Les Misérables (set of 2 books)

Spanning a wide time frame (including the period in France from 1815 to 1832 and the brutally suppressed June Uprising in Paris), the work is a historical drama that refers the reader to the pressing events of that time. Victor Hugo criticizes the policies of the Restoration era that led to the poverty of the majority of the population. He imbues his characters with republican sentiments, making the novel revolutionary and anti-monarchical.

Among the "outcasts" are Jean Valjean, sentenced to twenty years of hard labor for stealing bread for his starving family, little Cosette, who has turned into a charming girl, and the cheerful street urchin Gavroche. The confrontation of the criminal world of Paris and the police, the disputes of political parties and battles on the barricades, monastic laws and the church system — a brilliant picture of French society in the early 19th century.