Recommended by
- Thomas Edison: "in Victor Hugo's Les Miserables and The Toilers of the Sea he found a treasure after his own heart" source ↗
Summary
Victor Hugo's 1862 epic novel of justice, redemption, and revolution in early 19th-century France, following ex-convict Jean Valjean's struggle to escape his past under the relentless pursuit of Inspector Javert, set against the backdrop of the Parisian underworld, the June Rebellion of 1832, and Hugo's own digressive meditations on the Paris sewer system, the Battle of Waterloo, and the nature of love and sacrifice. One of the longest novels ever written, it remains a defining work of French Romanticism and a profound exploration of the tension between law and grace.