Now a major musical film from Oscar-winning director Tom Hooper (The
King's Speech), starring Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe and Anne Hathaway,
and also featuring Amanda Seyfreid, Helena Bonham-Carter and Sacha
Baron-Cohen, Victor Hugo's Les Misérables is one of the great works of
western literature. Victor Hugo's tale of injustice, heroism and love
follows the fortunes of Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman), an escaped convict
determined to put his criminal past behind him. But his attempts to
become a respected member of the community are constantly put under
threat: by his own conscience, when, owing to a case of mistaken
identity, another man is arrested in his place; and by the relentless
investigations of the dogged Inspector Javert (Russell Crowe). It is not
simply for himself that Valjean must stay free, however, for he has
sworn to protect the baby daughter of Fantine (Anne Hathaway), driven to
prostitution by poverty. Victor Hugo (1802-85) wrote volumes of
criticism, Romantic costume dramas, satirical verse and political
journalism but is best remembered for his novels, especially Notre-Dame
de Paris (1831), also known as The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and Les
Misérables (1862) which was adapted into one of the most successful
musicals of all time. 'All human life is here' Cameron Mackintosh,
producer of the musical Les Misérables 'One of the half-dozen greatest
novels of the world' Upton Sinclair 'A great writer - inventive, witty,
sly, innovatory' A. S. Byatt, author of Possession