Les Misérables

Published in 1862, this novel follows Jean Valjean, a man released after long imprisonment for stealing bread, as he tries to live honestly in Restoration and July-Monarchy France while the inspector Javert hunts him as a recidivist. Around him gather Fantine, a discarded working woman; her daughter Cosette, whom Valjean raises; the student Marius; the Thenardiers; and the street child Gavroche. The action moves through Digne, Montreuil-sur-Mer, the Paris slums, Waterloo as backstory, and the 1832 street rising. Hugo interleaves the plot with accounts of convents, the sewers, slang, and the poor. It is a social novel about law, mercy, and the city.

Bound in black buckram with grey canvas on the front board with a design in black by Jeff Clements. Purple endleaves. Grey canvas-covered two-volume slipcase. Folio Press.