1. LES MISERABLES Ryley Blouin

2. Book Summary Jean Valjean was released after nineteen years in prison. He had been sentenced to a term of five years because he stole a loaf of bread to feed his starving sister and family. Jean's sentenced was increased because of his attempts to escape. Free at last he adopts an orphaned girl who he raises as his own evading police trying to put him back in jail. After many adventures on the run, this girl named Cosette eventually grows up and falls in love with a man by the name of Marius who is in a radical group of law students who want a revolution of their current government. As Marius goes off to fight in this revolution, Jean Valjean follows him and saves his life as he is shot in the arm. Marius was unconscious for this so he didn’t know it was Valjean who did it. Later on Marius marries Cosette and frowns upon Valjean for being a criminal. But on Valjeans death bed Marius realizes what Valjean did for him and says sorry.

3. Biography of Victor Hugo Victor Marie Hugo was born in Besançon, France, on February 26, 1802, to mother Sophie Trébuche and father Joseph-Léopold-Sigisbert Hugo, who later served as a general in Napoleon’s army. Victor Hugo studied the law before poetry lured him away. His studies of law brought upon theories about government and peoples’ rights which are eventually what lead him to sneak them into his books and get them banned. While his first publications were mostly poetry, his novel The Hunchback of Notre- Dame (1831) was a huge success. In 1862, Hugo published Les Misérables and is considered one of the greatest works of the 19th century. But these books never went far in Monarchial places with the Roman Catholic church also high in power because of the suggestions toward democracy and the questioning of the Church. Going back to the book Les Miserables, the book was a great commercial success despite Hugo living in exile in England upon its publication in 1862; he had been banished from France for life by Napoleon III for criticizing his government. After the Siege of Paris, Hugo lived on the island of Guernsey from 1872-73 before finally returning to France for the remainder of his life, where he died May 22, 1885.

4. Questionable Content The content in the book really isn’t that bad. The reason it was banned was because all his books, past present and future books, were banned in 1850 by Tsar Nicholas I because of Hugo’s less-than-flattering depiction of royalty. (Like when Marius and his fellow studiers of law tried to start a revolution). His works were also listed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum- the Catholic Church’s list of books forbidden among members of the faith. Les Misérables was added to the Index in 1864, where it remained until 1959 because it was considered to be critical of the clergy and the papacy. He also from the start of the book made it clear he was going to write about a hard life that was real and didn’t abstain from writing about prostitutes and prisoners.

5. Passage “Sous les arbres de Saint-Cloud, quatre grisettes et quatre etudiants faisaient une partie de campagne.” This is basically saying there are four poorer girls with four richer guys in the countryside having a party. – Some people interpret the word “grisette” as prostitute but here it just means a poorer girl. This passage is a lead up to what happens in the chapter. There are four poor girls are with four rich guys which is frowned upon at the time. One of the girls is named Fantine and she has gotten pregnant with one of the men out of wedlock. So not only is it not right to be dating out of your economic class but it is also very frowned upon to have sex before marriage. At the end of the chapter Fantine’s boyfriend breaks up with her leaving her to raise this child on her own so she gets a job at a factory for a while. After that job fails, with nowhere to go, she becomes a prostitute to help pay for her daughter Cosette who is living with friends of Fantine. – This is usually the part that people at the time would get upset about because she is selling her body for sex when that is supposed to be something reserved for marriage. And it is sort of ironic because having sex is what got her into trouble in the first place.

6. My Opinion I find really no reason for this book to be banned. It was only banned because of its speaking out against monarchies and a little bit against the church. But even that I don’t get because in the book he stays at a preachers house and the preacher does a Christian deed gives Valjean silverware and silver candleholders to help him along. I think the Tsar was just very wary about people trying to revolt against him and he wanted to eliminate all the possibilities. I think this is a great, but sad, book that is just a soap opera. I think it would attract a lot of readers back in the 1800’s and even now. In fact, it attracted so many readers now that they made a movie about it. I think there are plenty of other bad books out there that deserve to be banned way more than this does. Just to reiterate, I don’t think the book was banned because of its content but more because of the author who wrote it. I mean all his books were banned in 1850 and he was even exiled. I think the case was that he got on everybody’s nerves and they banned him and his books because of it.

7. Work Cited Baldassarro, R. Wolf. "Banned Books Awareness." Banned Books Awareness. R. Wolf Baldassarro, 11 Nov. 2012. Web. 09 May 2013. "Victor Hugo Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, 4 Jan. 2013. Web. 09 May 2013.