Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
Traditional Chinese with Pinyin
Les Misérables (pronounced:
/le miːzeʁabl(ə); translated variously from French as
The Miserable Ones,
The Wretched, The Poor Ones,
The Wretched Poor,
The Victims) (1862) is a novel by French author
Victor Hugo and among the best-known novels of the 19th century. It has been
described as one of the greatest novels ever written in any language.
It follows the lives and interactions of several French characters over
a twenty-year period in the early 19th century, starting in the year of Napoleon's final defeat. The novel principally focuses on the struggles of the main character, ex-convict Jean Valjean,
as he seeks to redeem himself from his past mistakes. It also provides
social commentary by examining the impact of Valjean's actions: and it
examines the nature of good, evil, and the law, in a sweeping story
that expounds upon the History of France, architecture or Paris, politics, moral philosophy, antimorarchism, justice, religion, and the types and nature of romantic and familial love.
Les Misérables is known to many through its numerous stage and screen adaptations, of which the most famous is the stage musical of the same name. The story may be considered historical fiction because it contains factual, historic events, including the Paris Uprising of 1832 (often mistaken for the much earlier French Revolution).
