Attended this today, was quite interesting to know of Les Misérables by Victor Hugo which is not just a novel of around 2500 pages in three volumes with 365 chapters - one for each day of the year if you like it that way. It's a moral epic. It's about how, even in the darkest of circumstances, hope and humanity can endure. In 2025, it will be 100 years since Malayali acquired the famous work Le Miserable under the name 'Paavamgal'. Sunil P. Ilayidom took us through The Poor: World Life and Malayalam Life in the 100th Anniversary of the first translated work by Nalapat Narayana Menon which was backed by Vallathol for publication.
LES MISERABLES by Victor Hugo - Collectible Deluxe Special Gift Edition - Leather Bound Hardcover. It's the Barnes and Noble collectibe edition!
At its heart, Les Misérables follows Jean Valjean, a man imprisoned for 19 years for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his sister’s starving child. After his release, society rejects him — until a kind bishop’s act of mercy inspires Valjean to turn his life around. Habituated he steals and is caught, but Bishop said, it was a gift for him, and tells him, keep your promise to be a good human. It was neither his promise, nor does he respond, but it indeed makes him a good human. He adopts a new identity and becomes a successful factory owner and mayor.
But his past haunts him: he is relentlessly pursued by Inspector Javert, a rigid lawman who believes criminals can never change. Valjean’s path crosses with Fantine, a struggling single mother. After her death, he vows to care for her daughter, Cosette, whom he raises in hiding. As Cosette grows up, she falls in love with Marius, a young revolutionary. Their story unfolds amid social unrest, the June Rebellion of 1832, and the deep moral questions of justice and grace.
The key message is "Always love each other. There is nothing better than love in this world." which Jean Valjean tells Cosette and her husband when he is on his death bed.
One third of the book is filled with Philosophy and many on the society, around 14 pages cover waterloo war. There are pages on the local pipelines and day to day events.
The author thought of adding a preface to the book, which he started writing in two parts : God and Soul. Then he cut it down to one powerful sentence which reads as: **“So long as there shall exist, by reason of law and custom, a social condemnation, which, in the face of civilization, artificially creates hells on earth, and complicates a destiny that is divine with human fatality; so long as the three problems of the age—the degradation of man through poverty, the ruin of women through hunger, the crippling of children through lack of light—are not solved; so long as, in certain regions, social asphyxia shall be possible; in other words, and from a still broader point of view, so long as ignorance and misery remain on earth, books like this cannot be useless.”
— Victor Hugo, 1862
Major Themes:
Redemption: Can a person truly change?
Law vs. Mercy: Javert’s obsession with the law vs. Valjean’s compassion.
Poverty & Injustice: The suffering of the poor and marginalized.
Love: Romantic, parental, and sacrificial love.
Les Misérables is not just a novel — it's a moral epic. It's about how, even in the darkest of circumstances, hope and humanity can endure.
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