After nineteen years in prison, Jean Valjean has difficulty adjusting to the outside world, which scorns and shuns him
Hugo's wrenching story centers on Jean Valjean, an honest peasant sentenced to five years' hard labor for stealing a loaf of bread, then 19 more for trying to escape. Turned into a hardened and ruthless criminal by his experiences, he reforms, becomes mayor of a French town, but is tracked down by the pitiless detective Javert for another obscure crime, and incarcerated. Escaping again from the brutal French prison, he befriends a prostitute named Fantine and her daughter, Cosette. This 1862 novel is remarkable for its sympathetic portrayal of common people: prisoners, the poor, women of the streets--all the down-and-out victims of the gross inequities of class in 19th-century Europe.
- Genre: Fiction + Literature Genres, Fiction + Literature Themes
- Subgenre: Conflicts + Dualities, Literary Genres + Types of Novels, Human Qualities + Behavior, Settings, Holocaust, Society + Social Issues, General, Legal + Courtroom + Crime, Types of Characters, Classics, Literary
- Publisher: Modern Library
- Edition: Reprint
- Language: English
- Format: hardcover
- Release Date: September 1, 1992
- Date Published: September 1, 1992
- Author: Victor Hugo