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