Out Ink on Prisoner 24601's story

Les Miserables, originally pulped in 1862, has inspired dozens of films, one of the most successful Broadway plays of all time, plays, radio dramas, and even video games, but can it still inspire your heart when read today?

I picked up this Barnes and Noble edition at one of their sales, never before reading this book, and wanting to get some classics into my reading queue.

Les Miserables is a blast, the characters are bigger than life, and Jean Valjean is a symbolic representation of redemption, of leading an upright life though the world drags you down at every turn.

This is an abridged version, and even so, parts of it aren’t an easy read. Hugo mixes in philosophy, religion, politics, and even life lessons into his narrative, and at times this was great and other times it was difficult for me to trudge through. However, the book has a great story at the heart of it.

My favorite line: “Love each other foolishly, for the foolishness of man is the wisdom of God.”

This book is vast in what it covers: honor, war, nobility, neglect, poverty, thievery, inter-family conflict, love, and faith.

Hugo has a wit to him. As I am trying to get through some of these well known classics, I notice that this is a common thing. Not only does the humor lighten the mood, but when the characters can show off their wit, it adds to the flavor, becoming endearing.

Valjean is such an admirable person—who wouldn’t want Valjean for president? You can take our common history of Washington or Lincoln and they would hold up to the character of Jean Valjean, constantly putting others first through sacrifice. Jean Valjean is the ultimate template for nobility

The policeman Javert is a capable antagonist whose sense of duty and the love for his job brings him to a life long hunt of Valjean, and eventually this conflict is resolved in an original and compelling manner. Not your typical bad guy, killed by good guy fare. And Thernadier is a scarier figure, who is first met in the novel while putting his kids out as bait to trap other children in a grand scheme of extortion.

According to Wikipedia, several other characters have carried on the prisoner number of Jean Valjean (which is believed to be Victor Hugo’s date of conception June 24th, 1801): Side Show Bob from the Simpson’s, Oscar Bluth from Arrested Development.

Here’s to you prisoner 24601, originally arrested for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his family, and forever haunted by that decision but always making the best of it and helping others along the way.