A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice
Winner of the American Library in Paris Book Award, 2017
Les Misérables is among the most popular and enduring novels ever written. Like Inspector Javert's dogged pursuit of Jean Valjean, its appeal has never waned, but only grown broader in its one-hundred-and-fifty-year life. Whether we encounter Victor Hugo's story on the page, onstage, or on-screen, Les Misérables continues to captivate while also, perhaps unexpectedly, speaking to contemporary concerns. In The Novel of the Century, the acclaimed scholar and translator David Bellos tells us why.
This enchanting biography of a classic of world literature is written for "Les Mis" fanatics and novices alike. Casting decades of scholarship into accessible narrative form, Bellos brings to life the extraordinary story of how Victor Hugo managed to write his novel of the downtrodden despite a revolution, a coup d'état, and political exile; how he pulled off a pathbreaking deal to get it published; and how his approach to the "social question" would define his era's moral imagination. More than an ode to Hugo's masterpiece, The Novel of the Century also shows that what Les Misérables has to say about poverty, history, and revolution is full of meaning today.

Introduction: the Journey of Les Misérables
PART ONE: CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS
1. Victor Hugo Opens His Eyes
2. Fantine
3. The First Draft
Interlude: Invisible History
PART TWO: TREASURE ISLANDS
4. The Money Plot
5. Hauteville House
6. The Beliefs of Victor Hugo
7. Hugo Gets Back to Work
Interlude: Inventing the Names
PART THREE: ROOMS WITH A VIEW
8. Victory at Waterloo
9. The Contract of the Century
10. The Five Parts of Les Misérables
Interlude: The Mind of Jean Valjean
PART FOUR: WAR, PEACE, AND PROGRESS
11. The Start of It All
12. The Paris of Les Misérables
13. The Politics of Les Misérables
14. The Stumbling Block
Interlude: High Style, Low Style, Latin and Slang
PART FIVE: GREAT EXPECTATIONS
15. Publication Day: 4 April 1862
16. The Story without End
17. The Meaning of Les Misérables
Epilogue: Journey's End