History Literature / LesMiserables

For the ''many'' adaptations, see [[DerivativeWorks/LesMiserables here]].

[[caption-width-right:287:[[GratuitousFrench La]] [[TheWoobie Woubette]]]]

''Les Misérables'' (1862) is a sprawling [[TheEpic epic]] by Creator/VictorHugo, the seeds of which can be found in some of his earlier, shorter works, such as his novel(la) ''[[Literature/TheLastDayOfACondemnedMan Le Dernier Jour d'un Condamné]]'', which also treats upon the subject of the penal system in 19th century UsefulNotes/{{France}} and includes a character that resembles what could later be called an AU-style Valjean. An enduringly popular story and one among the most well known of FrenchLiterature worldwide, it has been adapted to the small and big screen [[AdaptationOverdosed numerous times]], and was made into an English language [[Theatre/LesMiserables musical play]] that has run for nearly thirty years.

''Les Misérables'' (1862) is a sprawling [[TheEpic epic]] by Creator/VictorHugo, the seeds of which can be found in some of his earlier, shorter works, such as his novel(la) ''[[Literature/TheLastDayOfACondemnedMan Le Dernier Jour d'un Condamné]]'', which also treats upon the subject of the penal system in 19th century UsefulNotes/{{France}} and includes a character that resembles what could later be called an AU-style Valjean. An enduringly popular story and one among the most well known of FrenchLiterature worldwide, it has been adapted to the small and big screen numerous times, and was made into an English language [[Theatre/LesMiserables musical play]] that has run for nearly thirty years.

For the ''many'' adaptations, see [[Franchise/LesMiserables here]].

''Les Misérables'' (1862) is a sprawling [[TheEpic epic]] by Creator/VictorHugo, the seeds of which can be found in some of his earlier, shorter works, such as his novel(la) ''[[Literature/TheLastDayOfACondemnedMan Le Dernier Jour d'un Condamné]]'', which also treats upon the subject of the penal system in 19th century UsefulNotes/{{France}} and includes a character that resembles what could later be called an AU-style Valjean. An enduringly popular story and one among the most well known of FrenchLiterature worldwide, it has been adapted to the small and big screen numerous times, and was made into a very well-known English language [[Theatre/LesMiserables musical play]] that has run for nearly thirty years.

''Les Misérables'' (1862) is a sprawling [[TheEpic epic]] by Creator/VictorHugo, the seeds of which can be found in some of his earlier, shorter works, such as his novel(la) ''[[Literature/TheLastDayOfACondemnedMan Le Dernier Jour d'un Condamné]]'', which also treats upon the subject of the penal system in 19th century UsefulNotes/{{France}} and includes a character that resembles what could later be called an AU-style Valjean. An enduringly popular story, it has been adapted to the small and big screen numerous times, and was made into a very well-known English language [[Theatre/LesMiserables musical play]] that has run for nearly thirty years.

For the adaptations, see ''Franchise.LesMiserables''.

''Les Misérables'' (1862) is a sprawling [[TheEpic epic]] by Creator/VictorHugo, the seeds of which can be found in some of his earlier, shorter works, such as his novel(la) ''[[Literature/TheLastDayOfACondemnedMan Le Dernier Jour d'un Condamné]]'', which also treats upon the subject of the penal system in France and includes a character that resembles what could later be called an AU-style Valjean. An enduringly popular story, it has been adapted to the small and big screen numerous times, and was made into a very well-known English language [[Theatre/LesMiserables musical play]] that has run for nearly thirty years.

For that, he was condemned to five years hard labor in a brutal, dehumanizing penal system that was par for the course at the time. Before his imprisonment, he was kind, of an even personality, and, in his own words, dull like a block of wood. Nineteen years in the galleys -- nineteen instead of five, for all of his escape attempts -- [[HadToComeToPrisonToBeACrook changed him completely]], making him bitter, harsh, and incapable of relating to other human beings as friendly agents. The system at the time made it virtually impossible to be re-integrated into society; the only real way out was death, and the provisions of the law facilitated that: on one's [[RuleOfThree third offense]], the death penalty was automatically imposed. However, it was [[JaywalkingWillRuinYourLife impossible for convicts to make an honest living]], because no one would give them work. It was a dreadful double bind. This is the situation Valjean finds himself in when he is finally released. He is set on the fastlane to being sent back again when a meeting with an unconditionally kind man, who happens to be a bishop, changes him forever, for a second time, just as profoundly as his experiences in the bagne changed him.

He breaks his parole and commits a minor theft out of habit, beginning the book-long chase with InspectorJavert as the pursuer. Over the course of the book, with the inspector always right behind him, Valjean becomes mayor of a small seaside town due to the penchant for altruism he developed after his redemption; makes a fortune from his own ingenuity and innovation; does many philanthropic works, among them caring for a dying woman, one of his factory workers, and promising her to ensure the well-being of her daughter Cosette; reveals his identity in court to prevent the wrongful incarceration of another man who was mistaken for him; is captured and sent to the galleys, but escapes to keep his promise; adopts the waifish Cosette, and moves from town to town with his final stop as Paris, where he puts forth every effort he can to make sure that Cosette has the happiness he could not and, one might argue, achieves a ''transcendental'' niceness that might save everyone he meets, including this annoying lad who seems to be developing an interest in Cosette (and who has his own history).

''Les Misérables'' (1862) is a sprawling [[TheEpic epic]] by Creator/VictorHugo, the seeds of which can be found in some of his earlier, shorter works, such as his novel(la) ''[[Literature/TheLastDayOfACondemnedMan Le Dernier Jour d'un Condamné]]'', which also treats upon the subject of the penal system in France and includes a character that resembles what could later be called an AU-style Valjean. It has been adapted to the small and big screen numerous times, and was made into a very well-known [[Theatre/LesMiserables musical play]] that has run for nearly thirty years.

For the adaptations, see ''Franchise/LesMiserables''.

* OlderThanTheyLook:
** Valjean as long as Cosette is with him. He is always supposed to look about ten years younger than he is, despite his white hair. After he stops visiting Cosette though...
** Little Cosette too, although here it is conflicting. The suffering gives her face an older expression, but she has big eyes and is stick-thin which makes her look younger than she actually is.
** Azelma (Éponine's little sister) looks like a sickly 11- or 12-year-old by the time she's 14.
** Enjolras is so pretty he's said to look around 17 while actually being 22.
* OneDegreeOfSeparation
* OneSteveLimit: Averted. There are no less than ''six'' characters named Jean, or some variation thereof -- four of them in the [[FamilyThemeNaming Valjean family]], which consists of [[RepetitiveName Jean and Jeanne Valjean]], and their children, Jean and Jeanne Valjean.
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname:
** Cosette. To the point where, when discussing her dowry right before her marriage, her future grandfather-in-law asks about her inheritance. (Paraphrased:)
--->'''Jean Valjean:''' Mlle Euphrasie Fauchelevent has five thousand francs a year.\\
'''M. Gillenormand''': Well, good for Mlle Euphrasie Fauchelevent, but who's ''that''?\\
'''Cosette:''' Er... that's me.
** Two of Tholomyès' friends' mistresses, Favourite and Dahlia.
* OverprotectiveDad: Valjean to Cosette.
* ParentalAbandonment: Several:
** Valjean loses his parents "at a very young age" and is brought up by his sister.
** In a way, Valjean's nieces and nephews: Their father is dead and their uncle in prison.
** Javert's father is a galley-slave and he apparently severed ties with his mother very early.
** Fantine's parents are entirely unknown.
** Fantine gets dumped by her lover with a two-year-old child and has to abandon Cosette a year later.
** Gavroche is the unloved oldest son of the Thénardiers, who lives in the streets
** The Thénardiers sell their two youngest sons to Manon, after Manon's own children (whom she claims were fathered by Gillenormand, who pays her for their keep) die from illness.
** After the death of Marius' mother, his father gets forced to abandon Marius to his grandfather. Marius thinks his father has abandoned him and learns the truth only aged 17.
* ParentalFavoritism: Mme Thénardier clearly favours her own daughters over Cosette. Averted, in that this doesn't extend to her sons, though.
* PassingTheTorch: Several torches are passed, not all of them heroic. Cosette and Marius resolve to follow Valjean's lead, but on the other hand Azelma Thénardier takes over smoothly from her dead mother and Gavroche's younger brothers pick up where he left off.
* PointOfView: Mainly omniscient narrator, but switches to subjective third person sometimes, usually when a character has a moral dilemma to go through. Needless to say that while many protagonists are a viewpoint character at some point, Valjean's POV is the most common.
* PowerOfTrust
* PowerTrio: Enjolras, Combeferre, and Courfeyrac are seen as the three leaders as Les Amis de L'ABC with Enjolras as the chief, Combeferre as the guide, and Courfeyrac as the centre.
* PrecisionFStrike: One that notoriously caused a stir in the Russian aristocracy at one point. Early on in the book, the Mot de Cambrionne is spoken, and when Anastasia circled it as one of the French words she didn't understand, embarrassment ensued between her father Czar Nicholas II and her French teacher.
* PrettyBoy: Enjolras. It is stated that he has girlish, pretty features. Also, Montparnasse.
* {{Pride}}: According to the narrator, Valjean is on the way of becoming a proud man before getting to spend four years in a convent. Not that the reader ever noticed anything different about Valjean's behaviour.
* PrimalFear: Little Cosette is afraid of the dark forest.
* {{Prison}}
* PrisonerExchange: When [[spoiler:Jehan Prouvaire]] is captured by the national guard, the revolutionaries plan to exchange Javert for his return, but before they can even raise the flag for a temporary truce, the national guard executes their prisoner.
* PrisonsAreGymnasiums: In two meanings: Valjean learns how to climb walls in prison (it helps that he's already super-strong) and he also learns to read and write.
* PrisonShip: Gets mentioned. Historically accurate, as old ships no longer fit for use were moored in the Toulon harbour as prison ships.
* PromotionToParent: Valjean's older sister Jeanne raises him after their parents have died.
* PunnyName:
** Jean Valjean is supposed to be a contraction of "Voilà Jean" – "Here's Jean". Still better than one of the names Hugo considered earlier: "Jean Sou" (figuratively "Jean Penny").
** Grantaire usually signs as "R" (a pun on the pronunciation of his surname, which sounds like "capital r" in French).
** There're also a few jokes with Bossuet's surname, which nobody knows whether it's spelled L'Aigle ("the eagle"), Lesgles or Legle.
** Les Amis de l'ABC allegedly named themselves that way because they're a society for furthering literacy among the poorer classes; it's a mere coincidence, of course, that in French "l'ABC" sounds exactly like "l'abaissé", "the oppressed". [[HiddenInPlainSight No revolutionary inclinations whatsoever]].
* QuicksandSucks
* RagsToRiches: Valjean as M Madeleine, Cosette when he adopts her. Throughout the novel, the economic position or evolution of a character marks him or her either as "one of the misérables" (not a good thing to be marked as, in this book) or as someone who could actually get a happy ending.
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler:Javert]]. %%Valjean's redemption, being what gets the story going instead of what brings it to an end, is a different trope.
* RelativelyFlimsyExcuse: Valjean and Fauchelevent.
* RetiredBadass: Georges Pontmercy, father of Marius. The novel goes into detail, describing his ''unbelievable'' badassery while serving in the French army. When the restoration kicked in, he retired good and proper.
* ReturningTheHandkerchief: Or at least, so Marius thinks.
* TheReveal:
** M. Madeleine revealing himself as Jean Valjean in the middle of a trial. However, subverted in the reader's case. Madeleine is introduced to the reader as a completely separate character to Valjean, though it is completely obvious that they are one and the same. It looks like Hugo is setting the whole thing up for a big reveal, but after a while he simply remarks that the reader will have guessed by now that they are the same person.
** The Anticlimax happens again when Thénardier, having fallen in to ruin, is scamming money off some people he heard were generous. He comes across Valjean again, and soon after the meeting reveals this. A passing line is made about a hundred pages later about how the reader probably guessed this before him.
* TheRevolutionWillNotBeVilified: The Friends of the ABC are portrayed as heroic defenders of the common man, right down to the token drunkard. To balance the scale, however, the sympathetic Bishop Myriel is described as a once-noble victim of the Revolution of 1789, and early in the book has a debate with a dying revolutionary regarding who deserves more pity, the poor, or the nobles who are murdered for a crime that is not their fault. While he wasn't blind to the crimes committed in its name, Hugo greatly admired the French Revolution. His last novel, ''93'', is focused on it.
* RichKidTurnedSocialActivist: Some of the members of Les Amis de l'ABC are privileged students who nonetheless empathize with Paris's poor and try to stage a rebellion in their name. Their leader, Enjolras, is specifically mentioned to be born to a wealthy family.
* RichSiblingPoorSibling: Cosette is abused by her foster parents the Thénardiers while Eponine and Azelma are doted on by their parents. Gavroche, the son of the couple, is also neglected to the point that, in Paris, he went to live in the streets. Two other sons were rented out to a woman wanting to pass them to Gillenormand as his sons, after the real ones died.
* RippedFromTheHeadlines: Quite a few real life criminals get mentioned. Two articles are even reproduced – unfortunately, those two are entirely fictional.
* RougeAnglesOfSatin: Thénardier writes with such creative spelling that it makes his letters recognisable.
* SadisticChoice: Marius has to choose whether to get Thénardier arrested (to save his love interest's father), even though it was his father's LastRequest for Marius to repay Thénardier for saving his life. See TakeAThirdOption below.
* SavedByTheCoffin: Jean Valjean escapes from the convent of Petit-Picpus (which is being watched by police who suspect that he's hiding inside) in the coffin of a nun who has just died, and is being taken out for burial.
* ScareEmStraight: Valjean attempts this on the foppish young criminal Montparnasse, by telling him of the horrors of prison life after Montparnasse dismissively says he'd rather be a lazy crook than an honest worker. It's a surprisingly thorough account, contrasting the relatively easy life of a poor but honest laborer with the endless toil of a galley slave. When that doesn't work, he mentions [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking the damage it would do to Montparnasse's looks]] before he got out again -- and this ends up startling him into a state of shocked pensiveness.
* SceneryPorn: Another one of Hugo's favourite tropes.
* SecretIdentity: Valjean uses at least three false names through the course of the book, plus at least one more the reader doesn't know.
* SecretlyWealthy: Valjean has about 600,000 francs hidden in a forest. You wouldn't be able to tell from his lifestyle; after all, they didn't nickname him "The beggar who gives alms" for nothing.
* SelfMadeMan: Valjean as M Madeleine.
* SellWhatYouLove: M. Mabeuf used to be a prominent horticulturist, but he lost all his money attempting to grow indigo. By the time he is introduced, he is now selling off his prized books one by one in an attempt to stay afloat.
* SheIsAllGrownUp: Marius noticing that the girl he's regularly encountered in the park for years, but in whom he has taken no interest, has suddenly developed a mysterious new nubile charm.
* SherlockScan: Javert does one on the mayor that leads him to suspect his identity. His immense strength, skill as a marksman, and having a bad leg (from being on the chain gang) arouse his suspicion, as does the fact that he made inquiries at Faverolles, where Javert knows Valjean's family lived.
* ShippedInShackles: Convicts were transported to the prison Toulon (among others) chained by the neck in groups of twenty-odd people. This scene is described twice in the book; once when Valjean goes through the process of getting his iron collar riveted and again years later, when he and Cosette see the passing chain gang.
* ShoutOut:
** Hugo's mention of ''Claude Gueux'' and ''Literature/TheLastDayOfACondemnedMan'' is close to advertisement.
** A very early line mentions Mousqueton, Porthos' valet in ''Literature/TheThreeMusketeers''.
* ShownTheirWork: Oh, Hugo.
* ShrinkingViolet: Marius. He's so shy that he can't muster up the courage to even speak to a pretty girl.
* SilkHidingSteel: Sister Simplice.
-->She was so gentle that she appeared fragile; but she was more solid than granite.
* SingleTear: At the death of [[spoiler: Mabeuf]] the novel describes a single tear rolling down Enjolras' cheek.
* SlasherSmile: When Madam Thénardier tries to produce a friendly smile (towards Cosette), the author states she looks ''even scarier'' than usual.
* SourSupporter: Grantaire.
* SpellMyNameWithABlank: Minor characters only, such as the revolutionary G and the Countess R. Three city names, too, namely D---- (Digne), B---- (Brignolles), and M-sur-M (Montreuil-sur-Mer).
* SpellMyNameWithAThe: Inverted by Courfeyrac, who insists on people dropping the article.
* SpiritualSuccessor: What Les Misérables is to ''Claude Gueux'' and ''Literature/TheLastDayOfACondemnedMan''. Only much longer.
* SpoiledBrat: Éponine and Azelma as long as their parents can afford it.
* StalkerWithACrush:
** Éponine. Heavy focus on the word "stalker". Trying to kill him so that they can both die together is more creepy than romantic.
** Marius. The behaviour he exhibits was seen as very romantic at the time but he does stalk Cosette.
* StrawNihilist: [[SpellMyNameWithABlank Count ***]], a senator from Digne who spends nine hundred words explaining why God, morality, and so on are illusions.
* SwordCane: Courfeyrac has one.
* TakeAThirdOption: Rather than getting Thénardier arrested (against his father's LastRequest) or leaving Valjean tied up at Thénardier's mercy, he throws [[ChekhovsGun Éponine's note]] ("The bobbies are coming") into the room, causing the criminals to flee.
* TakingTheBullet: Éponine for Marius. A soldier makes it in the barricade and aims his musket at Marius, but Éponine steps between them and takes the fatal shot herself.
* ATasteOfTheLash: More a taste of the stick, but when Valjean thinks or talks about prison, stick blows will come up sooner or later as inevitable as the tides.
* TechnicalPacifist: Valjean made a point of aiming for enemy soldiers' helmets. (Turning over an execution to this guy might not have been Enjolras's brightest idea.)
* TemptingFate: Hugo cites a memorandum from the police prefect of Paris in the summer of 1817, assuring the king (Louis XVIII) that the people of Paris are lazy and content, and will surely never try another revolution...
* ThereAreNoTherapists: Justified, as there really were none at the time.
** Averted with Cosette, who somehow has no lasting damage from her frankly nightmarish childhood (she just forgot all about it).
** Played straight with Valjean. He shows symptoms of PTSD complete with thousand-yard-stare, long before they were medically described.
* TitleDrop: In Volume III, Book VIII, Chapter V.
-->Besides, there is a point when the unfortunate and the infamous are associated and confused in a word, a mortal word, ''les misérables''; whose fault is it? And then, when the fall is furthest, is that not when charity should be greatest?
* TogetherInDeath:
** What Éponine hopes will happen to her and Marius. [[spoiler:Sadly (for her), he survives.]]
** Averted with [[spoiler: Grantaire and Enjolras]]. Though they die side by side holding hands, ''in death'' [[spoiler:Enjolras]] dies standing up while [[spoiler:Grantaire]] falls at his feet.
* TheToothHurts: Fantine -- whose smile and hair are described as her two great beauties -- sells first her hair to a wigmaker, and then her teeth to a denture-maker. And there is no suggestion that the removal of her teeth was performed with any anesthetic.
* TraumaticHaircut:
** Fantine gets one to pay for her daughter.
** Additionally, this happens by default to galley slaves, one of the many facts that Valjean uses to try to convince the foppish thug Montparnasse to pursue an honest life.
* TroubledSympatheticBigot: [[ByTheBookCop Inspector Javert]] starts out as a regular lawman, but is gradually shown to suffer from BlackAndWhiteInsanity. In the end, he's quite sympathetic as he struggles with his worldview.
* TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior:
** Despite being only eleven or twelve years old, Gavroche eventually steals a gun and joins the revolutionaries at the barricade. When the gun he stole doesn't work, he badgers Enjolras for a new one. Somewhat [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] when Enjolras replies that the guns are for men first.
** Cosette as a child shows signs of this, thanks to living in constant fear because of how badly she's been abused. When she overhears Valjean telling Thénardier that Fantine has passed away, she picks up the little knife she uses as a doll and rocks it while singing "My mother is dead! My mother is dead!" She also mentions using her knife to cut the heads off of flies. The narration says that at age eight, an observer might think she's growing up to be "an idiot or a demon". Fortunately, Valjean's love and care for her helps her psychologically heal, and she matures into a happy, well-adjusted young woman.
* TurnInYourBadge: Inverted when Javert attempts to present, of his own volition, his own resignation to Madeleine/Valjean as mayor of Montreuil-sur-Mer for the egregious sin of suspecting him of being Jean Valjean; despite Javert's zealous plea for dismissal, Valjean persuades him that he may keep his post.
* TurnTheOtherCheek
* TwoRoadsBeforeYou: Any other person would have to choose between ToBeLawfulOrGood. Javert's conflict in morals is pretty different:
-->He beheld before him two paths, both equally straight, but he beheld two; and that terrified him; him, who had never in all his life known more than one straight line. And, the poignant anguish lay in this, that the two paths were contrary to each other. One of these straight lines excluded the other. Which of the two was the true one?...
-->... There were only two ways of escaping from it. One was to go resolutely to Jean Valjean, and restore to his cell the convict from the galleys. The other . . .
* UnexpectedKindness: Former convict Jean Valjean is abused and untrusted even after serving all his sentence, so he becomes distrustful of anyone else. When a Bishop provides him food and shelter at his church, Jean steals the church's silverware and flees but is caught by the police. He is brought back and expects to be turned in by the Bishop, but instead the priest claims he gave the silverware to Jean and gifts him a pair of silver candlesticks for good measure. Jean is so moved by the Bishop covering for his theft that he resolves to become a better man from then on.
* UngratefulBastard: When Thenardier falls into poverty, Valjean pays them a visit and promises them regular financial support. Thenardier repays him by luring him into a trap, threatening to torture him, and trying to have Cosette kidnapped in order to extort a huge sum of money from Valjean at once. And there's no guarantee he wouldn't have killed Cosette the moment he got the money.
* TheUnsmile: Javert has a very... ''strange'' smile
* UnreliableNarrator: From time to time, the narrator will claim to not know some little detail or another. Not that it ever matters.
* UptownGirl: Played with. The ImpoverishedPatrician Marius falls for the well-off commoner Cosette.
* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: Several parts of the story are inspired by real life events Hugo witnessed, was a part of or was told about:
** A convict rescuing a sailor who had fallen off a yardarm.
** Hugo himself saved a prostitute from arrest for assault.
** Marius' political HeelFaceTurn when getting closer to his father is based on Hugo.
** So are parts of the love story between Cosette and Marius.
** The June revolts of 1832.
** Valjean's behaviour on the barricade is similar to that of Hugo on the barricades in 1851.
* VillainBall: An entire chapter is dedicated to describing how Javert holding it allowed Valjean and Cosette to escape his clutches.
* VillainousBreakdown: [[spoiler:Inspector Javert]], after discovering who saved his life.
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: M. Bamatabois is widely-respected around town, which is why Javert refuses to believe he instigated the brawl with Fantine.
* WarHero: George Pontmercy (father of Marius) fought well enough in Waterloo to receive the title of Baron from Napoléon himself.
* WasItReallyWorthIt: The narrator dismisses the battle of Waterloo as a waste of life and all it did was turn the place into a tourist trap.
* WhatAreYouInFor: Averted; the bishop makes a point of not asking Valjean for any kinds of details.
* WhatYouAreInTheDark: Jean Valjean all the way. His greatest sacrifices always happens after a long inner struggle, and ''all of them'' go unnoticed. He almost insists on slandering himself because nobody are supposed to know. Thus, he saves Champmathieu, ruining his name as a mayor, he takes Cosette out of the monastery only to set her in the path of Marius, whom he later saves from the barricades. In the last instance, he makes it pretty clear that Marius is meant to never find out who saved him. When he deliberately blows his cover for Marius after the wedding, he slanders himself ''even more'', to a point where Marius mistrusts him and denies him access to Cosette (which nearly kills him). It takes the interference of Thénardier to set things straight.
* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: In the original edition, several towns were only identified by first letter (most prominently D and M-sur-M). Since it was rather clear what towns Hugo was talking about, modern editions don't hold with this nonsense.
* WholesomeCrossdresser: Éponine, who dresses as a boy at the barricades.
* WideEyedIdealist: Marius, but most of the Amis fit this a bit. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] by the fact that most of them had already gone through all this before two years earlier, and come out triumphant. They have no reason to think they'll fail and/or die this time.
* WorkingOnTheChainGang: Valjean and Chenildieu "become friends" for several years while on a chain gang.
* WhyDontYaJustShootHim: What Javert asks after being unmasked and captured by the students on the barricade. Answer: They don't want to waste ammunition... yet.
* WouldHurtAChild: Rare female example, as M Thénardier's cruelty towards Cosette is more along the lines of making her walk barefoot in winter. Only Madame Thénardier (regularly) kicks and beats Cosette. Just before Valjean takes her, however, she announces she's going to kick Cosette out the next day, which Thénardier is perfectly fine with, despite the fact that she would likely die if they did this.
* WronglyAccused: Champmathieu when mistaken for Valjean. Later Valjean when the prosecutor manages to convince the jury that Valjean was part of a gang of highway robbers.
* YankTheDogsChain:
** Fantine has finally been rescued from her misery and six months in jail by Madeleine, who promises to get her daughter. And then Thénardier refuses again and again to bring the child, and Javert arrests Madeleine right at her bedside, revealing that he's a wanted criminal. The shock kills her.
** Valjean believes himself safe in his new identity, only for Javert to make the whole thing crumble and put Valjean in front of the terrible choice of going back to prison or let an innocent go to prison in his place.
** Cosette and Marius have managed to get to Valjean when he's still alive – only for him to die ten minutes later.
* YeOldeButcheredEnglish: One English translation is especially guilty of this, introducing "thou" whenever the difference between "tu" and "vous" (that is to say, informal and polite pronoun) becomes important in French. It's especially ridiculous since the use of "thou" is not consistent throughout the text.
* YouAlwaysHearTheBullet: When [[spoiler:''Prouvaire'']] is taken hostage by the National Guard, he is shot before the rebels can arrange a hostage exchange. Everyone hears the guns, despite it sounding like a "volley of gunfire," which is strange considering they are in the middle of a combat zone.
* YouAreNumberSix: Although the book is not as crazy about this one as the musical, Valjean's two prison numbers even make it to chapter title, namely "Number 24601 becomes Number 9430." However, the only one ever to refer to Valjean by his prison number is the narrator.
** "Number 9430 Reappears, and Cosette Wins It In the Lottery"
* YoungerThanTheyLook:
** Played with with Éponine, who's still noticeably 16, but at the same time has rather badly aged skin already due to her life of deprivation and poverty. By her second appearance as a teen, however, she's much happier, and accordingly is described as looking considerably prettier.
** By the time Fantine dies at 25, she's frail and white-haired.
* YouShallNotPass: Éponine towards the Patron-Mignette when they try to rob Jean Valjean's house.

* EarnYourHappyEnding: And how!
* EccentricMentor: Bishop Myriel.
* TheEeyore: Grantaire.
-->"I desire to forget life. Life is a hideous invention by somebody I don't know. It doesn't last, and it's good for nothing. You break your neck simply living."
* EmbarrassingLastName: There's an amusing tangent discussing the origins of the name of the Gorbeau House, where Valjean and Cosette end up living, and how it related to a twofold example of this. It was originally the site of a law practice run by guys named Renard (Fox) and Corbeau (Crow), who were widely mocked for their last names due to the combination of [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast those names, especially in combination forbiddingly suggesting]] that they were [[AmoralAttorney amoral attorneys]], and because it suggests [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fox_and_the_Crow_(Aesop) the fable of the Fox and the Crow]], whose verse telling by Creator/JeanDeLaFontaine is almost universally known in France. Eventually, the two petitioned the king for permission to change their names, and he agreed, decreeing new surnames for them. Corbeau was luckily renamed Gorbeau, but Renard was less luckily renamed Prenard ("taker"), a name suggesting someone greedy and/or a thief.
* EmbarrassingRescue: Valjean sees Javert is slated for execution and requests that he have the privilege of killing the spy. Being killed by Valjean squares with Javert's rigid view of the world and he accepts it, feeling like a martyr. When Valjean unties him, fires into the air, and urges him to flee -- after telling Javert his address so Javert can find him after the fighting is over -- Javert at first thinks it's a trick, and is so shocked that he later [[spoiler:self-terminates due to the ensuing cognitive dissonance. His entire view of the world is crumbling, and furthermore, as long as he is alive he must pursue Valjean, but at the same time he feels he should not pursue a man who saved his life.]]
* TheEveryman: Jean Valjean, who was a simple tree pruner before his imprisonment. His name means, literally, "John, here's John." (as "Voilà Jean" became "Valjean")
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: Part of the reason why [[spoiler:Javert is DrivenToSuicide]], although he's far more "rigid to a fault" than "evil".
* EvilGloating: Thénardier performs a near textbook example to Valjean when he has him captured in his room in Paris.
* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: One of the meanings of the title is "The Miserable Ones". And boy, is that ever accurate.
* FaceDeathWithDignity:
** Javert when expecting to be executed by the students.
** [[spoiler:Enjolras and Grantaire facing down the National Guard.]]
* FaintInShock: Fantine faints upon realizing that Mayor Madeleine is a genuinely kind man who is willing to help her reconnect with her estranged daughter Cosette.
* FakingTheDead: Valjean escapes prison this way.
* FauxAffablyEvil: Thénardier tries this several times.
* FelonyMisdemeanor: [[DisproportionateRetribution 5 years for a loaf of bread]], definitely not something the author agrees with. Inspector Javert seems to approve of these. He is perfectly willing to throw Fantine, a penniless prostitute who is on her knees begging for the life of her child, into jail for six months on account of assaulting a bourgeois who had deliberately provoked her, and who is unavailable to testify.
* TheFettered:
** Jean Valjean, albeit more through an insistence on Good than Law.
** Javert, though with the much more standard insistence on Law.
* TheFightingNarcissist: Montparnasse, who became a vicious street crook for the sake of staying fashionable and prides himself on his beauty even as he murders and steals his way through life.
* {{Flashback}}: Mostly from Valjean's POV.
* {{Foil}}: Valjean and Javert, Éponine and Cosette, Montparnasse and Enjolras, and Enjolras and Grantaire.
* TheFool: Fantine. At first.
* ForegoneConclusion: [[spoiler:The June Revolution can't succeed, since Louis gets overthrown 18 years after the novel ends]].
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Javert has a small mental meltdown after Madeleine tells him to let Fantine go, because from his law obsessed perspective, it's simply not done, and when it is, resorts to just staring blankly into space for a few minutes. It's largely played for laughs, but it shows just ''how'' dependant his state of mind is on his worldview being intact, and [[spoiler: which is demonstrated once more when he commits suicide when his worldview is completely debunked by Jean Valjean saving his life.]]
* ForgottenTrope: The penal system in 19th-century France; the Bourbon Restoration.
* FreudianExcuse: The reason for Javert's extremely harsh black and white world view and his complete inability to relate to other people. The trope is very interestingly used in Javert's situation, as he was born in prison the child of a prostitute and a thief, but completely rejects the idea that circumstances rather than evil nature can explain crime.
* FromTheMouthsOfBabes: The 2018 miniseries presents another reason why Fantine should've realized leaving Cosette with the Thenardiers was a bad idea. In the third episode, Cosette calls a nosy neighbor a bitch, and it's strongly implied she picked the word up from Madame Thenardier.
* GardenOfLove: Marius first sees Cosette when she is walking with Valjean at the Luxembourg Garden, and instantly falls for her beauty. Later, the two secretly meet in the garden at her house on Rue Plumet, where they eventually profess their love for one another.
* GirlsWithMoustaches: Mme Thénardier has one.
* GoodShepherd: Bishop Myriel.
* GoOutWithASmile: [[spoiler:Enjolras gives one to Grantaire]], showing he finally accepts him as part of the rebellion and is happy for them to die together before they are both shot.
* GreatEscape: When Thénardier and his gang escape from La Force prison, it fills many parts of that trope. Apart from maybe the fact that it's far from being central to the plot.
* HadToComeToPrisonToBeACrook: Jean Valjean. He's just a really poor guy who steals bread to survive and ends up serving nineteen years in prison. When he came there, he's afraid and crying, when he leaves, he's hardened and considered dangerous. And the narrator agrees! He does undergo a heel face turn later, though.
* HairOfGoldHeartOfGold: Fantine, at first. Then she cuts nearly all of it off, and what's left turns gray.
* HappilyAdopted: Cosette.
* HaveAGayOldTime: Valjean does not like being stuck under douches.
* HeartwarmingOrphan: Gavroche isn't actually an orphan, but he still fits.
* HeelFaceTurn: The biggest one from Valjean after the bishop pardons him for stealing his silver. Another one from Javert after Valjean refuses to kill him. One from Marius after learning the truth about Valjean's past.
* HellholePrison: Well, it is the 19th century.
* TheHeroDies: The novel ends with Jean Valjean's death and a description of his grave.
* HeroicBastard: Cosette, who is born to Fantine and Félix Tholomyès, her lover. She's also one of the most heroic characters to be found in the novel.
* HeroWithBadPublicity: Valjean and Fantine's relationship gets twisted by the media after his identity is revealed.
* HiddenSupplies: When the Thénardiers and their gang take him hostage and attempt to blackmail him, Valjean attempts to escape by sawing through his bonds with a tool — a watch spring, hidden inside a coin — which Hugo informs us is an item invented by convicts. This means that Valjean has had this tool on him all day, every day, for God knows how long — just in case he were ever arrested. This also makes him ProperlyParanoid.
* HistoricalDomainCharacter:
** Napoleon. He features (obviously) in the long description of the battle of Waterloo, but he also has a chance meeting with Myriel, who accidentally flatters him ("I see a great man"). This leads to Myriel's promotion to bishop in Digne, setting him straight in Valjean's path at the beginning of the book.
** Also Wellington, Ney, Cambronne, and several other participants in the Waterloo battlefield.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Rather than arresting Valjean the moment he recognizes him, Javert decides to toy with him and let him think he's going to get away. It ends up giving him enough time to find a way to escape.
* HoldingHands: How [[spoiler:Enjolras and Grantaire]] die.
* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: Played mostly straight with Fantine, who resorts to prostitution as her only available way to provide for herself and her daughter. Throughout, she still retains her love for Cosette, but her general attitude and comportment become a ''lot'' less outwardly sad and sweet than the trope usually entails.
* HopeSpot: Fantine's health suddenly improves when she thinks Valjean has gone to get Cosette. Then Javert arrives to arrest him, and the ensuing argument reveals that Cosette is not there and that Valjean is a convict. The shock kills her.
* {{Hypochondria}}: Joly is described as a ''malade imaginaire'' and often worries about his health throughout the novel.
* IconOfRebellion: Two of them -- the flag Mabeuf dies waving, and Mabeuf's bullet-ridden coat afterwards.
* IdenticalStranger: Champmathieu, who almost takes the rap for Valjean.
* IfICantHaveYou: Éponine to Marius. When Marius thinks Cosette is gone forever and is emotionally vulnerable, Éponine gives him a false message that his friends are expecting him at the barricade. Distraught due to the belief that Cosette had left for England, he goes there. Éponine goes back there herself, hoping that they will both die there together. Although she does belatedly redeem herself somewhat by throwing herself in front of a gun aimed at him, and admitting her dishonesty, Hugo makes it clear that part of her act was just that she did want him to die, she just didn't want to ''see'' it so she chose to go first. And as she's dying in his arms she does say "We're all going to die, and I'm so happy".
* ImportantHaircut: The first thing, in the book, that Fantine sells for Cosette's sake.
* IncurableCoughOfDeath: Fantine develops a "dry cough". The disease is never named. Arguably a case of VictorianNovelDisease, except that it doesn't make her more beautiful.
* InfallibleNarrator: Most of the time. He has the ability to describe a character's mental state and thought process (usually Valjean's), even if the character himself/herself is not able to do that.
* InSeriesNickname:
** "Jean-le-Cric" (Jean the Jack), Valjean's prison nickname.
** Similarly, the convict Chenildieu is nicknamed "Je-nie-Dieu" (I deny God).
** Charles-François Bienvenu Myriel comes to be known in Digne only as "Monseigneur Bienvenu" (meaning "Welcome").
** Fantine is nicknamed "The Blonde" by Tholomyès. His friends' lovers all have nicknames as well: Favorite, Dahlia, and Zéphine.
* InspectorJavert: The character for whom [[TropeNamer the trope is named]], of course.
* InstitutionalApparel: Red jackets and colour-coded caps get mentioned. History says it was yellow trousers, white shirt, red vest and jacket and a green cap for lifers or a red cap (like the Phrygian cap) for non-lifers.
* InterclassRomance: Played with. Cosette becomes a well to do commoner while Marius is a poor boy with the title of Baron.
* InWhichATropeIsDescribed
* IronicNickname: Fantine names her baby Euphrasie in a moment of romantic inspiration, but soon calls her "Cosette" all the time (which means "Pampered" or "Indulged"). Then she leaves her child with the Thénardiers, who verbally and physically abuse the child, starve her, and force her to work for her keep -- all the while still calling her "Cosette," little Indulged.
* IronicNurseryTune: When Fantine is in the hospital and close to dying, she sings "an old cradle romance with which she had, in earlier days, lulled her little Cosette to sleep, and which had never recurred to her mind in all the five years during which she had been parted from her child."
-->She sang it in so sad a voice, and with so sweet an air, that it was enough to make anyone, even a nun, weep.
* {{Irony}}: Fantine is fired because she has an illegitimate child. She's then forced to turn to prostitution to make ends meet.
* IHaveManyNames: Jean Valjean. To take directly from Website/{{Wikipedia}}'s page, "Jean Valjean: a.k.a. Monsieur Madeleine, a.k.a. Ultime Fauchelevent, a.k.a. Monsieur Leblanc, a.k.a. Urbain Fabre, a.k.a. 24601, a.k.a. 9430."
* ItsAllMyFault: Valjean has a tendency to accept blame even when his involvement was minor at best. Goes hand in hand with his refusal to defend himself at his trial or in front of Marius.
* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy:
** Valjean, although he didn't think that maybe his daughter might be happier with him around.
** Éponine helps Marius to find Cosette, despite the fact that she's also in love with him. She doesn't manage to keep it up, though, and slides into IfICantHaveYou later.
* JaywalkingWillRuinYourLife: Perhaps the TropeCodifier, as Valjean's life of crime was set in stone from the moment he stole ''a loaf of bread.''
* JustifiedCriminal: When you've got the choice between stealing and starving, few people would hesitate.
* JustInTime: When Valjean and Cosette escape from Javert and his squad by climbing over the convent wall, the narration mentions that they hear them arriving just as they reach safety at the top of the wall. In the 2018 ''Series/{{Masterpiece}}'' MiniSeries, the camera angle shows Cosette being pulled to safety just as Javert and company come around the corner.
* KarmaHoudini:
** Thénardier is never made accountable for his various crimes (which include graverobbing, attempted murder, child abuse, kidnapping, torture, theft, and more child abuse) during the book, and in the epilogue, he takes the money Marius had given to him to travel to America and become a successful slave trader.
** Tholomyès, who abandons Fantine, becomes a successful lawyer. (Though he does get a come-uppance in a deleted scene to the original novel, where his wedding gets called off because a young Cosette (who just happens to be in the audience) calls out 'Papa!') It's suggested that he eventually matures into an honorable man, but that certainly doesn't save Fantine.
* KickTheDog: The Thénardiers do this in just about every scene they're in. Javert also gets a moment when he inadvertently frightens Fantine to death by telling her the mayor is a convict. You'd better believe Valjean wasn't happy about that.
* KidAppealCharacter: Gavroche, you little Ankle-Biter.
* KilledMidSentence: Mid-song, in the case of Gavroche. Yes, this happens in the novel.
* KillEmAll: The amount of characters killed or who die during the novel's duration is astounding. Much like some of Hugo's [[Literature/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame previous work]], you can count the number of major characters who actually survive the novel's events (these being Marius, Cosette, Marius' grandfather M. Gillenormand (although he is elderly and probably passed away soon after the events of the novel anyway), Thenardier and his one remaining daughter Azelma) on one hand.
* KillHimAlready: Justified, because much as the rebels would like to kill Javert, they have a reason for holding him prisoner for an extended length of time: they are conserving their powder and bullets, and consider killing him any way other than shooting him to be reprehensible and beneath them.
* KillMeNowOrForeverStayYourHand: Javert to Valjean. [[DrivenToSuicide Javert does not take it well.]]
* KnightTemplar: Javert.
* TheLadysFavour: Played with; Marius finds a handkerchief after Jean Valjean and Cosette pass by and thinks Cosette dropped it for him to find, but actually it's Jean Valjean's handkerchief and he lost it entirely by accident.
* LaResistance: Les Amis de l'ABC.
* LastNameBasis: Justified as this is the 19th century. It gets jarring when all the students call Marius Pontmercy "Marius", but refer to any other of their group by last name only.
** The only member of Les Amis other than Marius to get a first name is Jean Prouvaire. And not only does he get a first name, but a nickname too- 'Jehan'.
** One Amis member goes by many names- Lesgle, Bossuet, Laigle, Legle, L'Aigle de Meaux- none are his first name.
* [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers The Second-To-Last Of These Is Not Like The Others]]: The name of the five parts of the book is "Fantine", "Cosette", "Marius", "The Idyll in the Rue Plumet and the Epic of the Rue Saint-Denis", and "Jean Valjean".
* LastMinuteReprieve: We don't know if it was last minute, but Valjean gets a royal pardon before his death sentence can be executed. Since he did not appeal, only a few days would have passed between his trial and the execution date, giving the King not much time to pardon him.
* LastRequest: After TakingTheBullet for Marius, Éponine requests a kiss on the forehead from him after she dies. He grants her request.
* LastSecondWordSwap: Fauchelevent: "How in Chri--stmas are you going to get out of here?"
* LastStand
* TheLastTemptation: taken to the extreme with the trip to Arras. Jean Valjean is trying to get there to confess his identity so that another man doesn't mistakenly get imprisoned in his place. The wheel of his carriage breaks - Valjean learns that it's impossible to repair the wheel in time, so he offers to buy a wheel, buy a set of wheels, then buy a cart and two horses, then to buy a riding horse. When he learns all those are not an option, he is relieved and briefly thinks that maybe God is giving him the sign that he has done enough, before he gets another cart anyway. Then he learns there's a closed road ahead, that he will likely get lost in the night and goes forth anyway. Then his new cart breaks too, so he cuts a branch to repair a broken part. Valjean arrives at Arras despite getting about ten excuses to be able to say "I did what I could".
* LivingEmotionalCrutch: Cosette to Jean Valjean, and Marius to Eponine.
* LoadBearingHero: Valjean, both literally and figuratively.
* LockedIntoStrangeness: Valjean's hair turns completely white the night after he makes the difficult decision to turn himself in so that Champmathieu doesn't get sent to the galleys in his place; it stays white for the rest of the book.
* LongHairIsFeminine: When Fantine sells hers, she hides her shorn head under a cap so she still looks pretty.
* LongingLook: Marius and Cosette exchange a few of these.
* LostInTranslation:
** Hugo makes use of untranslatable puns and argot/slang. An example of a pun is the name of a bagnard named Chenildieu, who's nicknamed je-nie-Dieu, "I deny God"; another is a character admiring the "glaces" (mirrors) in a restaurant, and another replying that she'd rather have "glacés" (ice cream) on her plate.
** The title is generally left in French, as it means "The Downtrodden", "Those Unfortunates", and "The Children", and there is no single English equivalent.
** The student revolutionary group, Les Amis de l'ABC, literally translates as "the friends of the ABC." However, ABC in French would be pronounced ah-beh-sey, sounding like abaissé — the French word for "abased," also translated as "wretched" or "oppressed." So the name of the group actually means Friends of the Oppressed, since they are all about helping the poor.
** The "bagne" in which Valjean was imprisoned has created a lot of problems in English translation/adaptation, as it literally means "galleys", giving the misleading impression that Valjean served in a SlaveGalley during his imprisonment (the French name derives from the fact that the Bagne replaced the use of prisoners as galley slaves). To avoid the confusion, the 2013 translation by Christine Donougher uses the term "prison hulks" instead, which is also historically accurate, as prisoners continued to be "housed" in ships even after they were no longer used as rowers.
** The fact that Grantaire signs his paintings as "R" can be confusing for English readers, but in French the capital R is called "grand R", phonetically pronounced "Grahnd Air".
* LoveAtFirstSight: Inverted with Marius and Cosette. The narrator emphasises several times that the only reason Marius even noticed Cosette is the contrast of her black dress to the incredibly white hair of the man accompanying her. Then he doesn't see her for a couple of months, and suddenly she's turned from a relatively ugly little girl into a beautiful young woman. And Marius still doesn't care.
* LoveTriangle: Marius, Cosette, Éponine.
* MeaningfulName:
** Fantine from "enfantine", childish. Derived from the Latin "enfans", 'one who cannot yet speak'. Éponine's (derived from the Greek "épos", 'word') and Euphrasie's ("beautiful way of speaking", Latin) names are also related to the concept of voice, and many critics consider this a mark of Hugo's feminists (for his time) views.
** Valjean is an abbreviation of "Voilà Jean" (Here's Jean). It doesn't help that it's the single most common French first name.
** Marius after Victor Hugo's own middle name, Marie.
** Bishop Charles-François Bienvenu Myriel becomes known only as Monseigneur Bienvenu (Bienvenu means welcome).
** Montparnasse is named after the quarter of Paris he operates in.
** Euphrasie (Joy), known as Cosette (probably as a diminutive of "chose", thing, or from the word "cosset"- to cherish and indulge).
** Valjean's alias of M Madeleine, chosen after Mary of Magdala (Marie-Madeleine in French), the repentant sinner.
** Cosette names the doll Valjean gives her "Catherine". Catherine was among the first names of Hugo's eldest daughter – nicknamed "Doll" by the family.
** Éponine is the French version of Epponina, the name of the wife of the anti-Roman Gaulish resistor Julius Sabinus. The historical Epponina did everything she could for the man she loved, and while Éponine falters between selfishness and selflessness in her love for Marius, she ultimately [[spoiler:takes a bullet for him and dies in his arms]]. It's also ironic, as it's a highly romantic and aristocratic name for a street waif.
** Enjolras can be read as "il enjôlera", meaning he is the one who "will seduce/coax" which makes sense since he's one of the leaders of the riot. Meanwhile, Grantaire's name could be interpreted as a pun on the name of the letter R (it's homophone to "grand r", 'capital r') or on the idiom "avoir grand air" ('to be distinguished, to be elegant'), as Hugo describes his as an ugly, cynical drunkard.
* MercifulMinion: Reversed (heroes intending to kill villain) with Jean Valjean asking to personally execute the spy Javert. He takes him out of sight, fires a pistol into the ground and tells him to run.
* MessianicArchetype:
** Jean Valjean.
** Enjolras, to a lesser extent.
** Bishop Myriel specifically endeavors to emulate Christ. He's admittedly as close as a human being could be to being perfect. The author seems to consider his political opinion (he's a royalist) his biggest flaw. Then Myriel meets with a former Revolutionary and even that changes.
* MissedHimByThatMuch: When Valjean and Cosette escape from Javert and his squad by climbing over the convent wall, the narration mentions that they hear them arriving just as they reach safety at the top of the wall. In the 2018 ''Series/{{Masterpiece}}'' MiniSeries, the camera angle shows Cosette being pulled to safety just as Javert and company come around the corner--if he'd looked up, he would have seen her.
* MoralEventHorizon: Discussed InUniverse:
** Valjean himself feels he's crossed it after robbing Petit Gervais, and he realizes that society will also see it that way.
** Javert's mindset is that being guilty of ''any'' crime instantly puts one over it, which is why he doesn't believe that criminals can reform.
* MoralityKitchenSink: Maybe slightly deficient towards the black side, as there is no real AlwaysChaoticEvil. Even the worst characters have some justification or at least believe to have done the right thing. But from there on, you've got every shade is represented.
* MustMakeAmends: Valjean's new purpose in life.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Valjean after robbing Petit-Gervais, leading to his big HeelFaceTurn.
* NaiveNewcomer: Cosette after growing up in a convent.
* {{Narrator}}: Switches forth between speaking of himself in first person singular, third person singular (then usually calling himself "the author") and first person plural and does not stop at telling stories that happened to himself.
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: Thénardier goes to Marius to blackmail him with his knowledge about Valjean, but ends up telling Marius that Valjean a) did not rob M Madeleine (as he WAS M Madeleine), b) did not [[spoiler:kill Javert (as Javert killed himself)]], and c) saved Marius from the barricade (although Thénardier believed him to have killed Marius to rob him). Although Marius and Cosette arrive [[spoiler:too late to save Valjean, he dies with Cosette at his side and the knowledge that the two know that he was not a bad man.]]
* NightmareDreams: Valjean has a particularly crazy one in the night before going to Arras.
* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: Where to start, poor Jean Valjean.
* NoHelpIsComing: The student revolutionaries know they can't prevail by themselves, but are counting on their actions inspiring others to join the fight. As the siege on their barricade drags on, it becomes increasingly apparent that they're on their own. They refuse to surrender, and are eventually overwhelmed.
* NoNameGiven: Inspector Javert (fans like to joke about Javert's first name actually being "Inspector"), Fantine (rare case of first name only), both Thénardiers, all of the students except Je(h)an Prouvaire and Marius Pontmercy, and many more.
* NotInThisForYourRevolution: Marius and Mabeuf just want to commit [[SuicideByCop suicide by barricade]]. Valjean is just there to save his daughter's lover. Grantaire just hangs out with the students because they're his friends and he loves Enjolras.
* NotWhatItLooksLike: Happens to Marius twice, firstly when his visits to his father's grave are mistaken for illicit rendezvous with "some petticoat". The second time he is following Thenardier in order to find out more about the planned Gorbeau robbery when he is seen by some of his friends, who assume he is stalking a girl.

* AbridgedForChildren: ''Les Misérables'' is called (affectionately?) by its readers "the Brick", resulting in multiple attempts to shorten it--however, this is ''not'' an easy text to abridge. Cut versions always leave the revolution subplot in the dust. Fantine's story is castrated, and all character development not centered on Valjean and Javert is pretty much obliterated. Hugo's tableau of France invariably turns into a good and evil story (Valjean and Javert) with a romance subplot (Marius and Cosette) thrown in.
* AccidentalHero: Thénardier. First, when he accidentally saves Georges Pontmercy's life, and then again, in his attempt to blackmail Marius.
* AffluentAscetic: Bishop Myriel's position comes with a large salary and a palatial official residence. He allows the local hospital to occupy the palace while he lives in a small adjoining building, and donates nearly all his salary to charity. The only touch of luxury he permits himself is his silverware, which he values for its sentimental associations more than its monetary value.
* AnimalStereotypes: The narrator states that each person's soul corresponds to a particular animal.
-->The peasants of Asturias are convinced that in every litter of wolves there is one dog, which is killed by the mother because, otherwise, as he grew up, he would devour the other little ones.\\
Give to this dog-son of a wolf a human face, and the result will be Javert.
* AntiVillain:
** Valjean is a Woobie Anti-Villain before his HeelFaceTurn.
** Javert is found on the overlap between a Well-Intentioned Anti-Villain and a PragmaticHero. He's frequently ''nasty'' but he desperately believes that utter inflexibility is the only way to maintain order.
* AppetiteEqualsHealth: When the gravely ill Fantine thinks she's about to be reunited with her daughter Cosette, her condition improves, and her feeling hungry is one of the signs of it. Unfortunately, she isn't reunited with Cosette, and succumbs to DeathByDespair.
* ArmorPiercingQuestion:
** Javert's struggle with himself toward the end of the book:
--->All sorts of interrogation points flashed before his eyes. He put questions to himself, and made replies to himself, and his replies frightened him. He asked himself: "What has that convict done, that desperate fellow, whom I have pursued even to persecution, and who has had me under his foot, and who could have avenged himself, and who owed it both to his rancor and to his safety, in leaving me my life, in showing mercy upon me? His duty? No. Something more. And I in showing mercy upon him in my turn--what have I done? My duty? No. Something more. So there is something beyond duty?" Here he took fright;
** Valjean/Madeleine accepted his post as mayor because he was asked “Are you afraid of the good you might do?”.
* TheArtfulDodger:
** Gavroche. Hugo even mentions that once kids like Gavroche grow up, the world beats them down, but he assures us that as long as he's young, Gavroche is thriving.
** Montparnasse was one of these until he grew up to be a stylish and ruthless teenage thug.
* AuthorFilibuster: Almost half of the book is Hugo exposing directly his thoughts about the ills of society, history (mostly the first half of the 19th century), the struggle for democracy, and many other subjects. Sometimes, there are no mentions of the main characters of the novel for a hundred pages. It is fortunate for the reader that Victor Hugo's thoughts ''are'' extremely interesting, well-written, and ahead of their time. "The Intestine of the Leviathan" = "HEY KIDS, ISN'T THE SEWER SYSTEM OF PARIS INTERESTING?" To which the answer is, of course, "Yes. Yes it is." Even more obvious towards the end of the book, when he spends multiple chapters justifying the use of "argot" (i.e., popular or vulgar speech). Hugo's previous works had been criticized precisely for relying on this type of language, which was deemed too vulgar for "real" literature.
* AuthorStandIn:
** Hugo admitted that Marius is a portrait of the author as a young man.
** Valjean's rescue of Fantine was loosely inspired by something that Hugo did shortly after the success of ''Notre-Dame de Paris''.
** Valjean not shooting anyone at the barricade, but always tending to the wounded reflects Hugo's behaviour in the riots against Napoléon III.
* AuthorTract: This is Victor Hugo, who probably never wrote a single book which doesn't fit this. All Hugo's opinions on social justice, the French justice system, death penalty, politics, and many more are found in Les Misérables.
* AwesomenessByAnalysis: Javert does this repeatedly. His initial suspicion of the mayor is based on a SherlockScan that ultimately proves right. When Valjean is recaptured, he's able to figure out that he was going after Cosette. Then he's able to deduce that Valjean may have faked his death, retrieved Cosette, and reestablished himself in Paris, all from a very limited amount of information.
%%** Valjean also pulls this when he shuts down Thénardier's attempt to extort even more money from him in exchange for Cosette. (If context is added, fix indentation, delete this message, and uncomment. See Administrivia/ExampleIndentation and Administrivia/ZeroContextExamples.
* BadassBoast:
** Javert when arresting the Thénardier gang: "Shoot! Your gun will misfire!" [[spoiler:It does.]]
** Éponine delivers a truly epic one when she decides to defend Cosette, Marius and Jean Valjean from the Patron-Mignette. Consider that she stands up against ''six hardass brutes'', including her own father.
--->'''Éponine''': You are not getting inside. I am not a pup, I am a wolf cub. You are six. What do I care about that? You cannot scare me. You will not go inside this house, because I do not wish it. If you get closer, I will bark. I said there was a dog there. That dog is me. So get away all of you. If you use the knife, I will use my legs. By God I am not afraid of you. In the summer, I starve, in the winter I freeze, and such stupid men believe they can scare me? Scare! What? That's too funny. It's because you have some petty women who hide under their beds when you roar. I am not afraid. Not even for you (''towards her father'').
%%* BadassBookworm:
%%** Combeferre, who takes two pistols and a musket with him to the barricades.
%%** M. Mabeuf.
%%** Jean Valjean.
* BarefootPoverty:
** Little Cosette's bare feet are specifically mentioned many times in the descriptions of her time with the Thénardiers.
** Several illustrations, including the most famous one centering on Cosette (see above), depict poor children wearing no shoes.
* BadassPreacher: Bishop Bienvenu Myriel. He dared to pass a mountain packed with robbers, and the robbers dared not assail him. And he went alone, to spare the life of the gendarmes. At the age of 70! Later on, he of course saves Valjean's soul, going up against his entire society and gets away with it - to the benefit of Jean Valjean, Cosette, Marius, and several others.
* TheBadGuyWins: In a sense--the only character who has everything he wants by the end of the story is Thenardier.
* BeautyEqualsGoodness: Cosette is unambiguously beautiful to complement her genuinely kind and caring personality. Enjolras is described as having an "angelic beauty" that reflects his love for France and his genuine desire for social change. In contrast, the Thénardiers are unattractive besides being cowardly, abusive, selfish con people.
** Subverted with Eponine. She's described to be homely, and although she's not as kind and caring as Cosette is or as passionate as Enjolras, she's not a conniving, manipulative JerkAss like her parents either.
* BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: The man trapped by the fallen cart, Fauchelevent, later saves Valjean (and Cosette) when he allows them into the convent, in repayment.
** Valjean to the bishop, although it took two attempts on the bishop's part to make Valjean's redemption stick.
** Georges Pontmercy and his son Marius to Thénardier, on the mistaken belief that Thénardier had saved the colonel's life when he was actually robbing him. It is then [[DeconstructedTrope deconstructed]], as Marius feels indebted to Thénardier beyond reason even knowing what a monster he is.
* BigDamnHeroes: Javert of all people pulls one of these during his arrest of the Thénardiers.
* BigFancyHouse: M. Myriel receives a palace to live in when he became the Bishop of Digne. [[MessianicArchetype He has it turned into a hospital.]]
* BigScrewedUpFamily: The Thénardiers. The giant Mme Thénardier behaves like a dog to M Thénardier; they idolise their daughters, mistreat their foster child, abandon their oldest son in the streets, and give away their two younger sons for money to a woman who has lost hers.
* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Almost every character dies]], but Cosette and Marius live HappilyEverAfter and [[spoiler:Valjean's death]] comes peacefully, with Cosette by his side. The June Rebellion failed, but the revolutionaries didn't die in vain: [[UsefulNotes/RevolutionsOf1848 Louis Philippe was overthrown in 1848]], [[UsefulNotes/FrancoPrussianWar Napoleon III in 1870]], and the French Third Republic was established that same year. In other words, the world they died for ''did'' come true eventually. Additionally, the only character who gets an unambiguously happy ending is Thenardier, the ''[[TheBadGuyWins villain]]''.
%%* BlackAndWhiteInsanity: Javert. Such an extreme case that when he's finally forced to challenge it, [[spoiler:he's driven to suicide.]]
* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: Contrary to the beliefs of many due to more recent portrayals of the characters in the musical post 2010 and the 2012 movie, Fantine has blonde hair, Cosette has brown, and Éponine's hair is described as auburn (or chestnut, depending on the translation).
* BodybagTrick: Valjean gets out of the convent in a coffin in which one of the nuns was supposed to be buried.
* BoomerangBigot: Javert, at least a little. His parents were crooks, and this is why he's so hard on criminals now (in fact, why he joined the police in the first place): he wants to prove that it's not [[VillainousLineage inherited]], as relentlessly as he can.
* BrawnHilda: Madam Thénardier, to the point where she brags of her own strength - she is able to break a walnut with a punch.
* BreakTheBeliever: [[spoiler: Javert,]] who collapses inwardly when he discovers his BlackAndWhiteInsanity is not accurate and [[spoiler: commits suicide to escape the psychological pain.]]
* BreakTheCutie: Fantine starts out a poor factory worker, known for her beautiful smile. Her first love abandons her and her friends followed suit; she was convinced to abandon her adored little girl, and was content as a factory worker until word got out of her past, whereupon she was blacklisted in the town and could only get work as a prostitute.
%%** Cosette as a child. She gets better, though.
* BrokenBird: Fantine. Originally a sweet girl who only wanted love; her experiences in Montreil-sur-Mer leave her a shattered, embittered, alcoholic wreck. But when she gets proper care and M. Madeleine promises to restore her daughter to her, Fantine's true gentle nature emerges again.
%%** Valjean after his release from prison.
%%* BuriedAlive: Happens to Valjean during the plot to sneak him into the convent.
* ButForMeItWasTuesday: Inverted. Valjean realizes Javert is suspicious of him, but doesn't seem to realize why until the cart rescue, when Javert reveals that he worked at the prison in Toulon. To Valjean, Javert didn't stand out much during his prison time- he was just one of many guards at the prison over the years. Javert, on the other hand, remembers Valjean very well for his immense strength and repeated escape attempts.
* CardboardPrison: Escapes from Toulon prison were frequent, although ''successful'' escapes (with the escapee actually leaving the city) were not. Valjean attempts four times and is successful the fifth.
%%* TheCaretaker: Valjean to Cosette (and a bit to all of humanity).
* CelibateHero:
** Enjolras, who channels all his energy into politics. He even calls "Patria" -- the abstract concept of France as motherland -- his mistress, to drive the point home.
** Javert, who is very dedicated to his job and doesn't seem very fond of women.
* CharacterTics: Javert has a very strange laugh/smile, which contorts his face in a frighteningly feral way. Also, his penchant for snuff.
* ChasteHero: Valjean, who because of circumstances beyond his control, never had a love interest.
* ChekhovsGun:
** Éponine's note "The cops are here." She originally wrote it in front of Marius to show him her literacy. He would later use the note to save Valjean's life.
** Valjean's National Guard uniform he later uses to sneak into the barricade.
** A literal example with the two pistols Javert gives Marius.
* ChekhovsGunman:
** Valjean himself, due to the different names he has throughout the novel.
** The Jondrettes are the Thénardiers.
** The "young (working) man" who wears a grey blouse and cotton-velvet pantaloons is Éponine dressed as a boy. Her true identity is revealed after her TakingTheBullet for Marius at the barricades.[[note]]Hugo does hint once that "he" sounded like Éponine, but doesn't confirm it yet.[[/note]]
** Early in the novel, Valjean rescues a man named Fauchelevent from under a cart. Much later, when Valjean and Cosette are avoiding Javert, Valjean would unexpectedly meet Fauchelevent once again at a convent. Fauchelevent, who is still grateful to Valjean for everything he had done for him, would return the favour and let Valjean and Cosette stay at the convent.
* ChildrenAsPawns: Georges Pontmercy agreed to never see his son Marius again, in order to ensure he lives a good life, free of poverty.
* CliffHanger: Attempted. Many work better in the original edition, where the book was published in five separate parts with a few weeks between the publications.
** Part one ends with [[spoiler:Fantine dead and Valjean on the run]].
** At the end of Part three, Marius has managed to save Valjean from Thénardier, but gotten Thénardier arrested (Marius' father owes his life to Thénardier -- or at least he thought so) and is no nearer finding Cosette.
** Part four finishes with all main characters minus Cosette in the barricade or on their way there.
** [[spoiler:Valjean's]] faked death at the end of part 2, book 2, chapter 3. He reappears fairly quickly, but his name is not revealed. Should be easy for the reader to catch on quickly, though.
* ClingyJealousGirl: Éponine.
* ColorMotif:
** The yellow convict's passport, Valjean's yellow shirt after his release, his yellow coat after his escape... Let's say, yellow is not a good colour to have around you.
** The color white is used multiple times to denote good or saintly behavior; most notably, Valjean's hair turns white after he saves Champmathieu at the price of his own comfort.
** Red is meaningful as both the colour of revolts and revolutions and the colour of prison uniforms.
** A man in uniform (Javert) is tailing another man (Thénardier) with (according to the narrator) the plan to put the latter also into a uniform. But with a different colour...
* ComeToGawk:
** Gavroche seems to have a habit of watching public executions.
** The crowd in the scene where the convict chain passes.
** When Valjean is trying to decide whether to keep silent or denounce himself, he imagines life in prison. Since his past (being a town's mayor under a false identity for three years) makes for a good story, he dreads being pointed out to tourists (who were indeed frequent in the shore prison of Toulon).
* ComingOfAgeStory: Marius in part three.
* ConMan: Thénardier starts out as this and just gets worse from there.
* ContrivedCoincidence: Too many to count; a good one is the minor thread involving Marius' grandfather's illegitimate children. Or the fact that all important characters always happen to be in the same place at the same time.
* ConvenientlyCellmates: When Thénardier and the Patron-Minette gang get arrested, only Thénardier is put into a different cell from the others, who of course quickly devise a plan together and even manage to communicate the plan to Thénardier.
* ConsummateLiar: Valjean manages to become the most respected person in a town and even that town's mayor under a false identity, which holds up for eight years. And then he lives with Cosette for nine years without her ever even suspecting something might be up.
* CorruptBureaucrat: When Valjean is recaptured and brought to trial, the prosecutor falsely states that he was part of a gang of robbers from the south. This is a factor in Valjean receiving a death sentence (which is commuted to life).
* CrapsackWorld: The title does roughly translate to "The Miserable Ones." It's a world where [[BreakTheCutie good and decent people go through hell]], [[KarmaHoudini the people responsible get off scot-free]], and LaResistance is slaughtered almost to a man without having accomplished anything.
* CreatorCameo: Hugo asserts that when the 1832 riots broke out, the hail of bullets made a young man, a "dreamer, the author of this book", seek shelter in a doorway.
* CriminalDoppelganger: Champmathieu gets arrested in Jean Valjean's place because he just happens to look exactly like him. Valjean comes forward and proves his identity with details only the real Valjean would know.
* CrucifiedHeroShot: The death of [[spoiler:Enjolras]].
* TheCynic: Grantaire.
* DaddysGirl: Cosette to Valjean. As long as he allows her to.
* TheDandy:
** Montparnasse.
** Felix Tholomyès.
** Courfeyrac and Bahorel.
** Theodule wears a corset, which was at the height of fashion for dandies at this period.
* DeadpanSnarker:
** Javert, in the scene where he arrests the Thénardiers ("Would you like my hat?"), and to Les Amis, as he's led away by Valjean and believes he's about to be executed ("See you all immediately!").
** Gavroche, most hilariously in this exchange with a sergeant of the National Guard:
--->'''Sergeant:''' Will you tell me where you are going, you wretch?\\
'''Gavroche:''' General, I'm on my way to look for a doctor for my wife who is in labor.
** [[LemonyNarrator Hugo himself]] often snarks in his narration, often at the Thénardiers' expense.
* DeathByDespair:
** [[spoiler:Fantine]], when Javert confronts Valjean, and she realizes she'll never see Cosette again.
** [[spoiler:Jean Valjean -- almost! --]] after being separated from Cosette.
* DecompositeCharacter: Valjean and Javert had the same real life prototype: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugène_François_Vidocq Eugène François Vidocq.]]
* DefiledForever: Fantine, who never had any parents to guide her, or friends who cared enough about her to warn her, ended up abandoned by her very first love and left to take care of their child. When word breaks out, people treat her like a prostitute until finally that's the only job she can take to save her daughter's life. The novel is harshly critical of society's treatment of unmarried, non-virginal women (including prostitutes).
* DelusionsOfEloquence:
** Thénardier is a frequent example of this, speaking and writing in a flowery manner that gives him the air of a philosopher/intellectual, but his writing is filled with misspellings, and Hugo comments to the effect that his obsession with [[SesquipedalianLoquaciousness Big Words]] shows a stupid person's understanding of what a smart person sounds like. Thénardier also frequently defends arguments by fraudulent citations of famous people, but has no actual knowledge of those authorities, except that they are famous (e.g. he will cite to the novels of someone who only wrote poetry). His wife also demonstrates this through the odd names she gave to her daughters, taken from romantic novels and popular history. This choice is very similar to the idea underlying a GhettoName.
** Count *** cites a number of philosophers while clearly not understanding what they were talking about.
* DescriptionPorn: Hugo loves this, to the point of PurpleProse.
* {{Determinator}}: Valjean definitely shows shades of this, especially in the sewer escape and the journey to Arras, even though he knows that it would be better for him if he just gave up.
* DeviousDaggers: Jean Valjean has asked for, and received, permission to deal with Javert, who has been captured as a spy at the barricades. Javert, expecting to be executed, remarks when Valjean draws a knife that the choice of weapon suits him. Valjean is actually preparing to cut the ropes Javert is bound with before letting him go; the ex-convict's unexpected mercy is such a blow to Javert's worldview that he's ultimately DrivenToSuicide.
* DeusExMachina: Ironically provided by Thénardier, although he does so unwittingly and for purely greedy reasons. Near the end of the novel, he reveals to Marius that Jean Valjean is innocent of the more serious crimes he was suspected of. He also brings proof that Valjean was the mysterious man who risked his life to save Marius. All this just in time for Cosette to see her adoptive father [[spoiler:one last time before his death.]]
* DiedInYourArmsTonight: [[spoiler:Éponine in Marius'.]]
* DirectLineToTheAuthor: Hugo frequently refers to the characters as real people and also the research which he did in assembling their stories. Some of the characters also know of Hugo: at one point, M. Gillenormand even criticizes ''Hernani'', a play written by him.
* DirtyOldMan: Marius' grandfather, Monsieur Gillenormand, was a rake in his youth many decades ago, and still maintains an interest in skirt-chasing. He's no longer an active rake, due to lack of finances, not (supposedly) because of lack of physical capability.
* DiscoDan: Monsieur Gillenormand is close to 90, and was a young man during the end of the Ancient Regime, and hasn't changed his attitudes, dress, etc., even though the world has changed around him. The result is that without changing anything, he's gone from a well-dressed man of the Enlightenment to a ridiculously unfashionable reactionary.
* DisappearedDad: Fantine's boyfriend Félix Tholomyès abandoned her when her daughter Cosette was two years old. Cosette doesn't remember him, and for most of the book, she thinks that Jean Valjean is her father.
* DistinctionWithoutADifference: On the subject of "Dungeons", as opposed to "chambers of punishment":
--> In former times, those severe places where the discipline of the prison delivers the convict into his own hands, were composed of four stone walls, a stone ceiling, a flagged pavement, a camp bed, a grated window, and a door lined with iron, and were called ''dungeons''; but the dungeon was judged to be too terrible; nowadays they are composed of an iron door, a grated window, a camp bed, a flagged pavement, four stone walls, and a stone ceiling, and are called ''chambers of punishment''. A little light penetrates towards midday. The inconvenient point about these chambers which, as the reader sees, [[LemonyNarrator are not dungeons]], is that they allow the persons who should be at work to think.
* DividedForPublication: The French edition has frequently been published as two (or more) volumes; many translations follow suit.
* DoomedMoralVictor: Les Amis.
* DoorstopBaby: Fantine.
* {{Doorstopper}}: Up to 1900 pages in small type.
* DramaticGunCock: Valjean cocks his gun unsubtly after he claims Javert as his to kill.
* DressingAsTheEnemy:
** Javert disguises himself as an insurgent and lies low in order to spy.
** Valjean wears a French National Guard uniform so he can cross the barricade.
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Javert,]] because of the cognitive dissonance caused by having his life saved by Valjean.
* DrowningMySorrows: Grantaire, often.
* DudeLooksLikeALady: Enjolras is often described as looking like a woman.
* DyingDeclarationOfLove: Éponine to Marius.
-->"You know, Monsieur Marius, I think I was a little bit in love with you."

* MoralEventHorizon:
** InUniverse, Valjean himself feels he's crossed it after robbing Petit Gervais, and he realizes that society will also see it that way.

* IHaveManyNames: Jean Valjean. To take directly from Wiki/{{Wikipedia}}'s page, "Jean Valjean: a.k.a. Monsieur Madeleine, a.k.a. Ultime Fauchelevent, a.k.a. Monsieur Leblanc, a.k.a. Urbain Fabre, a.k.a. 24601, a.k.a. 9430."

* IllGirl: Fantine is reduced to a "ghost of herself," suffering from a never-exactly-named disease, and acts as a motivator for Valjean to go and retrieve her daughter -- only fair, seeing as how his policies reduced her to her aforesaid state. In Valjean's defense, he didn't know about it.

* AccidentalTheft: Valjean's last crime amounts to this. The boy Petit Gervais dropped his earnings on the ground, and one coin landed under Valjean's foot. Petit Gervais asked the man to move, but Valjean was busy having a crisis of identity and barked at the boy to get lost. Realizing what he had done served as the final push for Valjean the hardened ex-convict to become a man of God.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: At least 60 named characters alone.

* {{Doorstopper}}: Up to 1900 pages in small type, and is nicknamed [[FanNickname the Brick]].