My review of Les Misérables, by Victor Hugo

Les Misérables

by Victor Hugo

My rating: 5 out of 5 stars

It gets no better than Victor Hugo's 1862 epic, considered one of the 19th century's greatest novels.

The masterpiece is a breathtaking reminder of the limitless extremes of human cruelty and generosity, as true for today's world as it was for Hugo's. The reader is seduced into caring deeply about the plights of these wondrous, intensely drawn characters.

Set between 1815 and the June 1832 Paris Rebellion, it follows various parallel lives, focusing on ex-convict Jean Valjean and his life of redemption. Although a force for good in the world, he cannot escape his criminal past. Reinventing himself as Monsieur Madeleine, he becomes a wealthy factory builder, parochially renowned for his benevolence and is, by popular demand, appointed Mayor.

Valjean, we wish was somewhere round our own corner, a man whose impossible decency we immediately warm and aspire to. His great adversary, fanatical police inspector Javert, is on an obsessive, unending crusade to recapture Valjean. Someone we wish dreadful events upon, Javert eventually meets an unsavoury end we'd perhaps prefer more terrible.

Haunting characters are tragedienne factory worker Fantine, whose fostered-out daughter, Cosette, Valjean rescues from cruel innkeepers Monsieur and Madame Thénardier. Raising Cosette as his own daughter, Valjean keeps his convict past as much a secret from her as from everyone else. Meanwhile, the Thénardiers' elder daughter, Éponine, a parentally pampered and spoiled child, ends up a street urchin, falling for revolutionary Marius. The latter, however, has eyes only for the now privileged Cosette, adopted daughter of Mayer Valjean, alias Monsieur Madeleine.

Not just these main characters, but the thousands of extras vividly crowding Hugo's rich, textured backdrop, earn our heartfelt concerns and goodwill. We know precisely why thieves thieve, why rebels rebel, why gendarmes, jailers and bureaucrats are to be avoided at all costs. We are, indeed, revolutionaries ourselves as we take this journey alongside them, all the way to the torch-lit, gun smoke-shrouded barricades.

Themes and topics include historical Paris, politics, moral philosophy, antimonarchism, justice, religion, and variations of romantic and familial love.

Comprising five volumes and approximately 1,500 pages in unabridged English-language editions, this is one of the longest novels ever written. Not one to be rushed, savour every line and take as many months as you need. The resulting immeasurable satisfaction is a priceless treasure.