Victor Hugo was born in Besancon in 1802. He was the son of an army general and a conservative mother. Most of his childhood was spent pursuing the campaigns of the Napoleonic Wars. When Hugo was 16, his parents separated and Hugo went to live with his mother in Paris. He was both privately educated...

Les Miserables is an epic tale of the very poor in spirit and body who suffer throughout their lives. Set in 19th century France, it tells the story of Jean Valjean, an ex-convict, who is able to rebuild his life. Author Kathryn M. Grossman concludes, "Les Miserables is a work to which one can ret...

Like many, my only exposure to The Hunchback of Notre Dame has been through TV caricatures and the Disney version. Forever distrustful of the Mouse Ears, I didn't know what to expect while reading the real deal. Victor Hugo is an awesome storyteller. While perhaps he could be guilty of rambling ...

Les Misérables by Victor Hugo "The classic story of the triumph of grace and redemption, adapted for today's readers" by Jim Reimann W Publishing, 2001. 288 pages. Many years ago my mother received in the mail, every month or so, a volume of the "Readers' Digest...

The Theme of Fate in Victor Hugo's "Hunchback of Notre Dame" Whenever one looks in the nineteenth century, there is Victor Hugo, the French dramatist and novelist, and the revolutionary socialist. His father was a general in Napoleon's army and, as a result, Hugo was never a s...

In a book, it is very important to know who your characters are and their qualities. Therefore, characterization is very important in a book to make the book interesting to the reader. In Les Miserables, Victor Hugo does a wonderful job of portraying his character, especially Jean Valjean and his ...

One of Victor Hugo's most famous books is "Les Misérables." This is an exquisite book about Jean Valjean, a convict that had been recently released from prison for stealing a loaf of bread because he was hungry. He was a man of middle height, stout and hardy, in the strengt...

Jean Valjean: He is, in my opinion, one of the most simple and at the same time one of the most complex characters ever written. As readers follow his journey through Victor Hugo's classic novel Les Miserables, they come to see that Valjean is a passionate person and his story is one filled wit...

In this novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831), Victor Hugo talks about the life of his characters in the city of Paris. This story takes place in the late-fourteenth century. With inequality all around it was hard for a person to gain respect without good looks or social status. In this paper I ...

In this novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831), Victor Hugo talks about the life of his characters in the city of Paris. This story takes place in the late-fourteenth century. With inequality all around it was hard for a person to gain respect without good looks or social status. In this paper I...

"You no longer belong to evil, but to good. It is your soul I am buying for you. I withdraw it from the dark thoughts and from the spirit of perdition, and I give it to God!" (Hugo, 30) This dramatic statement uttered by the bishop, Magloire in Victor Hugo's "Les Misérables," pierced through t...

Many beliefs exist about redemption and the pursuit of such a divine principle. In Victor Hugo's Les Miserables, JeanValjean seeks redemption and deliverance from his past sins by acting as a savior of underprivileged citizens in Paris. However, one must also explore the character of Javert, fo...

Les Miserables Victor Hugo made it so that the characters in Les Miserables progressed throughout the novel. The theme "progress" can be seen and used widely. Three main characters, Jean Valjean, Cossette, and Javert expressed positive and negative forms of growth. Jean Valjean began t...

Jack Kerouac Born in the town of Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1922, Jack Kerouac was born to Leo and Gabrielle Kerouac, a French-Canadian couple in which Jack didn't even learn to speak English until age 6, when he was enrolled in school. Jack Kerouac would aspire to be one of the most inspirat...

Thematic Discussion on Hernani An honorable person is someone to be admired and emulated, certainly not castigated. In Victor Hugo's Hernani three of the four central characters are anything but honorable for much of the play. Although Don Carlos, Hernani and Dona Sol have moments where they dis...

Victor Hugo's piece depicting the ill-fated criminal Claude Gueux is a portrayal of a common theme that happens in every day life. Gueux was an honest family man that turned bad due to the environmental factors of Paris, these factors made a rational man into an irrational man. This situation is ...

In the novel Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, we have a frequent occurrence of two words. Duty and love. As the characters in this story interact with others, either of these words come into play. Jean Valjean is our main example, he interacts with the good and the bad, the young and the old. All of t...

Capital Punishment The most severe sentence used in our nation is capital punishment, or execution. Most of the executions were for murder or rape. However, federal, and military laws have conferred the death penalty for other crimes, including robbery, kidnapping, treason, espionage, and de...

During the 1820s, revolutionary movements overthrew many governments in Europe including Spain, Naples, the Ottoman Empire, and eventually Russia. In 1830, Paris was experiencing the July Revolution where Charles X was overthrown and Louis Philippe was proclaimed the "citizen king." The ne...

The Plague Chapters 6-10 An example of characterization is found on page ninety-nine. It says, "She glared at him, insolently, dark eyes a glitter with something that looked very much like hate. Harriet Somers. She had always been a nut-case. Pretty but bananas. Hyperactive was what they...