Les Misrables

Review book

"Les Misrables" is a good book that I have read in my childhood and I reread it several times since then. It is a very enjoyable book to read, and I was very impressed by it. I must admit that the beginning of the book wasn`t very catchy for me, but it gets more interesting as you read it. It is a well written book, that can easily rips you of reality, and force you to get involved in the action of the book, and also makes you empathize the characters. From the begging till the end, I can affirm that it is a dramatic story, that relates the Parisian world, with the tragic events that were happening in those times: unemployment, hunger, poverty, too many beggars, many battles that occurred in the nineteenth-century. The tragic life of Jean Valjean impressed me very much, as he was imprisoned just for stealing a loaf of bread, because he was hungry. He spend many years in prison for his act, an unfair punishment, from my point of view, considering that his action wasn`t that bad. After he was released, he change his identity, and with a lot of work he opens a factory, and then because of his success he became mayor of the town. What impressed me deeply about him, was that moment, when he found out that another man was captured by the police and accused to be Jean Valjean, and he goes to the judge and admits that he is the real Jean Valjean. It wasn`t a easy decision for him, but he did it anyway because it was the right thing to do. He was a very honest man with a good heart, that was willingly to gave away his freedom, wealth and social position to release another man, that he never met, from a unfair fate. Jean Valjean, is a complex character, which impressed me the most, through the novel. Beside his kindness, he turned out to be a very good father, for Cossete, the daughter of a prostitute, named Fantine. I was deeply saddened for the tragic fate of Fantine, who was capable to do anything for the sake of her daughter Cossete, even to give up her dignity, and to be a prostitute. His sad end, dying in the hospital, without the chance to see her daughter for the last time, was a little sweetened by Jean Valjean who promised that he will take good care of her daughter. I also enjoy reading the love story between Cossete and a French revolutionary.

Mostly, I like that this book had a happy ending. Unexpectedly the policeman Javert committed suicide in the end, and finally Jean Valjean and her daughter could live a life of peace and happiness. This book was my favorite when I was little, and I can say that it still is.