Enter The Story: Les Miserables

Victor Hugo's Les Misérables is one of the world's great classics, a story of love and death and passion and sacrifice. It stars Jean Valjean, a man imprisoned for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his sister's starving children. In this game one of those children was Peri.

Story summary, adapted from Wikipedia (spoilers ahead!)

Les Misérables (translated variously from French as The Miserable Ones, The Wretched, The Poor Ones, The Wretched Poor, The Victims) is a novel by French author Victor Hugo and is widely considered one of the greatest novels of the 19th century. It follows the lives and interactions of several French characters over a twenty-year period in the early 19th century, starting in 1815, the year of Napoleon's final defeat at Waterloo.

The novel focuses on the struggles of ex-convict Jean Valjean and his experience of redemption. It examines the nature of law and grace, and expounds upon the history of France, architecture of Paris, politics, moral philosophy, antimonarchism, justice, religion, and the types and nature of romantic and familial love. The story is historical fiction because it contains factual, historic events, including the Paris Uprising of 1832 (often mistaken for the much earlier French Revolution).

Les Misérables contains many plots, but the main thread is the story of ex-convict, Jean Valjean (known by his prison number, 24601), who becomes a force for good in the world, but cannot escape his dark past. Hugo fills many pages with his thoughts on religion, politics, and society.

Major characters:

    * Jean Valjean (a.k.a. Monsieur Madeleine, a.k.a. Ultimus Fauchelevent, a.k.a. Monsieur Leblanc, a.k.a. Urbain Fabre, a.k.a. 24601 a.k.a. 9430) — Convicted for stealing a loaf of bread, he is paroled from prison nineteen years later. Rejected by society for being a former convict, Bishop Myriel turns his life around. He assumes a new identity to pursue an honest life, becoming a factory owner and a mayor. He adopts and raises Fantine's daughter Cosette, saves Marius from the barricade, and more.
    * Javert — An obsessive police inspector who continuously hunts, tracks down, and loses Valjean. He goes undercover behind the barricade, but is discovered and unmasked. Valjean has the chance to kill Javert, but lets him go. Later Javert allows Valjean to escape. For the first time, Javert is in a situation in which he knows that the lawful course is immoral.
    * Bishop Myriel, the bishop of Digne — A kindly old priest who is promoted to bishop by a chance encounter with Napoleon. He convinces Valjean to change his ways after Valjean steals some silver from him and saves Valjean from being arrested.
    * Fantine — A Parisian girl abandoned with a small child by her lover Félix Tholomyès. Fantine leaves her daughter Cosette in the care of the Thénardiers, innkeepers in a village called Montfermeil. Unfortunately, Mme. Thénardier spoils her own daughters and abuses Cosette. Fantine finds work at Monsieur Madeleine's factory, but is fired by a female supervisor who discovers that she is an unwed mother. The Thénardiers constantly demand money, and Fantine sells everything she has to save her child, eventually including her own body.
    * Cosette (a.k.a. Euphrasie, a.k.a. The Lark, a.k.a Ursule) - after Fantine dies, Valjean ransoms her from the Thénardiers and she becomes his adopted daughter. She later grows up to become very beautiful. She falls in love with Marius Pontmercy.
    * Marius Pontmercy — A second-generation aristocrat (not recognized as such because it was Napoleon who made Marius' father a noble) who fell out with his royalist grandfather after discovering the truth about his father.
    * Enjolras — A charming and intimidating man with angelic beauty, he is passionately devoted to democracy, equality and justice. Enjolras is a man of principle that believes in a cause – creating a republic, liberating the poor – without any doubts.
    * Éponine — The Thénardiers' elder daughter. As a child, she is pampered and spoiled by her parents, but ends up a street urchin when she reaches adolescence. She is blindly in love with Marius.
    * Gavroche — The unloved eldest son of the Thénardiers, he lives on th street and longs for adventure.
    * Monsieur Gillenormand — Marius' grandfather. A Monarchist, he sharply disagrees with his grandson and throws him out - but hates himself for doing it.
    * Mabeuf — An elderly churchwarden. He was friends with Colonel Pontmercy, and then befriends Marius after Colonel Pontmercy's death. He helps Marius realize the true identity and intentions of his father. He feels his life has been a failure.

The story has been adapted into at least fifty movies and six different stage plays, including a successful musical. This is the first time the story has been presented as a game, and the first time that you, the reader, can enter and become part of it.