Valjean, Jean -- Convicts -- Fiction. -- France -- Social conditions -- 19th century -- Fiction.

Translatter;Norman Denny First published by the Folio Press 1976." Previously published by Penguin Books in two volumes 1980. ; Hugo's Les Miserables (1862), with its breadth of vision and underlying truth, its moments of lyricims and western literature. Many of the characters are well-known: Valjean, teh criminal trying to escape his reputation; Javert, the policeagent triling him; the unfortunate fantine and her daugter, cosette; the rascally thenardier; and above all the splendid street urchin, Gavroche.. Among the unforgetable description are those of the paris sewers, the bettle of weterloo and the fighting at the barricades during the July Revolution. There are few more complete, or more vivid, pictures of France at the beginning of the nineteeth century. it is at once a thrilling narrative and a social document embracing a wider field than any other novel of its time.