Les Misérables translated variously from the French as The Miserable Ones, The Wretched, The Poor Ones, The Wretched Poor, or The Victims), is an 1862 French novel by author Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo

Victor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....

 and is widely considered one of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century. It follows the lives and interactions of several French characters over a seventeen-year period in the early nineteenth century, starting in 1815 and culminating in the 1832 June Rebellion

June Rebellion

The June Rebellion, or the Paris Uprising of 1832, was an unsuccessful, anti-monarchist insurrection of Parisian Republicans—largely students—from June 5 to June 6, 1832...

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The novel focuses on the struggles of ex-convict Jean Valjean

Jean Valjean

Jean Valjean is the protagonist of Victor Hugo's 1862 novel Les Misérables...

 and his experience of redemption.