Les Miserables

This story of Jean Valjean, a French peasant, and his desire for redemption. Jean is released in 1815 after serving nineteen years in jail for stealing a loaf of bread for his sister's starving child. He decides to break his parole and start his life anew after a bishop inspires him by a tremendous act of mercy. Along the way, Valjean and a slew of characters are swept into the June 1832 Rebellion in France, where a group of young idealists attempt to overthrow the government at a street barricade in Paris. In telling the story, Hugo examines the nature of good, evil, and the law, the history of France, the architecture of Paris, politics, moral philosophy, law, justice, religion, and the types and nature of romantic and familial love.