The Miserables

Victor Hugo, the author of Les Misérables

Les Miserables is one of the classic novels that attracts more than one. With a story full of love, war, betrayals, forgiveness, redemption, manipulation ... and many more different plots, it became the basis for television series (even for the little ones), movies, and even musicals.

But What do you know about Les Misérables? Did the main character really exist? Or that it was written at a time that influenced its author? And who is the writer of this most important work of the XNUMXth century? You will know all that and much more below.

Victor Hugo, the author of Les Misérables

Every book has a "father" who is the one who creates it through imagination (although many say that the characters themselves whisper their stories). And, in that case, the father of Les Miserables is the poet and writer Victor Hugo.

But who was Victor Hugo?

Victor Marie Hugo was a French writer who was born in 1802 in Besançon. The youngest of three brothers, he spent his entire childhood between Paris and Naples due to his father's work (he was a general of the French Empire). In 1811, his parents send him to Madrid, where he will spend, together with his brother, a season in a religious boarding school (a residence that was at the San Antón school).

Two years later, they settle with their mother in Paris, who had separated from her husband, apparently due to an infidelity on her part with General Victor Lahorie (Victor Hugo's godfather and tutor). However, this did not last long because, in 1815, both Victor and his other brother, Eugène, were interned at the Cordier pension for 3 years. It is at that moment when the creative facet begins to flourish in him, writing some verses. There, his own texts are corrected by a young teacher, and read by both his brother and his mother, with whom they maintain contact.

Victor Hugo's early writings focus on poetry, even participating in competitions (in fact, the first did not win it because the jury thought it was impossible that at his age he could do something like what he composed). Fostered by these successes, he began his literary career, which was quite diverse, since he not only focused on poetry, but also touched on other genres such as theater, the novel (written in exile) ...

Finally, he died in Paris in 1885 after a life full of many ups and downs.

Synopsis and summary of the Les Miserables books

Synopsis and summary of the Les Miserables books

Les Miserables is a novel encompassed in the romantic genre. However, he goes much further, since through his work he engages in a diatribe between good and evil, at the same time that he speaks to us about politics, justice, religion, etc. The historical period they live in, the Rebellion of June 1832, with the consequent political changes, was forging each character, but the author also analyzes the stereotypes of that time.

The work is made up of a total of five volumes. They tell the story of Jean Valjean and other characters who are related to him.

Each book has a name, so, you meet: Fantine, Cosette, Marius, The Idyll of Rue Plumet and the epic of Rue Saint-Denis; and Jean Valjean.

Something that characterizes this work is the fact that advances in time, in such a way that we see the evolution of the different characters and how they grow and develop as events unfold (keep in mind that it takes place over a period of 20 years, where children grow up, the protagonist grows older…).

The synopsis of the novel (of Planeta) reads like this: A total novel. The XNUMXth century French society narrated from the social, historical, psychological and poetic prism.

Jean Valjean is a former inmate. When he arrives at the town of D., on the way to his hometown and presents his passport -in which he is listed as an ex-convict and a "dangerous man" - at the town hall, no one deigns to welcome him and feed him, except Don Bienvenido, the priest. Betraying his protector, Valjean steals the silverware, but is arrested in the vicinity, taking him in front of the priest. Don Bienvenido decides not to report him, but he takes a promise from him: to use what he has taken to become a good man.

In the history of literature Les Miserables occupies a privileged place. Perhaps because Victor Hugo not only took care of narrating, as those who preceded him had done, but also voluntarily sought a model that could be considered as a total novel, understood as an adequate literary genre to be able to say everything about everything; a genre, in conclusion, tailored to man and the modern world.

"The future has many names. For the weak is the unreachable. For the fearful, the unknown. And for the brave it is the opportunity.

Main characters

Main characters Les Misérables

Within Les Misérables, there are many characters that stand out and are part of the evolution of others. However, we can highlight some as the main ones, and these would be the following:

Jean Valjean

He is the main character of the entire work. He was in jail because he stole a loaf of bread And after a few years, when he's released, everyone despises him for being an ex-con. That's why he carries a yellow passport, his life "sentence".

His goal is to change his life, and the first thing he does to try is to change his identity, since that way he can start a new life. However, Inspector Javert soon locates and unmasks him, starting a manhunt as he believes him guilty of much more.

The real Jean Valjean

Something that not many know, and what they made reference in National Geographic, was that this character, Jean Valjean, along with Inspector Javert, are actually the same person in reality. In fact, Victor Hugo was inspired by one person for both characters. We are talking about Eugène François Vidocq.

This man was an ex-convict who knew how to redeem himself for his mistakes in the past, becoming a well-known businessman. And also the head of the National Security of France, as well as the first registered private detective. That's right, his great disguise skills served him to infiltrate any criminal group and, although his face was known, that did not stop him from continuing to work as an infiltrator among criminals.

For this reason, Vidocq was "the muse" that allowed Victor Hugo to create a double character, the hero and his antithesis, without realizing that, in reality, it was the same.

Fantina

Fantina is a girl of only 15 years old. In love with a man who finally abandons her, she becomes pregnant and she has to leave her daughter with a family to look for work herself. She meets Jean Valjean because he works in the factory, but is fired when they learn that she is the mother of a girl.

At that point, she is left with no choice but to prostitute herself and sell her hair to support herself.

cosette

She is Fantina's daughter. The family that takes care of her treats her badly, forcing her to work despite her age. However, Valljean saves her. He pays the family for the girl and takes her where they pose as father and daughter.

Javert

Inspector Javert knows Jean Valjean because he was a prison guard when he was in jail. Upon meeting again, Javert realizes that he has changed his identity, and suspects that he does so because he is fleeing justice.

Therefore, the objective is to catch it.

The bishop

He is a person who influences Valjean to redeem himself from his past and become a good man.

Marius

The lover of Cossette.

The context of Les Misérables

The context of Les Misérables

Keep in mind that the date of the work and the time it was written do not correspond. Victor Hugo wrote Les Miserables in 1862, in full Napoleonic wars that were carried out to try to conquer France. However, the date the book is set is somewhat earlier. Even so, the author himself used his experiences, and the memories of his youth, to recreate the story, which also touched on some important subtopics such as class difference, poverty, unemployment, love and revolution.

To give you an idea, the first volume places us in 1815, the year in which the monarchical restoration took place. The following, go forward in time, keeping in mind historical events, such as the revolutions of 1830 and 1848, which occurred throughout Europe.

For its part, in the last volume we will find ourselves in 1835, the year in which Valjean passed away.

Les Misérables Adaptations

Such is the success of Les Miserables, that the story has been adapted into series, movies and even plays or musicals.

Some of the most representative and well-known are the following:

  • Musical work Con affections of joy and joy, by Manuel de Falla, based on Los miseables.
  • Les Misérables, by Cameron Mackintosh, which featured Nick Jonas in the role of Marius
  • Silent film Les Misérables, 1907.
  • 1958 film by Jean-Paul Le Chanois.
  • Children's series of the same name.
  • Cosette, also a children's series from 1977
  • Musical Les Misérables, by Tom Hooper with Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried and other actors.
  • Andrew Davies' television miniseries in 2018.

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