Hugo Victor (Translated by Isabel F. Hapgood)

After nineteen years as a prisoner on the chain gang, Jean Valjean is released on parole with his yellow ticket-of-leave, which he must always carry with him, always branding him as a thief. Only the Bishop of Digne invites him in and treats him with compassion. In desperation, Valjean steals some silver. When the police catch him, he says it was a gift from the bishop, who goes along with the story. The bishop then, in addition, gives him two silver candlesticks. Valjean realizes he has given him a chance to regain his soul. He decides to start a new life for the better. To do so he realizes he must change his identity and break parole, and he tears up his yellow ticket.Eight years pass and Valjean, now known as Monsieur Madeleine, is now a factory owner and the mayor of a small town. One of his factory workers, Fantine, has a secret illegitimate child who lives with innkeepers in another town. The other women at the factory discover this and demand her discharge, insisting she will be nothing but trouble. The foreman, whose advances she has rejected, fires her.

A French Historical Novel

Les Misérables

Sanne

—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.

Les Misérables quotes

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