Les Miserables

He was no longer Jean Valjean, but No. 24601

Jean Valjean, an escaped convict, is determined to put his criminal past behind him. But his attempt to become a respected member of the community are threatened by the relentless investigations of the dogged policeman Javert when, owing to a case of mistaken identity, another man is arrested in his place.

It is not simply for himself that Valjean must stay free, however, for he has sworn to protect the baby daughter of Fantine, driven to prostitution by poverty. Victor Hugo's epic take of injustice, heroism and love is a timeless classic, not to be missed.

About the Author

Victor Hugo (1802-85) was the most forceful, prolific and versatile of French nineteenth-century writers. He wrote Romantic costume dramas, many volumes of lyrical and satirical verse, political and other journalism, criticism and several novels, the best known of which are Les Miserables (1862) and the youthful Notre-Dame de Paris (1831). A royalist and conservative as a young man, Hugo later became a committed social democrat and during the Second Empire of Napoleon III was exiled from France, living in the Channel Islands. He returned to Paris in 1870 and remained a great public figure until his death: his body lay in state under the Arc de Triomphe before being buried in the Pantheon.