LES MISERABLES: BOOK SUMMARY

KEY LITERARY ELEMENTS

SETTING
France in the 1800's during the period of the Restoration. The major action is in Paris, but some episodes take place in
neighboring towns.

CHARACTER LIST
Major Characters
Jean Valjean
The ex-convict who had been imprisoned for stealing a loaf of bread. Primary protagonist.
Monsiegneur Bienvenu
The benevolent priest of the first book whose generosity and self sacrifice changes Valjean.
Cosette
The child of Fantine whom Valjean raises as his granddaughter.
Javert
The inspector of police whos lifelong ambition is to put Valjean back behind bars.
Marius
College student and idealist who falls in love with Cosette.
M. Gillenormand
Grandfather of Marius. Representative of the old bourgeois.
Thenardier
The paragon of evil both in character and in representation of other negative forces.

Minor Characters
Fantine
Cosettes mother. Has Cosette during a relationship with a college student who leaves her without marrying her or
providing for the child. Fantine is forced to leave Cosette with someone who will supposedly take care of her while Fantine
works for her support.
M. Fauchelevant
An old gardener whom Valjean rescues when a cart falls on him. Later helps provide a place of refuge for Valjean and
Cosette.
Eponine
Daughter to Thenardier.
Enjolras
College student-primary leader of the insurrection. His mistress is France.
Gavroche
Son of Thenardier.
Felix Tholomyes, Listolier, Fameuil, Blacheville
Students
Champmathieu
Another convict who is captured and believed to be Valjean.
Sister Simplice, Sister Perpetue
The nuns who take care of Fantine.
Colonel George Pontmercy
Marius father.

LES MISERABLES: FREE BOOK SUMMARY / PLOT SYNOPSIS

CONFLICT
The novel contains multiple conflicts and subplots. The major conflict threaded through the book is between Valjean and
Javert. Valjean has served his time and earned release from prison, but it is release with a yellow passport-meaning
everywhere he goes, everyone from employers to landlords will know that he is an ex-con. This makes him suspect even
when he is innocent of any wrong doing. Javert sees the law as an answer for everything, and no exception should be
made regardless of how small the crime.
The situation is complicated when Valjean takes upon himself the care of Cosette, as he feels responsible for the death of
her mother. With Cosette, Valjean learns to love and the bitterness of the years of injustice melt away. He thinks of
himself as a convict and makes no excuses; his only reason for hiding and avoiding Javert is to protect Cosette and his
fatherly relationship with her.
Additional minor conflicts occur between Marius and his Grandfather, between Marius and Valjean, and between Valjean
and Thenardier.

SHORT SUMMARY (Synopsis)

The major plot involves Jean Valjean who is released from prison, and through the kindness of Father Myriel, becomes a
new man. He gets a new name via association with Myriel and his obvious kindness and generosity to others and
gradually builds a successful and prosperous life for himself with a renovation of the jet-work industry in Montreuilsurmer. One of his employees is-although unknown to him-fired by the head mistress because of an illegitimate baby.
Fantine goes from one occupation to another, finally becoming a prostitute.
A minor incident takes place in the streets, and Fantine is arrested by Javert. Valjean, who has become known as Mayor
Madeleine, forces Javert to release her and takes her into his own house when he hears her story. Fantine is in extremely
poor health, however, and dies without ever seeing her child again, even though Valjean had promised to get the child.
Meanwhile, another man has been arrested and mistakenly identified as Valjean. Valjean appears in court, revealing the
truth and losing both his business and his position in Montreuil-sur-mer. Although he is arrested, he breaks out long
enough to hide his fortune. He spends additional time in prison, working aboard a ship. Eventually he escapes again and
retrieves Cosette from the evil Thenardiers whom Fantine had trusted to take care of the child.
Then begins 10 years of hiding, moving from place to place, always staying just ahead of Javert. Seven or eight happy
years are spend in a convent where Valjean works with the gardener and Cosette attends a girls school.
Feeling that Cosette must have opportunity to experience all of life, they leave the convent when she is about 15. Valjean
is nearly betrayed and recaptured due to the insidious if somewhat unwitting deeds of the Thenardiers.
While Valjean is continuously on the lookout for people who might have guessed his identity and makes their home
always in out of the way places, Cosette becomes aware of her own femininity and beauty. She and Marius spot each
other and fall in love.
Marius is a college student who has been raised by his grandfather after the old man had disowned his son-in-law for
supporting Napoleon. Marius discovers the truth about his father shortly after his death and enmity develops between
himself and his grandfather. With little income, Marius in unable to marry Cosette and prevent Valjean from taking her
away again, and his grandfather refuses to give consent for a marriage to someone he assumes is beneath him.
In Paris, politics, work issues, and various unsatisfactory conditions are gradually bringing a faction of workers and
college students to the point of revolt. An insurrection takes place; Marius joins in hoping to die since he will not be able
to have Cosette. Valjean joins the insurrection because he believes he is losing Cosettes love and because, although he
hates him bitterly, he intends to try to protect Marius for Cosette.
When the barricades are finally overtaken, Valjean rescues Marius and escapes through the city sewers. Marius is
unconscious and does not know who rescued him. When his health returns, he insists once again on marrying Cosette,
and this time the grandfather relents. Old wounds are at least partially healed. As Javert is also dead, it would seem that
Cosette, Valjean, Marius and his grandfather could all form one happy family. Cosette and Marius marry, but Valjean
reveals the truth of himself to Marius who gradually banishes him from even seeing Cosette.
The Thenardiers are a continuous nuisance and occasionally a real threat throughout the book, but in spite of
Thenardiers intention to bring harm to Valjean, he actually reveals the truth of Valjeans history to Marius.
Valjean dies in the end, but it is with contentment after a joyful reunion with Cosette. He is content to know that Cosette
and Marius have forgiven him, although it seems as though Valjean himself is the one who has the right to be on the
forgiving end of things.

OVERALL ANALYSIS
CHARACTER ANALYSIS
Cosette
Although a pivotal character, Cosette is almost static and flat. She is innocent throughout, passive with respect to the
men in her life, and obedient to a fault even when such subservience makes her unhappy. The brief moments of selfawareness occur when she first realizes that she is pretty and when she meets Marius in her garden.
Even then, she is powerless to do anything other than what Valjean wants. Her passivity is transferred to Marius once
they are married. She is the doll, the saint of blind goodness and purity, the Cinderella who cannot function without her
prince. The narrator simply presents her, allowing the other characters to fawn over her. He offers less editorial comment
about her than any of the other major characters. Her saintliness is entirely the perceptions of others.

Eponine
Eponine is the opposite of Cosette in many ways, but the contrast is ironic. Eponine is the legitimate daughter of the
Thenardiers while Cosette was born out of wedlock, the offspring of a naive, love-sick girl and a playboy type student. Yet
Eponine is submerged in the criminal element and only escapes drowning in it through her own high spirits and courage
born of necessity. Cosette has almost anything she could want while Eponine has nothing, and the one thing Eponine does
want (Marius) can never be hers. Eponine is the daughter of a known criminal, while Cosette is being foster-fathered by a
secret one.
Cosettes innocence and purity is the result of a very sheltered life, of a lack of exposure to anything that might be a
negative influence on her. Eponine has an understanding of human nature far beyond her years, and is not afraid to fight
for what she wants. She knows how to manipulate people and situations to her own ends, yet she does so without malice.
She is the same age as Cosette, but she acts much older. In reality, she is a child herself, starving for a touch of humanity
and maintaining her own dignity in the face of overwhelming odds.

Gavroche
Little Gavroche reveals Hugos soft spot of the neglected waifs of Paris. Like his sister, he is immersed in the criminal
element of Paris, but while he uses it to his own ends for survival, he is untainted by it. He is a bundle of spunk, of
courage, and has a no-nonsense view of right and wrong. He will steal from other thieves, but his vandalism is often
committed to the benefit of others in need. He is quick to do favors and just as quick to make sure he is in the middle of
all the action. He is inventive, quick thinking, independent and non judgemental. In short, he is the most lovable
character of the novel.

Thenardier
Thenardier is the epitome of evil. A continuous bane to Valjean, he is also the chief representative of the worst elements
of French society. He is the product of laws that turn misdemeanors into major felonies, the outcome of a society where
the honest poor can barely survive. His own lack of character leads him into a life of crime where his style of living is
even worse than simply being poor. Yet, he is clever. He has the intelligence to rise above his circumstances, but chooses
to use it for criminal ends.

Gillenormand
Old Gillenormand is the one of the last of the old Bourgeois and is proud of it. He pretends that he is loyal to the old
politics, but in reality it is the lifestyle that he misses. He loved the old extravagances, the lavish parties, the frolick of the
popular and dashing courtier and was apparently one of them prior to the revolution. The probability of children who carry
his genes if not his name is significant enough to prevent him from denying support to women who claim to have his
children.
His primary indulgence is in his grandson whose father made the mistake of devoting himself to the cause and army of
Napoleon. For Marius to inherit a title, which had been given by someone Gillenormand views as an upstart imposter is
the most unbearable of insults. Nevertheless, the old mans primary weakness is also his grandsons-sheer stubbornness.
He is not willing to accept change especially when it seems centered in his own household where he cannot ignore it.

Javert
Javert is another type. As a character, he is static and relatively flat in that he is capable of thinking from only one
perspective. He also is unable to cope with change especially where his personal values are concerned. He is neither good
nor evil; he is simply the embodiment of the law, an entity that never questions itself and that proceeds to enact its own
precepts without concern for its victims. His pursuit of Valjean is as close as he comes to making a vendetta personal, for
to him Valjean represents an element which lives outside the law, and although little or no crime is committed, there is a
lack of control which Javert sees as a threat to the guiding principle of his life.

Marius
Marius primary purpose in the novel is to lure Cosette away from Valjean and to bring Valjean to the point of ultimate self
denial and self sacrifice. Throughout the novel he is immature if not somewhat shallow. He grows up quickly when forced

to make a decision whether to go on moping in self pity or to take action in a cause. Even then, if he had not believed he
had lost Cosette, it is doubtful whether he would have become involved in the insurrection. He cares for his friends but
has been raised in a sheltered environment and is spoiled. He does not understand the political ideals of the ABC anymore
than he does those of Napoleon. He idolizes the glory of Napoleon for the sake of the glory and is likewise in love with
love as much as he is with Cosette. She is for him the angel of submission and will adore him blindly without ever asking
him justify his desires or opinions. Marius is probably the weakest character in the novel, but is non-the-less a catalyst for
Valjeans salvation.

Valjean
Valjean is the main character of the book. He is what 20th century critics call an anti-hero in that he is an ordinary
person who exerts extraordinary effort to not only survive, but to protect and defend those who are weaker than himself.
In his self-sacrifice and his lamb to the slaughter image, he resembles Christ. In other ways he closely resembles Job in
that he first considers himself a victim but gradually sees his own fault and becomes repentant and humble. His fate is
severe because he is on the edge of social change. As a type he represents those who inspire change but are also the
victim of its resistance.
Because he lacked a close family relationship, his ability to love, to chose right from wrong, to defend the helpless, and to
give even to those who did not deserve it all emerge from within his own being. He is as intelligent as Thenardier but
uses his brains for good instead of evil. In fact, we could say that the two men are born into similar circumstances and
that but for the intervention of the bishop, Valjean could have gone the way of evil. In fact, he would have had more
reason than Thenardier to do so as his yellow passport would forever mark him as a convict. Javert, knowing he could not
live a normal life under his true identity, apparently expected him to become a part of the criminal element of Paris and
therefore hounded him to the point of persecution to try to pin some new crime on him and have him returned to the
galleys for life. Valjeans success in evading recapture is a result of constant vigilance as well as care in maintaining his
anonymity.
Valjean also represents a sense of independence, a noble defiance of mans law in favor of Gods law. Hugo alludes
repeatedly to religious influences and to the presence of God in the life of Valjean. And it is the laws of God that seem to
be asserting themselves for Javert when the human law fails him.

THEMES - THEME ANALYSIS

Grandparent/Grandchild Relationships
This is present in duality as Valjean pretends to be a grandfather to Cosette and Gillenormand is a grandfather to Marius.
Both grandfathers have to learn to let go.

Crime vs. Punishment

Valjeans punishment certainly does not fit his crime, but neither did Fantine deserve the treatment she received in his
factory. The 1830's in Paris are an age where the slightest error brings the same punishment as a serious malfeasance.

Truth vs. Survival

Valjean and Thenardier both use lies as a way to survive. Thenardier, however, uses the lie for evil.

Love and Forgiveness

A great deal of forgiveness takes place in the course of the multiple sub-plots. Valjean must forgive Javert for hounding
him unjustly, Marius for taking Cosette away from him, Thenardier for trying to rob him, and himself for his own
imperfections. Gillenormand and Marius must compromise and forgive each other for their mutual obstinacy; Eponine
must forgive Marius for being unable to love her; and Javert (who is not successful) must forgive himself for putting
kindness and decency ahead of the law.

Law vs. Humanity

The Biship Myriel is the first to exercise humanity among those who may not deserve it, both to his parishoners and then
to Valjean. Valjean continues the thread when he rescues Fantine from Javerts condemnation and instant sentencing.
Later he has to choose whether to submit to the law or to carry out the wishes of the dying Fantine. Ultimately, he
manages to do both.
The old gardener Fauchelevant defies and manipulates the law by engineering Valjeans and Cosettes entrance into the
convent. The nuns themselves turn a blind eye to the law and to their own disobedience to it when they wish to bury a
departed sister within the walls of the convent. Enjolras, during the insurrection, defends and enacts the law when one of
the insurgents fails to observe principles of humanity and shoots an innocent civilian. Finally, Javert himself commits
suicide when faced with the idea that in certain situations humanity should take precedence over the law.

The Meaning of Debt

Many characters have debts to other characters in this story. The plot is partially driven by the means they choose to
repay those debts. Valjean owes Bishop Myriel for his freedom and chance for a new life. In an indirect way, he also owes
Cosette the protection he gives her, for it was in his own factory that her mother was abused and driven to desperate
circumstances. Marius believes he owes a debt to Thenardier, but that debt is a result of Marius father misinterpreting
Thenardiers intentions.

Marius actually does owe Valjean for his very life. Javert also owes Valjean for his life and pays it by releasing Valjean and
then taking his own life. Gillenormand owes Valjean for rescuing and returning Marius. Both Marius and Valjean have
debts to Eponine who delivers letters, messages, and traces addresses whenever needed. The gardener Fauchelevant
feels that he owes his life to Valjean, whom he knew as Father Madeleine. Practically the only significant characters in the
book who owe nothing to anyone are Father Myriel, Father Mabeuf and Gavroche.

Childhood Innocence and Courage

Little Gavroche, Eponine and their two little brothers (whom Gavroche protects but does not know) all portray the
innocence and courage that children are capable of when plunged into a crisis situation.

Savior/Sacrifice
Valjean is a savior image throughout the story. Thenardier is falsely believed to be a savior by Marius and his father
Pontmercy. Gavroche tries to act the role of a savior on several occasions, the final one costing him his life. Javert is an
unwilling savior when he releases Valjean and drowns himself in the river.

PLOT STRUCTURE ANALYSIS

Hugos plot is intertwined with innumerable threads-that of the reconciliation between Marius and his grandfather, the
ultimate defeat of the evil of Thenardier, the aspects of victory and defeat in the insurrection, the love affair between
Marius and Cosette, and the constant chase of Javert for Valjean. Holding it all together, however, is the psychological
journey of Valjean who moves from place to place, doing good for all in an attempt to free himself from his own
condemnation only to find that in order to free himself he must first reveal and debase himself before one who has the
power to punish him. The galleys dehumanzied Valjean.
Each new hiding place, each change of address restores some aspect of his humanity-although such restoration is often
accompanied with emotional agony. He is a whole person again at the moment of his death because it is at that moment
that he is able to accept the forgiveness of others and thereby realize that he has finally forgiven himself for crimes of
which the medieval styled law has convicted him. He lives a martyr of the law and dies a martyr to himself.

POINT OF VIEW
Omniscient. Hugo leaps from one character to another as it suits his purpose, accompanying all with extensive editorial
comment and address to the readers.