What is the general plot of Les Misérables?

Les Misérables centres on the character Jean Valjean, an ex-convict in 19th-century France. The story spans many years as it tells of Valjean's release from prison and reformation as an industrialist while being constantly pursued by the morally strict inspector Javert.
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What is the basic storyline of Les Misérables?

Les Misérables is a novel in five volumes and is about how people in the lower classes of France find their way in society. It explores what people stuck in the lower rungs of society must do to survive, effectively criticizing society by showing stories of people who struggle in unfair societies.
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What is the main point of Les Misérables?

The main theme of Les Miserables is social injustice. Many of the characters in the novel are victims of injustice who are unable to seek recompense through traditional channels. Jean Valjean, as a former convict, is scorned because of his mistakes.
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What is the super summary of Les Misérables?

Overview. Les Misérables (in English, The Wretched or The Miserable Ones) is a novel by French author Victor Hugo, published for the first time in 1862. The story follows several characters through early- to mid-19th century France as they seek redemption for their sins and an escape from poverty.
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What is the main problem in Les Misérables?

Major conflict Valjean struggles to transform himself from a thief into an honest man; over the years he struggles to stay a step ahead of the zealous police officer Javert and tries to raise his adopted daughter, Cosette.
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Les Mis In 60 Seconds

What is the moral lesson of Les Misérables?

Moral values in the novel “Les Miserables” are love and sincerity, forgiveness, Sacrifice, Justice/Injustice. Fantine earned less and less money from her sewing, and the Thenardiers demanded more and more money to look after Cosette.
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What are they fighting for in Les Misérables?

The strict answer is that the fighting is part of the June Rebellion of 1832 in support of a return to a republic and the end of the monarchy of Louis Philippe. The Bourbon restoration after Napoleon had been overthrown in 1830 but to the disappointment of republicans was replaced by the Orleanist monarchy.
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What is the literal meaning of Les Misérables?

Updated September 30, 2021. Les Misérables has several shades of meaning in French. Translators say that Victor Hugo's novel, published in 1862, could just as well be titled The Miserable Ones, The Outcasts, The Wretched Poor, The Victims or The Dispossessed.
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What does "les miserables" mean in English?

In the English-speaking world, the novel is usually referred to by its original French title. However, several alternatives have been used, including The Miserables, The Wretched, The Miserable Ones, The Poor Ones, The Wretched Poor, The Victims, and The Dispossessed.
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What happens in the end of Les Misérables?

Marius eventually finds out from Thénardier that Valjean saved Marius's life. Ashamed that he mistrusted Valjean, Marius tells Cosette everything that has happened. Marius and Cosette rush to Valjean's side just in time for a final reconciliation. Happy to be reunited with his adopted daughter, Valjean dies in peace.
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Who is the most important character in Les Misérables?

Jean Valjean

He finds fulfillment in loving his adopted daughter and helping people who are in difficult situations, even when it means risking his own life and welfare. Valjean adopts pseudonyms to evade the police and combines a convict's street smarts with his newfound idealism and compassion.
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What is a fun fact about Les Misérables?

There are 76 moving lights in the show.
  • There are 5 projectors used to produce the images projected on the scenery during the show.
  • The show uses 4 separate theatrical fog systems to produce the atmospheric effects during the performance.
  • Final assembly weight of the show is over 2,000 lbs.
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Is Les Misérables a true story?

Answer and Explanation: While some the events in Les Miserables actually happened, the characters in the novel are fictional. The final conflict at the barricades in Les Miserables is based on the Paris Uprising of 1832, a short-lived rebellion that ended after only two days.
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Is Les Miserables historically accurate?

What parts of Les Miserables are a true story? The historic events are real (like Waterloo, the revolution,…) The characters, however probably not real. There may be some real people that inspired Hugo to come up with a character in his novel.
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Is Les Miserables a sad story?

While the show could be viewed as simply depressing — it is called “the miserables,” after all — viewers would be remiss in reducing it to just another sad story. Les Misérables is a story full of hope and the promise of a better tomorrow.
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What does the number 24601 mean?

In Les Misérables, 24601 is Jean Valjean's (primary antagonist) prison number while serving a nineteen-year sentence for stealing bread for his sister and her children. Victor Hugo selects this as his number because he deemed him to be conceived on June 24th.
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Why was Victor Hugo exiled?

When Louis Napoleon (Napoleon III) seized complete power in 1851, establishing an anti-parliamentary constitution, Hugo openly declared him a traitor to France. He moved to Brussels, then Jersey, from which he was expelled for supporting a Jersey newspaper that had criticised Queen Victoria.
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Is Les Misérables about communism?

The students might be Bolsheviks dedicated to a redistributive paradise. But the narrator of Les Misérables was hostile to communism, writing that "equal sharing abolishes competition and, in consequence, labour". And the cruellest oppression in the story isn't economic.
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Who adopted Cosette when Fantine died?

Fantine might die, but her love for Cosette ensures Cosette's survival. Jean Valjean adopts Cosette as his own daughter, and the young rebel Marius Pontmercy falls in love with her.
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What caused Fantine death in Les Misérables?

After he abandons her, she is forced to look after their child, Cosette, on her own. Originally a beautiful and naive girl, Fantine is eventually forced by circumstances to become a prostitute to support her daughter, losing her beauty and health until she finally dies of tuberculosis.
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How old is Jean Valjean when he dies?

Answer and Explanation: In les Miserables, Jean Valjean is about forty-six years old when the novel begins. Valjean was born in 1769, and he was sentenced to nineteen years in prison for stealing bread in 1795 at the age of twenty-six. At the end of the novel, when he dies, he is sixty-four years old.
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How long does it take the average person to read Les Misérables?

The average reader will spend 13 hours and 48 minutes reading this book at 250 WPM (words per minute). How long will it take you?
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Is Les Misérables about poverty?

France's Oscar-Nominated Les Misérables Is an Invigorating Tale of Poverty and Revolt. Sometimes the value of a movie lies not in telling you a story you've never heard, but in the way it draws you, for an hour or two, deeply into someone else's world.
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Why should we read Les Misérables?

Les Mis is about people who struggle, who succeed, who fail, who love, who want, and the thread that connects them all is the revolutionary fever that surrounds them. Because Les Mis is so expansive and well-written, it affords you a chance to live a life, Jean Valjean's entire adult life, in your imagination.
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Who was Cosette's biological father?

Félix Tholomyès – Fantine's lover and Cosette's biological father. A wealthy, self-centered student in Paris originally from Toulouse, he eventually abandons Fantine when their daughter is two years old.
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