Victor Hugo's Fiction

Victor Hugo’s fiction joins expansive storytelling with close concern for people exposed to poverty, exclusion, and the misuse of power. Les Misérables follows Jean Valjean’s efforts to live responsibly after imprisonment, placing the claims of law beside the possibility of mercy. Notre-Dame de Paris connects personal destinies with the institutions and architecture of a historic city, while Toilers of the Sea gives solitary labour an elemental setting. Hugo often interrupts the action to consider history, society, or human conduct. These changes of scale connect vulnerable lives with forces that seem much larger than an individual, without diminishing the importance of personal choices.