Les Miserables (Victor Hugo)

First, what is Les Miserables?

It is a novel that talks about the injustice suffered by France, the extreme poverty that hit the country, and how difficult it was for them to live even with one child. And you talk about family love and sacrifice for the ones we love, good and bad, and the law for whom?

Of course, for the benefit of the one who has money, influence and power

Novel characters:

Jean Valjean: Cosette’s adopted father, and the main character of the novel.
Cosette: Fantine’s daughter, and Jean Valjean’s adopted daughter.
Javert: A police inspector who believes in justice and law enforcement, which is his ultimate goal.
Fantine: Cosette’s mother.
Maurice Marius Pontmercy: revolutionary student, lawyer, and husband of Cosette.
Mr. M. Myriel: The kind bishop who helps Jean Valjean.
Mr. M. Thénardier: The head of the Thénardier family, who cares for Cosette.
Madame Tenardier Mme. Thénardier: Mrs. Thénardier’s wife.
Eponine: The eldest daughter of the Tennardier family.
Gavroche: the eldest son of the Ténardier family.

The novel revolves around its central character, the prisoner Jean Valjean, who spent nineteen years in prison for the crime of stealing a loaf of bread to feed his family and save them from starvation. While in prison, he tried to escape more than once. And every time he tried to escape, he was arrested and returned to prison with additional years. He was eventually released on parole, meaning he had a mark on his ID indicating that he had previously been imprisoned. So he is not welcomed in many of the rural towns he wanders into within France. Jean Valjean finds a job but is not paid a fair wage. Also, all hostels refuse to receive him because he is a former prisoner. It seems that he has reached rock bottom despite having served his sentence and paying years for his crime.

Jean Valjean began to sleep on the sidewalks in the streets, until a bishop comforted him, and received him in his house. But Jean robs the bishop and tries to escape. During his attempt to escape, he was arrested, so that the bishop came and saw what Jean had stolen from him. But the bishop tells the police that he gave him these things and did not steal them, but gave him a pair of silver candlesticks in addition to what he stole. He asked him to sell all these things to start a new life with the money. Valjean carries the money and takes it, but nevertheless he did not stop stealing, as he stole one of the boys on his way, but he tried to return again to return what he stole, but the police knew about the theft, so Jean decided to escape again.

On the other side of Les Miserables, we find Fantine, a poor girl blinded by love after she fell into the clutches of someone who left her pregnant with a child. After the birth of the girl, Fantine struggles alone with the girl to support her. But she decides to leave her daughter to the Tenardiers, who take advantage of this girl through hard and cruel labor. While the mother went to work in a factory.

We then learn that the factory where Fantine worked was owned by wealthy Madeleine. Through events, we realize that Madeleine is the same Jean six years later. Madeleine is also appointed as mayor. Events develop in which the mother is expelled from the factory after people learn that she has a daughter without marriage, to eventually spend her life searching for money to pay the Tenardiers to raise her daughter, which eventually forces her to sell her hair and teeth until she falls ill.

At one point, Fantine is harassed by someone to hit him back and is arrested by police officer Javier, who previously worked as a guard at the prison where Jean was placed. Then Jean learns the story of Fantine being expelled from his factory, and he goes to try to free her from the inspector’s grasp. At that time, a character similar to Jean is accused of a theft crime, and due to the great similarity between them, the police fabricated the old theft charges that Jean himself had committed. At that moment, Jan learned of the matter and decided to go to court to turn himself in and confess his crimes. After his confession, he is imprisoned again, but during his transfer he managed to escape and disappear, carrying with him the daughter of Fantine.