Miserables Penguin Popular Classics Victor

Victor Hugo was born in 1802 and grew to be a highly acclaimed French playwright, novelist and poet. His greatest works include Notre-Dame de Paris (the Hunchback of Notre-Dame) and Les Miserables (The Miserable Ones/The Wretched).

Hugo was a outstanding supporter of Republicanism, a political viewpoint that views a state as a republic (not governed by a monarch, but by portion of it is people) and this is apparent in his novels, which ordinarily feature complex mental states towards justice, law, royalty and social standards. Les Miserables focuses peculiarly on good and evil, politics and morality, with a backdrop of Parisian architecture and historical France.

Victor Hugo himself led a life of poverty until King Louis XVIII instated to him a pension of 1,000 francs a year. All three volumes of Les Miserables were published in 1862 and though their reviews were less than complimentary, the novel was a huge success.

The story

Les Miserables is above all a study of the humane condition – of how we are all shaped by events outside us, and over which we have little or no control. The characters in the novel are not basically bad, they have been driven to take activenesses by their environment.

The book also provides a arousing and attention holding glimpse into life in France before the revolution, and of the requirement to put the good of the community before personal needs and desires.

The plot

Eugene Francois Vidocq, a reformed criminal who became a policeman, was one of Hugo’s central inspirations for the novel and the two protagonists in Les Miserables parallel Vidocq’s contradictory character.

Les Miserables’ plot has a good deal of threads, but it is connected through the role of ‘Jean Valjean’ who is an ex-convict who is taken in by a Bishop who teaches him right from wrong. Valjean steals again, but soon repents his actions. However, the authorities are notified and he is wanted as a re-offender and this is where his run from the law begins.

Valjean subsequently brings about a pseudonym and earns cash through owning a factory, where he meets the unfortunate Fantine who lives a life of poverty and prostitution to provide for her daughter Cosette. Despite the possibleness of his arrest, Valjean promises Fantine that he will look after Cosette. He flees to Paris with Cosette where she grows to be gorgeous and falls in love with an estranged student named Marius.

Marius believes that Cosette has run from Paris to London with her adoptive father and joins the student’s revolt, only to be injured and carried away by Valjean. Later, Cosette and Marius are married and Valjean confesses his past as a criminal. Marius is shocked and takes Cosette away from him. Valjean is so trouble that he aims to take his life and as he lies dying, Marius changes his mind and returns to him. Valjean then dies happily with his adoptive daughter and son-in-law by his side.

The musical

Today, Les Miserables is a frequent West-end musical, nominated for twelve Tony awards and winning seven. Universally acclaimed, it has transformed the story for the stage with numerous of the finest songwriting of our generation, and as deserved brought the story back into the public gaze.

Miserables Penguin Popular Classics Victor Pic

Miserables Penguin Popular Classics Victor Photo

Miserables Penguin Popular Classics Victor Picture

Miserables Penguin Popular Classics Victor Image