Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables

An Introduction

The History

• France, 1700’s- Commoners resented the

privileges of nobles and clergy.

• 1789- The Bastille was stormed starting the

French Revolution.

– Declaration of the Rights of Man

• 1799- Napoleon Bonaparte entered Paris.

He was crowned First Consul ending the

revolution.

– 1804- Emperor Napoleon I crowned.

• 1848- Revolution installs Louis Napoleon

as President.

• 1851- Louis Napoleon declared emperor

Napoleon III.

• 1871- Napoleon III exiled by Germans in Franco-

Prussian War.

– End of monarchy in France

The Author

• 2/26/1802- Victor Hugo was born.

• Father was a general in Napoleon's army.

• 1821- His mother dies. Hugo refuses his

father’s $ and lives in poverty.

• 1830- Hugo’s play Hernani makes him wealthy

and divides the public.

• Following the Revolution of 1848, Hugo is

elected deputy to the Constitutional Assembly.

• 1851- Louis Napoleon reestablished the empire.

Hugo opposed it and fled to Brussells.

• 1862- Les Miserables was published. It

was a hit with the public and banned by

the French government.

• 1870- The empire fell and Hugo returned

triumphantly to France.

• 1885- Hugo died. Three million mourners

attended his funeral.

Themes

• Love

• Redemption

• Legal vs. Moral Justice

• Social Injustice

• Destiny

• Power of Religion