Vicky Huang

12B
Les Miserables Book Summary
The novel "Les Miserables" written by the French novelist, Victor Hugo, took place in
France in the 19th century. The protagonist, Jean Valjean was imprisoned for 19 years for
stealing a loaf of bread and attempting to escape prison several times. When he was released
from prison, a bishop took Valjean in since he couldn’t find a place to stay. That night, Jean
Valjean saw that there were candlesticks at the bishop’s place, he couldn’t fight his temptation of
stealing it so he left the bishop’s place secretly after taking the candlesticks. Because of the
bishop’s influence, Jean Valjean decided to reinvent himself, he got a new name and move to a
new location where he became a highly respected mayor and factory owner. Jean learned that a
woman named Fantine used to work at his factory became a prostitute so that she can pay
someone else to raise her daughter, Cosette. At her deathbed, Jean promised to rescue her
daughter from the evil Thénardier family and becomes her guardian. After successfully rescuing
Cosette, Jean raised her up at a convent (a safe haven for Jean), however, Jean thought that
Cosette should live like a normal person so they moved to Paris. In Paris, Cosette falls in love
with a young lawyer named Marius who joins a band of revolutionists at a barricade. Marius was
wounded at the barricade, fortunately, Jean was there to take him back to his family through
Paris’ sewer system. Jean revealed his past criminal history to Marius after he got married to
Cosette, shocked by his past, Marius told Jean to leave Cosette. However, when Marius learned
that he owes his life to Jean, he and Cosette visited Jean at his deathbed. Jean was able to die
peacefully after the couple visited.
Even though the French Revolution ended two decades before Les Miserables was
written, however, the novel is a good representation of the harsh reality the lower classes face.
The June Rebellion, an uprising led by main students, was an unsuccessful, anti-monarchist
insurrection of Parisian Republicans that started from June 5th of 1832 and ended on June 6th,
1832.

Book Critique
 After reading Les Miserables, I feel deeply touched by people. Although this novel is
based off of religion, the purpose is actually to teach people to be good. The protagonist Jean
Valjean is a criminal who has just been released from the prison after 19 years. Because of his
status as an ex-prisoner, he couldn’t find any place to stay. But because of the bishop's
admission, and the bishop calling him a brother, he was deeply touched. Therefore, he has
always adhered to the spirit of the bishop, and continues to pass on the attitude of being a
kindhearted and selfless person. In our lives, it seems that there must be such a key person to
appear, change our views and ideas, so that we can look at things from the perspective of others
and not be so self-centered.
Theis novel allowed me to deeply understand the life of the poorest people in the society,
see the good and evil of human nature, and sometimes be moved by the kindness that people
show. While reading this book, I realized that bright and upright, generous and kind people will
be respected by people wherever they go. However, insidious and sinister, selfish and self-
serving villains will always be rejected by humans. There are many characters in the book that
serves as the epitome of this society. For example, the Thénardiers, who would do anything for
money, once claimed that he is an actor, and at one point he said that he is a painter. There are
similar things in life: for example, in order to improve their rankings, some people do not
hesitate to cheat during test. However, this kind of behavior might deceives teachers and
classmates, but they can never deceive themselves!
In conclusion, I though Les Miserables was a very interesting book to read since I have
never read the book or seen the movie beforehand, so I had a lot of fun reading this book. Since I
read the abridged version of the novel, I though some parts of the story didn’t really make sense
the first time I read it. For many parts, I had to reread or go online in order to understand the
chronological order of the events.