One of the greatest novels ever written, Les Misérables is Victor Hugo’s towering masterpiece, an epic of justice, mercy, redemption, and the enduring struggle of the human spirit against poverty and oppression. Set against the turbulent backdrop of early nineteenth-century France, it follows the unforgettable Jean Valjean, a man condemned by society for stealing a loaf of bread as he seeks to reinvent himself and find grace, pursued relentlessly across decades by the implacable Inspector Javert. Around them swirls a vast, richly populated world of revolutionaries, street urchins, fallen women, and ordinary people trying to survive in a society stacked against them. Passionate, humane, and endlessly compelling, this Penguin Classics edition brings Hugo’s magnificent novel to a new generation of readers. A book that asks the most fundamental questions about law, love, and what it means to be human and answers them with breathtaking power.
