Les Miserable: The I'd Be Classic Les Miserable was written over a span of 17 years by a Frenchman named Victor Hugo. Les Miserable is set during the French Revolution and shows the reader life through the eyes of an ex-convict [Valjean] just trying to make up for his wrong doings. Les Miserable is not a classic because it is unpleasant, unfair, just a little pure and honest, and has mixed reviews, but on the contrary it is truthful. To begin with, one of the reasons why Les Miserable is not a classic is because of the unpleasant writing. An example of this writing is represented by Cosette, a child abandoned by her mother so that she [Cosette] survives (Hugo 120). The writer also says that her happiness and youthful beauty were taken away from her by the Thénardiers [those who took her in for money]. The Thénardiers made her work long hours without pay and without eating barley. Hugo says she is fed better than the dog, but not as well as the cat (Hugo 118). Cosette is thin and dressed in rags (Hugo 120). The death of Fantine, [Cosette's mother] is described in an unpleasant way. Hugo tells the reader: Fantine stood up on the bed with a leap, leaning on her stiff arms and two hands: she looked at Jean Valjean, she looked at Javert, she looked at the nun, she opened her mouth as if to speak. : a gasp came from deep in his throat, Kaufman 2 chattering his teeth, stretching out his arms in agony, convulsively opening his hands and fumbling around like a drowning person; then suddenly he fell back onto the pillow. Her head hit the headboard and she fell forward onto her breast, her mouth wide open and her eyes wide and unseeing. She was dead. (Hugo 208-209)This selection from the and......middle of the paper......problems. Society says that a criminal is born a criminal and always will be, but this is denied by Valjean. Cerisola, in the article “Overview of Les Miserable,” says: “The novel described the struggles of human conscience with temptation and the final triumph of duty over passion, of freedom over nature.” Even though society says that some are guilty, Hugo's works say: “Man was not intrinsically evil, he was made so by an unjust society” (Cerisola 2). In conclusion, Les Misérables is not a classic because it is unpleasant, unfair. , just kind of pure and honest, and it has mixed reviews, but it's as truthful as a classic should be. Victor Hugo died on May 22, 1885 in Paris, France (“Hugo” 1). His death was described as "universal anguish and a passion of regret such as never before attended the death of the greatest Kaufman 7 among poets" (Swinburne 1).