>Jennifer Bassett
Les Misérables
LES MISÉRABLES
France in the 1830s. The rich ride in carriages, and eat from gold plates. The poor have no work, no food, no hope – they are Les Misérables, and rebellion is in the air. France remembers the French Revolution in 1789, when the people built barricades in the streets of Paris, and the dead were counted in thousands. Is that time coming again?
This is the story of Jean Valjean. A prisoner for nineteen years, now at last he is a free man. But how can he live, where can he find work? What hope is there for a man like him? It is also the story of Javert, a police inspector, a cruel man, a hard man. He wants one thing in life – to send Valjean back to prison. And it is Fantine’s story too, Fantine and her daughter Cosette. How does their story change Valjean’s life? And it is also Marius’s story. He is a student in Paris, ready to die for the rebellion – or for love. And last, there is Gavroche – a boy of the Paris streets, with no home, no family, no shoes … but a boy with a smile on his face and a song in his heart.
But we begin with Jean Valjean …
Chapter 1
Jean Valjean
It is the year 1796, and the people of France are hungry. Not the rich people, of course. They have food, they have warm clothes, they have beautiful houses. No, it is the poor people of France …
Jean Valjean is one of these poor people. He is a young man, big, strong, and a good worker – but he has no work, he cannot find work, and he is hungry. He lives with his sister in the village of Brie. Her husband is dead, and she has seven children. It is a cold hard winter, and there is no food in the house. No bread, nothing – and seven children!
Jean Valjean is a good man, he is not a thief. But how can a man just sit there, when his sister’s children cry all night because they are hungry? What can a man do?
He leaves his house at night, and goes down the village street. He puts his hand through the window of the bakery – crash! – he takes a loaf of bread, and he runs. He runs fast, but other people run faster.
France is not kind to poor people. France sends Jean Valjean to prison for five years. After four years he escapes. They find him, and bring him back. They give him six more years. Once again, he escapes, and two days later, they find him. And they give him another eight years. Nineteen years in prison – for a loaf of bread!
In 1815, when he leaves prison. Jean Valjean is a different man. Prison changes people. Years of misery, years of back-breaking work, years of cruel prison guards. These things change a man. Once there was love in Jean Valjean’s heart. Now, there is only hate.
One evening in October, in the year 1815, there was a knock on the door of the Bishop of Digne’s house.
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