Les Miserables - Background Information

[Gem , Moderator]

Availability: Project Gutenberg various formats, following this link will take you to a download of all five volumes of the book at once. It has been brought to my attention that each volume of the book can be downloaded separately... although I did not look for that option.

General Overview
Please note: I have only skimmed General Overview below so I do not know if it contains spoilers, why? Simply put I know nothing about this book and didn't want to read spoilers myself... reader beware.

(view spoiler)[The major plot involves Jean Valjean who is released from prison, and through the kindness of Father Myriel, becomes a new man. He gets a new name via association with Myriel and his obvious kindness and generosity to others and gradually builds a successful and prosperous life for himself with a renovation of the jet-work industry in Montreuil-surmer. One of his employees is-although unknown to him-fired by the headmistress because of an illegitimate baby. Fantine goes from one occupation to another, finally becoming a prostitute.

A minor incident takes place in the streets, and Fantine is arrested by Javert. Valjean, who has become known as Mayor Madeleine, forces Javert to release her and takes her into his own house when he hears her story. Fantine is in extremely poor health, however, and dies without ever seeing her child again, even though Valjean had promised to get the child.

Meanwhile, another man has been arrested and mistakenly identified as Valjean. Valjean appears in court, revealing the truth and losing both his business and his position in Montreuil-sur-mer. Although he is arrested, he breaks out long enough to hide his fortune. He spends additional time in prison, working aboard a ship. Eventually, he escapes again and retrieves Cosette from the evil Thenardiers whom Fantine had trusted to take care of the child.

Then begins 10 years of hiding, moving from place to place, always staying just ahead of Javert. Seven or eight happy years are spent in a convent where Valjean works with the gardener and Cosette attends a girls’ school.

Feeling that Cosette must have the opportunity to experience all of life, they leave the convent when she is about 15. Valjean is nearly betrayed and recaptured due to the insidious if somewhat unwitting deeds of the Thenardiers.

While Valjean is continuously on the lookout for people who might have guessed his identity and makes their home always in out of the way places, Cosette becomes aware of her own femininity and beauty. She and Marius spot each other and fall in love.

Marius is a college student who has been raised by his grandfather after the old man had disowned his son-in-law for supporting Napoleon. Marius discovers the truth about his father shortly after his death and enmity develops between himself and his grandfather. With little income, Marius in unable to marry Cosette and prevent Valjean from taking her away again, and his grandfather refuses to give consent for a marriage to someone he assumes is beneath him.

In Paris, politics, work issues, and various unsatisfactory conditions are gradually bringing a faction of workers and college students to the point of revolt. An insurrection takes place; Marius joins in hoping to die since he will not be able to have Cosette. Valjean joins the insurrection because he believes he is losing Cosette’s love and because, although he hates him bitterly, he intends to try to protect Marius for Cosette.

When the barricades are finally overtaken, Valjean rescues Marius and escapes through the city sewers. Marius is unconscious and does not know who rescued him. When his health returns, he insists once again on marrying Cosette, and this time the grandfather relents. Old wounds are at least partially healed. As Javert is also dead, it would seem that Cosette, Valjean, Marius and his grandfather could all form one happy family. Cosette and Marius marry, but Valjean reveals the truth of himself to Marius who gradually banishes him from even seeing Cosette.

The Thenardiers are a continuous nuisance and occasionally a real threat throughout the book, but in spite of Thenardier’s intention to bring harm to Valjean, he actually reveals the truth of Valjean’s history to Marius.

Valjean dies in the end, but it is with contentment after a joyful reunion with Cosette. He is content to know that Cosette and Marius have “forgiven” him, although it seems as though Valjean himself is the one who has the right to be on the forgiving end of things. (hide spoiler)]

Major Themes
It's interesting to me that some of the books I research have precious little, if any background information about them, others have so much it's difficult to know which site has the best information. The latter is the case here. No two site I used agreed as to what the major themes of the book are, so I chose one and went with it. This is obviously opened to interpretation but the information below will give us a jumping-off point. Here is what the author had to say:

The book which the reader now holds in his hands, from one end to the other…treats the advance from evil to good, from injustice to justice, from falsity to truth, from darkness to daylight, from blind appetite to conscience, from decay to life, from bestiality to duty, from Heaven to Hell, from Limbo to God. Matter itself is the starting point, and the point of arrival is the soul.
—Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

The Glory of France
A primary focus of the novel is the glory and importance of France. Hugo characterizes the country as exhibiting all the finest qualities of humanity - though it also encompasses all of its worst features. The novel makes frequent references to historical French persons and events, and the events of the novel are shaped by the French socio-political landscape. Hugo also spends a great deal of time describing the places and people of France, painting a vivid portrait of the country in the early 19th century.

The Dignity of the Poor
Many of the characters in Les Misérables are impoverished or outcast. Jean Valjean is an ex-convict; Marius and the ABC Society are impoverished students; and both Fantine and the child Cosette live in the direst poverty. Yet the novel suggests that even the most impoverished and trodden down maintain a sort of dignity: despite her status as a prostitute, Fantine retains a kind of purity because she does this for her daughter; Marius' poverty inspires him to greater heights of moral goodness.

Even Monsieur Mabeuf, who faces hideous poverty, maintains his humanity. His situation eventually leads him to make a last stand on the barricades that inspires the other revolutionaries. Throughout the novel, Hugo emphasizes the dignity of the poor and outcast.

Morality and Righteousness
Les Misérables offers a number of moral lessons, evident through the decisions of the characters. When Champmathieu is wrongly identified as Jean Valjean, the real Valjean decides to intervene; though it will mean a return to prison, Valjean cannot live with himself if he allows an innocent man to go to prison in his stead. On the other hand, the Thénardiers offer an example of an immoral path; they constantly trick and cheat everyone they meet, but they eventually end up in the most squalid kind of poverty. Hugo suggests that morality is eventually rewarded, but immorality is always punished.

The Suffering of the Poor
Though Hugo emphasizes the dignity of the poor, he also describes their suffering in great detail. Éponine, for example, is poor not because of her own actions, but because her parents have plunged the family into poverty through their selfish actions. Still, she suffers terribly: though she is only sixteen, she has lost several teeth and wears thin tattered clothing even in freezing weather. Mabeuf cannot even afford food for himself and his servant, and he subsists on only an egg a day. The poor suffer in a myriad of ways; poverty is the source of many horrors.

Progress
Perhaps one of the most important themes in the novel is progress, including moral, political, and spiritual progress. In the course of the novel, Jean Valjean makes the journey from an angry ex-convict who despises the world to the loving adopted father of Cosette; he journeys from ignorance and darkness to love and light. Hugo also emphasizes the political progress of the day, which is part of the reason he highlights the uprising of 1832. At the time, France was progressing from a political system based on the divine right of kings to a democracy in which every person has a voice. For Hugo, these differing types of progress are all intertwined and symbolize the progression towards God.

The Redeeming Power of Love
Love can redeem even the worst characters in Les Misérables. It was the brotherly love shown by Bishop Myriel that pulled Jean Valjean out of his misanthropy following his release from prison, and it was Cosette's love that further encouraged him along his path to progress. Éponine, who participates in criminal activities and could easily have followed her parents' path of dissolution, is redeemed by her love of Marius and dies a heroic death on the barricades. Love brings out the best qualities of each person and encourages his/her progress.

Religion and Faith
Religion and faith are central themes in the novel. Hugo often references God as the goal of all progress, and it is Bishop Myriel and the nuns of the Petit-Picpus convent who inspire Valjean to continue his moral journey. The most sympathetic characters in the novel (Valjean, Cosette, even Enjolras and Marius) have some sort of religious leanings, exemplified by their tendency to pray or to reference God. Interestingly, Hugo is not necessarily hostile to atheists (he often mentions Voltaire, a famous atheist writer, in glowing terms), nor does he believe that organized or institutionalized religion is always correct. Instead, he emphasizes a gentle, humanistic form of spirituality focused on God and rooted in good deeds.

[Gem , Moderator]

Biographical Context
Twenty years in the conception and execution, Les Misérables was first published in France and Belgium in 1862, a year which found Victor Hugo in exile from his beloved France. Enemies and admirers throughout the world devoured his works—poetry, political tracts, and fiction—and the effect of these works upon the public was always sensational. On the morning of 15 May, a mob filled the streets around Pagnerre’s book shop, eyeing the stacks of copies of Les Misérables that stretched between floor and ceiling. A few hours later, they had all—thousands of books—been sold. Hugo’s critics were quick to condemn him for making money by dramatizing the misery of the poor, while the poor themselves bought, read, and discussed his book in unprecedented numbers. True to Hugo’s political stance, he had written a book about the people that was for the people, a book that demanded a change in society’s judgement of its citizens.

The story is set between 1815 and 1832, the years of Hugo’s youth. The descriptions of Paris, the characterizations of Gavroche and other Parisian stock characters, and such statements as, “To err is human, to stroll is Parisian” all attest to Hugo’s unswerving adoration of his home city. Exile no doubt encouraged the romantic meanderings of Hugo’s prose. The protagonist of Les Misérables, Jean Valjean, is also in exile from the world of men because of the desperate crime he committed in his youth. 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. The ensuing love between “father” and “daughter” (Cosette) is miraculous, redeeming Valjean and bestowing happiness on his otherwise grim life. To some extent, Hugo also was seeking redemption, having, for much of his youth, ignored the populist concerns of Republican France. He sacrificed his lifestyle in Paris for justice, and Les Misérables, “the Magna Carta of the human race,” is a testament of this humanitarian awakening.

Historical Background
One of the most common misconceptions about Les Miserables is that it takes place during the French Revolution of 1789, known for figures such as Robespierre and Marie-Antoinette. In reality, however, Les Miserables is set against the backdrop of the June Rebellion of 1832–a small Parisian uprising not even considered a revolution. The June Rebellion lasted two days. The confusion is, in a sense, understandable. In both cases, people, often led by republicans, rose up against monarchies which oppressed them.

Trivia
Hugo initially entitled his work, Les Mis re (“the poverty”), but changed it to Les Misérables, which, in Hugo’s time, denoted everyone from the poor to the outcasts and insurrectionists.

Additional Reading:
PLEASE NOTE: these articles may contain spoilers

Enjoy Les Miserables but please get your history straight first
Hugo, Inc.

Sources

thebestnotes.com, gradesaver.com, penguinrandomhouse.com, themodernmanuscript.wordpress.com