Fantine
In a small village named Digne, a man named Jean Valjean goes to the mayor’s office to show his yellow passport indicating that he is an ex-convict. Valjean has spent nineteen years in prison, the first five for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his family and the remaining fourteen for his repeated escape attempts. He tries to seek shelter but the local innkeepers refuse to let him in. He ends up at the home of a local bishop named Myriel, who welcomes him and offers him to stay the night.Valjean steals the bishop’s silverware and leaves.Early the next day, the police arrest Valjean and bring him with the stolen silverware to the bishop’s house. However, the bishop claims that he gave the silverware to Valjean and says that Valjean forgot two silver candlesticks as well, leaving the police to release Valjean. Myriel then explains to Valjean that by giving these candlesticks he should promise to be a good and decent man. Valjean leaves town.In the countryside, Valjean takes a silver coin from a boy named Gervais. After realizing what he had done, Valjean tries to find Gervais to return the coin to him but to no avail. Valjean then resolves to truly live an upright life.
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In the town of Montfermeil, Fantine, a woman who had an affair with a wealthy student named Felix Tholomyes who abandoned her, is forced to leave her young daughter Cosette to the care of a family named Thenardier while she seeks work in her home town of Montrueil-sur-mer, whose mayor is a man named Madeleine, in reality Jean Valjean. The Thenardiers agree to look after Cosette as long as Fantine sends a regular allowance to them. Fantine gets work at a factory owned by Madeleine. The Thenardiers are swindlers who dress Cosette in rags and force her to do hard work for them while they collect money from her mother who finds work in Madeleine’s factory. When her coworkers find out about her illegitimate child, Fantine ends up fired. With the Thenardiers demanding more money, Fantine is forced to sell her hair and two of her teeth before she winds up becoming a prostitute.She then ends up arrested by one Inspector Javert, the local chief of police. Madeleine intervenes on Fantine’s behalf but then she falls ill. She wishes to see Cosette and Madeleine promises to look after her. Javert, suspecting that Madeleine is really Jean Valjean, and states that a man claiming to be Jean Valjean is on trial. Madeleine arrives to confess his true identity, thus releasing the accused, whose name is Champmathieu. He arrives at Fantine’s bedside, only for Javert to arrest him. Fantine dies from the shock and Valjean blames Javert for her demise. Escaping from jail, Valjean leaves his fortune to the poor and heads for Paris.
Cosette
At Montfermeil,at the Thenardiers’ inn, while the Thenardiers themselves spoil their daughters Eponine and Azelma rotten, they treat Cosette as a slave (and barely give a thought to their infant son Gavroche). After being ordered to fetch a bucket of water at the nearby woods, she meets a man who offers to aid her. That man is Valjean. He gives Cosette a doll of her own while he offers to pay the Thenardiers 1,500 francs to take her off their hands.As Cosette goes with Valjean, M. Thenardier becomes reluctant to let her go, but Valjean produces a note from Fantine, which makes him Cosette’s new guardian, much to Thenardier’s frustration. Soon afterwards, Valjean and Cosette move into a run down tenement dubbed the Gorbeau house, but Javert discovers their hideout, causing the two to flee. Valjean and Cosette find refuge in a garden. A man named Fauchelvent, whom Valjean had once rescued from a heavy carriage, offers them refuge in the convent of Petit-Picpus, Valjean working as a gardener with Cosette being educated there.
Marius
In Paris, a young man named Marius Pontmercy who has lived with his grandfather Gillenormand,learns about his father, Georges Pontmercy, whom he never knew, and begins to admire his father’s democratic ideas. Leaving his grandfather’s house, Marius goes to law school, where he becomes involved with the Friends of the ABC, a radical group led by the fiery Enjolras. His neighbors, the Jondrettes, are in fact the Thenardiers who have fallen into poverty whose eldest daughter, Eponine, is attracted to Marius. Marius himself is attracted to a girl that he sees in a park bench at the Louxembourg Gardens with an elderly man. Those two are in fact Cossette and Valjean.After Valjean pays a visit to the Jondrettes, they decide to rob Valjean when he returns.Marius finds out and decides to alert the local police inspector: Javert. The plot is foiled, the robbers arrested and Valjean manages to escape before Javert can notice him.
Saint-Denis
While the Revolution begun in 1830 rages on, Marius still thinks of Cosette, whom he knows only as “the Lark”. Eponine has tracked Cosette down because of Eponine’s own love for Marius and tells him that Cosette and her guardian Valjean live in the suburb of Saint-Germain.Cosette, has blossomed into a young woman and senses that Valjean is seeking to hide her from other men. Marius is able to contact her and the two fall for each other. Valjean, worried both by political unrest in Paris and that he might lose Cosette, announces that the two of them will move to England. Marius goes to his grandfather to ask permission to marry but their meeting ends bitterly. Marius then finds Cosette has already left causing Marius to join his radical friends at the barricades. Marius and his fellow students stand firm against the army, taking Javert prisoner. The soldiers attack the barricade. A disguised Eponine throws herself in front of a soldier’s rifle. Crawling towards Marius, she confesses her love for him, hands him a letter from Cosette and dies, then Marius kisses her face. Soon enough, he reads Cosette’s letter and finds out where she is. He then writes her a letter and sends Gavroche to deliver it to her; the letter says that he plans to die at the barricade and bids her farewell. Gavroche meets Valjean who says that he can deliver the letter to Cosette, then he asks where the barricades are and Gavroche answers before running off. Reading the letter, Valjean at first seems delighted that Marius may no longer be a threat to his happiness, but then decides against the idea. Thus, dressed as a member of the National Guard, Valjean heads to the barricades.
Jean Valjean
Arriving at the barricade, Valjean joins up with Enjolras and the revolutionaries. With the Army preparing to attack, Enjolras urges all those with families to leave and the group votes on five men to send away but with only enough army uniforms for four, Valjean offers his.Enjolras’ group runs low on ammunition and Gavroche offers to gather from fallen soldiers but ends up shot dead. Meanwhile, Valjean offers to execute the captive Javert but unknown to the group, he releases Javert. Soon the Army storms the barricade, Marius is wounded and Valjean offers to carry him to his grandfather, using the sewers to escape, while Enjolras and his group are killed. Valjean finds the gate leading to the river Seine is locked. Out of the darkness, Thenardier, who doesn’t recognize Valjean, offers to open it in exchange for money but Valjean only has a small sum. Assuming Marius had been murdered by Valjean, Thenardier reluctantly takes Valjean’s money and opens the gate, ripping a piece of Marius’ jacket so he can identify him later.At the banks of the Seine, Valjean encounters Javert. Valjean asks Javert to allow him to deliver Marius to his grandfather Gillenormand. Javert ends up agreeing. Valjean afterwards asks Javert to let him see Cosette one last time, to which Javert again agrees. Once Valjean arrives at his house, Javert is gone. He wanders the streets of Paris in the throes of indecision. He feels that turning in Valjean would be wrong, but as a law officer, he cannot allow Valjean to go free. At the Seine, Javert falls into the raging waters and drowns. Marius awakens in his grandfather’s home thanks to Valjean, although he isn’t aware of this. Six months later, he recovers completely and starts thinking about Cosette. Gillenormand, willing to be on good terms with his grandson, gives him permission to marry her, with Valjean deciding to give Cosette a dowry of 600,000 francs. Valjean fakes an injury in his writing hand so as not forge a false name on the marriage certificate which Gillenormand does instead.The wedding of Cosette and Marius is a joyous one. Afterwards, Valjean goes to Marius’ home and explains his criminal past to him. Shocked by this confession and convinced that Valjean had murdered Javert, Marius tells Valjean that he ought to never see Cosette again. Valjean acknowledges Marius’ decision. A few weeks later, a disguised Thenardier comes to Marius and offers to sell him information about Valjean; he explains that Javert had actually committed suicide, but he also claims that Valjean had murdered someone and produces Marius’ torn jacket piece as evidence, but Marius recognizes the cloth as his own. He throws money at Thenardier and orders him to leave France, which he does, taking his surviving daughter Anzelma to America to start dealing in the slave trade. Marius, now aware that it was Valjean who saved him from being killed, goes with Cosette to Valjean’s home where they find him bedridden and dying but filled with joy that he could see Cosette one last time.Marius reconciles with Valjean as he finds peace at last.
With a smile on his face, Jean Valjean dies.
There is a small gravestone with the following epitaph written in pencil:
