One of Victor Hugo’s finest works, Les Miserables is a monumental classic dedicated to the oppressed, the underdog, the labourer, the rebel, the orphan, and the misunderstood. It is a rich, emotional story that captures nothing less than the entirety of life in nineteenth-century France. This great humanitarian work encourages compassion and hope in the face of adversity and injustice. It is also an historical novel of great scope and provides a detailed vision of nineteenthcentury French politics and society. Sensational, dramatic, packed with rich excitement and filled with the sweep and violence of human passions, Les Miserables is not only a superb adventure, but a powerful social document. The story of how the convict, Jean-Valjean, struggles to escape his past and reaffirm his humanity, in a world brutalized by poverty and ignorance, became the gospel of the poor and the oppressed.