Les Misérables
Victor Hugo • 1862
Devastation Rating
poverty injustice literary fiction historical political
Our Take
Valjean's crime is stealing bread and the law pursues him for decades. Hugo uses that simple injustice to indict an entire social order. Fantine's fall, Éponine's death, Gavroche on the barricade — moments of operatic suffering, and the love between Valjean and Cosette is the only grace the novel permits.
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