Translator
Les Misérables
Victor Hugo's vast 1862 novel follows Jean Valjean, a convict released after nearly two decades in prison, as he tries to build an honest life in post-Napoleonic France while the police inspector Javert pursues him. Around this central chase Hugo gathers Fantine, Cosette, Marius, the Thénardiers and the student revolutionaries of Paris, carrying the story from 1815 to the failed June Rebellion of 1832. The book is historical fiction with a moral and political purpose: it asks how poverty, harsh law and public indifference shape individual lives, and whether mercy can achieve what punishment cannot. This Signet Classics paperback presents the full text in the Fahnestock and MacAfee English version.