Les Miserables. While forced into retirement by the displeasure of Napoleon, Victor Hugo wrote his great novel venting protest against the harsh penal system of the day. He meant to proclaim the Christian doctrine that all men are brothers, the hopeful opinion that even the most reprehensible wretch is kin to God. His example is Jean Valjean, a strapping fellow, brutalized by 19 years in the chains of convict labor for the theft of a loaf of bread. The kindness of an old bishop causes the spark to glow in Valjean, so...
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