For those unfamiliar with the story, Les Misérables is set in a post-Napoleonic France, where, once again, a king is reigning. With no democratic representation, the people of France are either exceedingly rich or exceedingly poor. With this backdrop, Hugo introduces the main character, Jean Valjean. Poor like so many, he makes a choice to steal a loaf of bread for his sister and her seven children. Caught, he is sentenced to five years in prison. While in prison, he attempts to escape (unsuccessfully) several times and ends up serving nineteen years before he is finally released. Once released, he is given papers he must show that state he is a convict. Despite his best efforts, he cannot find work, food, or even lodging. As Valjean ventures through one town after another, he is finally referred to a bishop at a local church, who shows him great hospitality, treats him with dignity and respect, and gives him a place to stay.
Despite the grace shown to him, Valjean wakes in the middle of the night and decides to steal the bishop’s only possession worth money – silver tableware. As he absconds into the night, Valjean is once again caught and brought back to the bishop by the local police. Just when it appears Valjean will be sent back to prison for life, the bishop informs the police that he gave Valjean the silver as a gift and that he forgot to take the candlesticks. Sending the police away, the bishop turns to Valjean and exhorts him to be saved and live a life dedicated to God.
The bishop’s action and words will haunt Valjean as he
leaves, changing the course of his life.
He settles in a small town, creates a new identity, becomes a successful
businessman, and eventually becomes the mayor.
While governing this small town, he runs into a man named Javert. Javert was a guard at the prison during
Valjean’s time there, and is now, ironically, the head of police in Valjean’s
small town. Though Javert initially
suspects that the mayor is actually Valjean, he is dissuaded when another man
is arrested and accused of being the former convict. Faced with the choice to let another man go
to life in prison in his name or to reveal himself as the actual Jean Valjean,
Valjean remembers the bishop and turns himself in.
The rest of Les
Misérables tells of the life of Valjean.
He escapes to help another (Fantine), raises her poor, doomed child as
his own (Cosette), and eventually saves the grown child’s love (Marius) at
great cost. All the while, he is hunted
by Javert, who is convinced that God’s justice must be served on earth.
As a piece of literature, Les Misérables is truly a masterpiece. The way Hugo effortlessly intertwines the
characters is really beautiful. There
are too many characters in the book to recount here, and, as you are reading,
you do not necessarily expect them all intertwine, but Hugo does an amazing job
of doing just that without it feeling forced.
Hugo also gives the reader a real sense of what the socio-economic
situation of France is during this time.
There was an enormous gap between those who were poor and rich, but we
are not talking the kind of inequality of the “Occupy Wall Street” movement
today. The laws of the country made it
almost impossible to start poor, work hard, save money, and live
comfortably. If you were poor, it was going
to be for life, and you were going to live in squalor. If you were convicted of a crime such as
petty theft, you were branded a criminal for life, like Jean Valjean. You were given papers stating that you were
dangerous, and you can imagine how many people desired to hire or lodge those
deemed by society to be criminals for life.
Any second offense, no matter how large or small, sent you back to
prison for life. Notice how many times I
used “for life”? There was no grace in
France at this time. They were all “the
miserables”, unable, no matter how hard they tried, to redeem their situation
in life.
This is one of Hugo’s main themes of the book. An avid political activist, Hugo saw the
major flaw in France’s judicial and social system. He advocated for education and penalties that
actually fit the crimes. His preface to
the book reads:
As
long as civilisation shall permit law and custom to impose a social
condemnation that creates artificial hells on earth, complicating our divine
destiny with a fatality driven by humans; so long as the three problems of the
age – man degraded by poverty, women demoralised by starvation, childhood
stunted by physical and spiritual night – remain unsolved; as long as people
may be suffocated, in certain regions, by society; in other words, taking a
longer view, so long as ignorance and misery endure on earth, books such as
this cannot but be useful.”
It is so important to understand the historical setting of Les Misérables (or any book you are
reading). Otherwise you will miss one of
the main points. Not that you will
always agree, but you must read through the lens of the author to really
understand what he is trying to communicate.
One of my favorite parts of this book is the beginning,
where Hugo devotes several books (Les
Misérables is divided into parts, then books, then chapters) to the bishop,
including his own conversion and detailing his ministry prior to meeting Jean
Valjean. If you have read many synopses
or have seen the movie, this part is usually skipped over entirely due to time. However, it is a poignant commentary on
ministers (i.e. bishops) and what true Christ-centered ministry should
entail. The bishop was one who gave his
life to serving God through ministering to others, day and night. The locals even bestow upon him the name,
“Monseigneur Bienvenue”, which means “Bishop Welcome” because of his generosity
and selflessness. Hugo writes:
“Widowed
or orphan families had no need to send for him; he came by himself. He would sit silent for long hours by the
side of a man who had lost the wife whom he loved, or of a mother who had lost
her child. As he knew the time for
silence, he knew also the time for speech.
Oh, admirable counselor! He did
not seek to drown grief in oblivion, but to exalt and dignify it by hope.” (p.
21)
Though the bishop is a fictional character, this entire
section on the bishop is a beautiful picture of how a minister, even today,
should shepherd those to whom God has entrusted.
Another major theme, and my favorite, is the relationship
between justice and grace. From outset,
Valjean is condemned (rightly so) by justice.
Once he is shown God’s grace by the bishop, his life is transformed, and
he seeks to honor God through his life (though not specifically mentioned in
the book, this whole passage is really his conversion). Throughout the book, Valjean life is now
characterized by grace, and he is compelled by the grace shown to him so long
ago to now show grace to all he encounters.
This is contrasted with Javert, who only believes in justice. He cannot show mercy or grace, because he
believes it to be a violation of God’s justice.
When his life is graciously spared by Valjean in the end, Javert cannot
reconcile his lifelong quest for justice with the grace shown to him, and he
takes his own life.
Les Misérables is
not a direct allegory to the Bible, but you cannot help but think of Romans as
you read it. Javert is the law – he must
hold Jean Valjean accountable, and the law must be satisfied. The law condemns Valjean, and he can never be
justified through it alone:
“Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are
under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be
held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified
in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.” Romans 3:19 – 20
Yet, in Jean Valjean, we see the wonderful work of grace
through Christ:
“But now the righteousness of God has been
manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness
to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ
for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all
have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are
justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his
blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because
in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he
might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” Romans 3:21 – 26
You cannot read Les
Misérables and not enjoy this beautiful commentary on the nature of justice
and grace. Though Hugo himself had a lot
of bad theology (believing that everyone, including Satan, will be shown grace
in the end and will be saved), there are a lot of great spiritual truths that
permeate the book. He never addresses
the gospel directly, but alludes to it throughout the book. It is definitely not an allegory, but there
are definitely Christian parallels: We are all sinners, “the miserables”, who
have made the choice to sin. According
to the law, we deserve justice and should be punished accordingly. Yet, because of the grace of God, we have
been shown grace through Christ and are redeemed, not because we deserved it,
but because Christ paid the penalty we deserved and God’s justice was
satisfied. Therefore, as ones who have
been shown great grace, we should, in turn, show grace to others.
Overall, this has been my favorite classic to read. If you can get over the fear of its length, I
would highly recommend Les Misérables
as something you should invest the time in – you won’t be disappointed. For those of you wondering if the recent
movie stacks up to the book, my next post will address that very topic. Happy reading!
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* As per my usual, I purchased the Barnes
& Noble Classics edition of Les Misérables for $9.95. This version is abridged, but I have read the
passages it omits and I think that this version is very well edited (the
sections that are omitted are mostly stories about Valjean or another character
that are more examples of a point Hugo is trying to make about a particular
topic – they take nothing away from the storyline itself). Also, I usually have appreciated the
footnotes of the editor, but in this particular edition, the editor is a bit
critical of spiritual themes. Anytime
Hugo references Christ or another biblical theme, he calls Hugo “melodramatic”
or makes another similar comment. If you
can ignore the editor’s bias against religion and his comments that ensue, then
you can still glean some helpful footnotes from this edition. As always, the
Kindle edition is FREE!
