Les Misérables (1862)
Four Stars out of Five
Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables
is surely one of the longest novels yet written, and yet quite possibly one of the
most compassionate ever as well. It is regarded by many as one of the best novels
ever written, and is often assigned in advanced high school literature classes.
It has been done by Hollywood as a dramatic
movie and as a musical adaption from the stage. Indeed, the musical is one of
the best movies I have ever seen.
It is hard for me to believe that almost any adolescent with
their limited experience to the cruelties perpetrated by Man on his fellow
would take the same message away from this novel that a more aged (and perhaps
more cynical) reader would take. The novel takes the form of five “volumes”
each with multiple “books” and “chapters” to tell the story of Jean Val Jean.
His story is a tragic rag to riches story on the surface, but more importantly
is a story of his redemption. Redemption not so much from the crimes he has
committed, but rather from the self-centered, self-pitying world view he
carries in his early life to a more compassionate, Christian view at the end of
his life.
This book is about the plagues visited upon Val Jean by
society, by his personal tormentor, Javert, and by his own personal demons. In
moving the plot forward (at let’s say, a very sedate pace), Hugo introduces the
reader to slices of French history in the early 19th century, to
that era’s customs with respect to dress and manners, to its criminal justice
system and its effects on the convicted, and in painstaking detail to the practices
of a particular catholic order of nuns, to the French sewer system, the battle
of Waterloo and likely several other areas of French life that my mind has
blanked out. To say these digressions slowed the novel without adding much to it
would be something of an understatement. Some fraction of these digressions
would have been useful, but M. Hugo really needed an editor.
What the book does well is describe how the nature of French
society (and Hugo goes to great pains elsewhere to say all societies, not just
French) has created systems to work to enrich and empower the already rich and
powerful at the expense of the poor. Not a new thought for the early 21st
century, but one that earned Hugo considerable disapprobation from many of his
contemporaries when the book was published; perhaps more so in France than in
other countries. It is enlightening and depressing both to see how unjustly the
poor were treated in that early 19th century setting, and then to
realize how the same forces in play then are still in play now. Perhaps, those
in power these days use different tools to suppress, but their end goals remain
bitterly the same: Me first.
The plot of the story tells of Val Jean’s incarceration for
nearly twenty years for stealing a loaf of bread for his starving sister’s
family (and for his various attempts to escape). After being released, Val Jean
still in the grip of his felonious nature (one surely created and added to
while incarcerated) has a life changing meeting with a local bishop of unusually
high empathy. He is forced to confront his demons, his set of values, and his
relationship to God and Man. It takes him while to make this step from miscreant
to saint. He commits at least one more pointless act of thievery, and this time
at the expense of another member of the Les Misérables. Indeed, this last act
of brutish venality seems in some ways to be the needed final life lesson of
those started by the bishop that propels Val Jean onto his road to salvation.
He starts to use both his mind and heart to help others. He becomes wealthy and
influential under the first of several assumed names. During this phase, Val
Jean (now M. Madeline) meets another member of the Les Misérables that has been
grievously mistreated, Fantine. He himself has even played a small unconscious
role in her descent into misery. Realizing this plus employing his newfound
compassion, he attempts to help Fantine and later her equally unfortunate
daughter, Cosette. Following Fantine’s death, Val Jean raises Cosette to adulthood
in Paris. During these phases, Val Jean is pursued by the dogged Inspector
Javert. The Javert scenes help to establish Javert’s goals and narrow vision
for society; he is a better model for one of society’s well trained dogs. He
thinks he thinks, but in reality, he only reacts in a manner taught to him by
his masters. There is precious little humanity left in Javert. However, it
should be noted, he too is one of the Les Misérables; just a well-trained and
well fed one.
In time, Val Jean must make a decision for Cosette’s
happiness that comes at the cost of his own. In fact, Val Jean had to some
degree been living a problem-free life since his days as M. Madeline. Yes, he
had several narrow scrapes with Javert and some periods of near poverty (e.g.
his time in the nunnery as a groundskeeper). But until he had to choose to let
Cosette go to her lover, Marius, he really never had any real personal investment
in his new life as caring and loving man; one devoted to others rather than
himself. His new-found transformation to a compassionate Christian was never
really tested. The testing and Marius’ own limitations lead to Val Jean’s
ultimate salvation; he is truly redeemed by the book’s end. Marius and Cosette
achieve a kind of new understanding and love for the finally revealed, true
Jean Val Jean. Even poor Javert once forced to admit his world view was fatally
flawed by the actions of Val Jean achieved a kind of cleansing transformation. Not only is Val Jean finally and truly redeemed,
but by his actions he has led to much growth in the characters of many of those
near him.
However, as compelling a story as Val Jean’s story is, the
real story, the real felon in this book is Society. Who will help it achieve and
how will society ever achieve its redemption? When will Society or better yet
Man really learn to place his neighbor’s welfare before his own? Is such a
transformation, such a societal redemption even possible? Can Man and his
Society at least get better if not, in fact transform? Such a question has long
been asked by writers and philosophers. I sure hope so, but based on current
life in the 21st Century, I can only worry for my grandchildren.
