The action takes place in France during the first third of the 19th century, between the battle of Waterloo (1815) and the riots of June 1832. We follow, on five volumes, the life of Jean Valjean, from his exit from the penal colony to his death. Around him gravitate the characters, some of whom will give their names to the different volumes of the novel, witnesses of the misery of this century, miserable themselves or close to misery: Fantine, Cosette, Marius, but also the Thenardiers (includin