A review by reading_rat4
Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

5.0

a beautiful novel that remains strikingly and depressingly relevant. Victor Hugo does not shy away from the moral, social, and physical horrors wrought by extreme poverty and marginalization. Les Misérables is a story that believes in redemption, that argues that brutality is the product of carceral systems that treat men like beasts, it explores the tragedy and promise of living in a country where the French Revolution has happened and where young radicals hope to realize its legacy.  It is a novel where to be  Christian is to be loving and to offer one’s hand to those who suffer - to see God within those who society despises and rejects. Reading Les Mis is a clarifying experience for anyone who is touched by the injustice of our current world.