Victor Hugo and Les Misérables, from reality to ideal

Victor Hugo and Les Misérables, from reality to ideal

Exhibition Journal / Discover


As long as there exists, through laws and customs, a social damnation artificially creating, in the midst of civilization, hells, and complicating with a human fatality the destiny which is divine; as long as the three problems of the century, the degradation of man by the proletariat, the decline of woman by hunger, the atrophy of the child by night, are not resolved; as long as, in certain regions, social asphyxiation is possible; in other words, and from an even broader point of view, as long as there is ignorance and poverty on earth, books like this may not be useless.

Hauteville House, January 1st, 1862

Victor Hugo, Les Misérables, Preface.


The exhibition is organized around the literary monument that constitutes the novel Les Misérables, which has touched readers around the world for two centuries.

But Victor Hugo’s inspiring fight for the rights of children, women and the right to education, as well as his political and civic commitment against poverty, are also highlighted.

We wanted to enrich the exhibition with elements from the collections of the Maison Victor Hugo place des Vosges, the National Library of France and the Senate Library who did us the honor of agreeing to lend some of their pieces. We thank them very sincerely.