless goes to prison; Marius sends him money there anonymously. Meanwhile, Eponine is recruited by one of her father's criminal associates to scout out an isolated house on the Rue Plumet with an eye to its prospects for burglary. On doing so, she discovers that it is the home of Valjean and Cosette. Eponine, who has herself fallen in love with Marius, reports that the house is no good and then tracks down Marius and gives him the address. Marius, unaware that she has already chosen to shield the house's occupants from her father and his associates, makes her promise not to tell them about it.
An account of the house in the Rue Plumet, and of its occupants: Following the completion of Cosette's schooling and the death of Valjean's "brother" Fauchelevant, Valjean and Cosette left the convent and took up residence in the Rue Plumet. Valjean also rented a number of other properties around the city, so as to always have a safe place nearby. Cosette grew up to be strikingly beautiful. On one of their habitual visits to the Luxembourg Garden, Cosette saw and fell in love with Marius. Valjean, wary of attracting anybody's attention and selfishly afraid of losing Cosette, stopped taking her to the Luxembourg, and, when he became aware that Marius has discovered their address - they were at that point staying at one of his other properties - let the house go and returned with Cosette to the Rue Plumet. That was the last Cosette saw of Marius for the time being; but she did not forget him.
Little Gavroche, strolling through the outskirts of Paris, passes the home of M. Mabeuf and overhears M. Mabeuf's housekeeper remonstrating with him about his situation: M. Mabeuf is now gravely behind in his rent, his food bills, and (although she is too kind to mention it) his housekeeper's wages; but, having no money, he faces the situation with resignation. Shortly afterwards, Gavroche watches as Montparnasse, an acquaintance who at nineteen is already a ringleader of the Patron-Minette gang, attempts to mug an old man who is out for a walk. The old man, who is Jean Valjean, quickly gains the upper hand, but gives Montparnasse his purse anyway, along with a lecture on the bad end he is likely to come to if he continues along his current path. Gavroche picks Montparnasse's pocket and leaves the old man's purse in M. Mabeuf's garden as an anonymous gift.
As time passes, Cosette begins to feel that she is getting over Marius. Then, one evening, she goes for a walk in the garden, and sees signs that somebody else is there; on investigating further the following morning, she finds a message from Marius. In the evening, she goes for another walk in the garden, and Marius himself appears; he has been hanging around for a while, again trying to summon the courage to talk to her. This time he succeeds, and Cosette realises that she loves him as much as ever.
Little Gavroche happens upon two small children wandering lost in the streets, alone in the world after their mother and all her acquaintances were pinched in a police raid. He shares his meagre meal with them, and invites them to share his current place of accommodation, which is in the Place de la BastilleThe Place de la Bastille is a square in Paris, where the Bastille prison stood until it was stormed and subsequently torn down between July 14, 1789 and July 14, 1790 during the French Revolution. The square straddles 3 arrondissements of Paris, namely, t, in the hollow interior of a neglected monument. In the night, Thenardier and his associates break out of prison, but Thenardier becomes stranded on a rooftop when their rope breaks. Somebody small and nimble is required to carry a new rope up to him, and Montparnasse, who has been assisting, thinks of calling on Gavroche. Gavroche obliges, as one scoundrel to another - his relationship with his father being one of indifference on both sides - and Thenardier is rescued. The villains consult about what use to make of their freedom, and, having heard about the house on the Rue Plumet, resolve to have a look at it for themselves.
An essay on slang, including some examples of criminal slang of the period.
Cosette and Marius continue to meet in the garden each evening, without Jean Valjean knowing. 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. The prospect of losing Cosette has done for Marius what four years of mere financial hardship could not: he goes to his grandfather. 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.
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. When, on the evening of the 5th, Marius goes to see Cosette again, he 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 arrives with a message from Enjolras and his friends: The revolution has begun - will he join them?
An essay on armed insurrection, beginning with the general and moving in on the particular case of the insurrection that followed the funeral on the 5th of June 1832 of General Lamarque , who had been much loved by the people.
Little Gavroche joins the riots, brandishing an inoperative old pistol looted from a bric-a-brac shop, and hooks up with Enjolras and his friends, who now head a group of fifty. Others who join the group include old M. Mabeuf, who has reached the very end of his resources and has nothing left to live for; Eponine Thenardier, 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 the Corinthe, a tavern with which the students have a long acquaintence. They occupy the tavern, and set to work building the barricade. Javert is unmasked by Gavroche, and imprisoned in the tavern.
Valjean, who has joined the revolution to protect Marius, asks to be the one to deal with the spy, and, taking Javert to the alley behind the revolutionists' headquarters... lets him go, to Javert's astonishment. During the battle, everyone falls, except for Marius, who is wounded severely, and Valjean, who escapes with the unconscious Marius through the sewers.
After emerging from the sewers, Valjean is captured by Javert, but convinces him first to take Marius home to his (Marius') family 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, disturbed by his indebtedness to Valjean and unable to reconcile Valjean's noble behaviour with his criminal past and his own convictions about the degradation of all who transgress against the law, drowns himself in the Seine.
Cosette and Marius marry,
and Valjean reveals his past
shortly before his death.
The story has been filmed numerous times:
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, later known as The Campbell Playhouse .
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]
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