Les Miserables Book Report

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Grant Browder “Les Miserables” Book Report October 2011 Summary The convict Jean Valjean is released from a French prison after serving nineteen years for stealing a loaf of bread to help support his widowed and poverty stricken sister and her seven kids, including, time for many attempts to escape from prison. After arriving in Digne from a walk since sunrise, no one is willing to give him shelter because he is an ex-convict. Valjean is directed to the door of M. Myriel, the kindly bishop of Digne. Myriel is very kind to Valjean, but Valjean repays the bishop by stealing his priceless silverware. When police arrest Valjean, Myriel covers for him, saying that the silverware was a gift. The police release Valjean and Myriel makes him promise to become an honest man. Eager to fulfill his promise and start anew, Valjean enters the town of Montreuil-sur-mer under the alias of Madeline. While there, Valjean invents an ingenious manufacturing process that brings the town prosperity, and little did he know, starting an industrial revolution. He eventually becomes the town’s mayor. Fantine, a young woman from Montreuil, lives in Paris. She falls in love with a wealthy student name Tholomyes, who gets her pregnant and then abandons her. She returns to her home village, with her poor child Cosette. Fantine knows she will never find work if the townspeople know she has an illegitimate child. In the town of Montfermiel, she meets the Thenardiers, a family that runs the local inn. The Thenardiers agree to take Cosette in as long as Fantine sends them a monthly allowance to ensure her daughters well being. Fantine finds work at Madeline’s factory. Her co-workers find out about her illegitimate child Cosette, in result she is fired. The Thenardiers continue to falsely demand money to support Cosette, therefore Fantine in a last ditch effort, resorts to

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