Name: Les Misérables
Author: Victor Hugo

How you explore Les Misérables on Literah

The cast, the places, the objects, the plot, and the author’s own words — each one a card in a feed you scroll on your phone. One at a time, at your pace, in any order you like.

Built for your phone. Literah is designed for mobile, so your worlds travel with you. On a laptop it shows a QR code to carry the world to your phone.
A feed, not a wall of text. 48 characters, 27 places, 24 objects and 8 plot beats, each its own card with its own illustration.
The author’s own words. 70 passages of Les Misérables sit in the feed verbatim, exactly as Victor Hugo wrote them, each with a short reading of what it is doing. The map is ours; the prose is always the book’s.
The same scroll, a better world. The gesture you already give away to feeds, spent on Victor Hugo instead.

9:41

The Cast

Jean Valjean

Main

A former convict carries the Bishop’s mercy through a life of concealment, labor, fatherhood, and sacrifice.

Locations

Digne

town

The town where every door shuts on an ex-convict, until one bishop leaves his open.

Passage

Why must misery endure before society admits its own laws create damnation?

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The Author’s Pen

So Long As Ignorance Exists

So long as there shall exist, by virtue of law and custom, decrees of damnation pronounced by society, artificially creating hells amid the civilization of earth, and adding the element of human fate to divine destiny; so long as the three great problems of the century—the degradation of man through pauperism, the corruption of woman through hunger, the crippling of children through lack of light—are unsolved; so long as social asphyxia is possible in any part of the world;—in other words, and with a still wider significance, so long as ignorance and poverty exist on earth, books of the nature of Les Misérables cannot fail to be of use.

Reading

Hugo insists these hells are man-made. Poverty, the selling of women driven by hunger, children left to grow up stunted: he calls them the work of "law and custom," not of God, so no one can shrug them off as fate. This is the doorway to the whole book, and before we meet a single character he has told us that the misery ahead is a choice society keeps making. He also ties his book's usefulness to that misery, meaning he half hopes it will one day be obsolete.

World Index

The Plot

The Bishop's CandlesticksMonsieur Madeleine and FantineThe Trial and Fantine's DeathRescuing CosetteMarius and the Friends of the ABCThe Trap and the Rue PlumetThe BarricadeThe Sewers and the Reckoning

The Cast

Jean ValjeanBishop Myriel / Monseigneur BienvenuJavertFantineCosetteMarius PontmercyÉponineGavrocheThénardierMadame ThénardierEnjolrasGrantaireFaucheleventSister SimpliceM. GillenormandColonel Georges PontmercyM. MabeufCourfeyracCombeferreJean ProuvaireFeuillyBahorelBossuet / LaigleJolyAzelmaToussaintChampmathieuLittle GervaisFélix TholomyèsFavouriteBamataboisMademoiselle BaptistineMadame MagloireFriends of the ABCPatron-MinetteBabetGueulemerClaquesousMontparnasseYounger Thénardier childrenMadame VicturnienFactory womenPublic writerBoulatruelleBasqueNicoletteMadame HucheloupMother Innocente

Locations

Bishop Myriel’s houseCafé MusainChampmathieu courtroomCorintheDigneDigne hospitalElephant of the BastilleFantine’s factoryFantine’s sickroomGillenormand householdGorbeau hovelLuxembourg GardenMontfermeilMontreuil-sur-MerParis sewerPetit-Picpus cemeteryPetit-Picpus conventPont d’AusterlitzRue de l’Homme ArméRue de la Chanvrerie barricadeRue Plumet gardenRue Plumet houseSeineThénardier innValjean’s final roomWaterlooWoods and water road at Montfermeil

Objects of Note

Barricade ammunitionBarricade paving stonesBarricade weaponsBishop’s silver candlesticksBishop’s silverwareCosette’s dollCosette’s letter to MariusCosette’s water bucketFantine’s hairFantine’s letter authorizing Cosette’s releaseFantine’s teethFauchelevent’s cartJavert’s bondsMabeuf’s books and plantsMarius’s farewell letterPetit-Picpus coffin and burial apparatusPowder barrelRed flagSewer key and grate thresholdStolen coin from Little GervaisThénardier’s proof fragmentValjean’s buried fortuneValjean’s identity disclosureYellow passport / convict papers

Core Concepts

Childhood Judges SocietyGrace Survives as Memory and ObjectHistory Moves Through Ordinary LivesLaw Without Mercy Misreads TruthLove Saves, Possesses, Releases, and WoundsMercy Creates New LifeNames Can Imprison or LiberatePoverty Is Social ViolenceSacrifice Is Hidden Until AfterwardThe City Has an Upper Face and an Underworld

The Author's Pen

Your Name Is Jean ValjeanThe Mother Leaves Her ChildJean Valjean Recognizes JavertA Man of Another AgeThe Revolutionary QuiverThe Marble Lover of LibertyGrantaire the ScepticDuty Against ConscienceValjean Confesses the GalleysGive Me Back My HouseWork and Bread for AllBring Her To MeJavert Asks To Be DismissedThe Child Becomes a MaidenThe Red Flag RaisedMidday Dreaming of MidnightThe House of RefugeFantine in Her First IllusionsThe Little Lark Never SangFantine Against HimselfJean Valjean DrownedHe Loved and Grew Strong AgainNature Had ReturnedWrath Spreads the RiotGo Away Jean ValjeanAt Your DisposalThe Colonel’s Last ChargeNot Even A DogI Don’t Want Your MoneyÉponine Bars the GateMarius' Name and AddressShorter and Shorter StepsThe Convict TransfiguredCosette and the Empty BucketOver the WallPoverty and AspirationJean Valjean Dies HappyThe Open DoorJean Valjean In The CoffinA Little Bit In LoveI Have NoneThe Child DiscoveredDismissed In DisgraceCosette Names the DollBe OffAre They Still MenThe Silent Grating OpensReturn to DutyThe Price of CosetteRecognized as Father MadeleineHas Moved AwayHaunted by the SilverFantine Sells Her HairThe Price of Her TeethI Am Jean ValjeanFreed In StupefactionCosette Asleep on His ShoulderJavert Had Taken His DepartureBought for GoodJavert Seizes the WomanThe Weight of ConscienceFantine Spits on MadeleineAn Orphan With ParentsGavroche Teasing the FusilladeThe Sky's IndifferencePontmercy and ThénardierYou Are FreeThe Masked Men ArriveGrantaire Beside Enjolras

Plot point 01

The Bishop's Candlesticks

An ex-convict hardened by nineteen years in the galleys steals from the one man who showed him kindness — and is saved by a lie of mercy.

Objects of Note

Bishop’s silver candlesticks

Two silver candlesticks follow a pardoned thief from the night he was spared to the hour he dies.

The Cast

Bishop Myriel / Monseigneur Bienvenu

Main · Church

A bishop with an unlocked door turns stolen silver into the beginning of another man’s salvation.

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Les Misérables

Victor Hugo

The cast, locations, objects of note, core concepts, and selected passages in the Author’s Pen - at your own pace.

One of 127 classics in the Literah library

The Les Misérables feed, as it appears in your mobile

The plot of Les Misérables

The story beat by beat, as Literah maps it.

The Bishop's Candlesticks
Monsieur Madeleine and Fantine
The Trial and Fantine's Death
Rescuing Cosette
Marius and the Friends of the ABC
The Trap and the Rue Plumet
The Barricade
The Sewers and the Reckoning

The author's pen in Les Misérables

The passages themselves, Victor Hugo's own words, as Literah maps it.

So Long As Ignorance Exists
Your Name Is Jean Valjeanch. 1
The Mother Leaves Her Childch. 1
Jean Valjean Recognizes Javertch. 1
A Man of Another Agech. 1
The Revolutionary Quiverch. 1
The Marble Lover of Libertych. 1
Grantaire the Scepticch. 1
Duty Against Consciencech. 1
Valjean Confesses the Galleysch. 1
Give Me Back My Housech. 2
Work and Bread for Allch. 2
Bring Her To Mech. 2
Javert Asks To Be Dismissedch. 2
The Child Becomes a Maidench. 2
The Red Flag Raisedch. 2
Midday Dreaming of Midnightch. 2
The House of Refugech. 3
Fantine in Her First Illusionsch. 3
The Little Lark Never Sangch. 3

The characters of Les Misérables

Who is who, as Literah maps it.

Jean Valjeanmajor
Bishop Myriel / Monseigneur Bienvenumajor
Javertmajor
Fantinemajor
Cosettemajor
Marius Pontmercymajor
Époninemajor
Gavrochemajor
Thénardiermajor
Madame Thénardiermajor
Enjolrasmajor
Grantairemajor
Faucheleventsupporting
Sister Simplicesupporting
M. Gillenormandsupporting
Colonel Georges Pontmercysupporting

The locations in Les Misérables

Where it happens, as Literah maps it.

Dignetown
Bishop Myriel’s househouse
Digne hospitalhospital
Montreuil-sur-Mertown
Fantine’s factoryfactory
Fantine’s sickroomroom
Champmathieu courtroomcourtroom
Waterloobattlefield
Montfermeilvillage
Thénardier inninn
Woods and water road at Montfermeilroad
Gorbeau hoveltenement
Pont d’Austerlitzbridge
Petit-Picpus conventconvent

The core concepts in Les Misérables

What the book keeps returning to, as Literah maps it.

Mercy Creates New Life
Law Without Mercy Misreads Truth
Poverty Is Social Violence
Names Can Imprison or Liberate
Childhood Judges Society
Love Saves, Possesses, Releases, and Wounds
History Moves Through Ordinary Lives
The City Has an Upper Face and an Underworld
Sacrifice Is Hidden Until Afterward
Grace Survives as Memory and Object

The objects of note in Les Misérables

The things that carry meaning, as Literah maps it.

Bishop’s silver candlesticks
Bishop’s silverware
Yellow passport / convict papers
Stolen coin from Little Gervais
Fantine’s hair
Fantine’s teeth
Fantine’s letter authorizing Cosette’s release
Cosette’s water bucket
Cosette’s doll
Fauchelevent’s cart
Valjean’s buried fortune
Petit-Picpus coffin and burial apparatus
Marius’s farewell letter
Cosette’s letter to Marius

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How you explore Les Misérables on Literah

The plot of Les Misérables

The author's pen in Les Misérables

The characters of Les Misérables

The locations in Les Misérables

The core concepts in Les Misérables

The objects of note in Les Misérables

Explore Les Misérables. And 126 more.

Les Misérables in the Classics collections

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