Les Misérables Group

Question:

mabole06
mabole06
Student
High School - 9th Grade

Why did Victor Hugo create 'Les Miserables' in the time of the French Revolution?

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Posted by mabole06 on Friday January 2, 2009 at 3:38 AM and tagged with french revolution, historical context, les misérables, setting.

Answers:

  1. parkerlee
    parkerlee Teacher

    eNotes Editor

    The setting (time and place) is an appropriate context in which to raise questions over issues Hugo was most concerned about. It gave both distance and universality to his more immediate conflict with the French government under the regime of Napoleon III. He had been a political activist, then exiled for his criticism and dissent:

    Hugo was disillusioned with both the French people who were willing to exchange freedom for stability and with Napoleon III, who had traded in his republican opinions to become a dictator. Criticizing the government and Louis Napoleon publicly, Hugo was forced to leave France, first for Belgium and then for the Channel Islands. Les Miserables, which Hugo composed from the late 1840s to 1862 during his exile, integrated his feelings about the political situation, his memories of the barricades of 1848, and his republican ideals.

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/les-miserables/historical-context

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    Posted by parkerlee on Friday January 2, 2009 at 4:59 AM