Les Miserables

1. Les Miserables Victor Hugo

2. Setting: France 1815-1833 Cities: • Digne, France (Din-yay) • Montreuil Sur Mer France(Moan-trueeSoorMair) • Montfermeil, France(Moan-fer-may) • Paris, France

3. Digne, France Paris- 1800s Montreuil Sur Mer

4. French Revolution Timeline 1813-14Napoleon’s Army is Defeated in Russia; he is exiled to an island. Charles X becomes King of France 1799Napoleon Bonaparte Seizes Power 1789French Revolution Begins 1790 1795 1810 1815 1825 1830 1805 1820 1800 1792First Republic Begins- 1815Napoleon is defeated again- Louis XVIII 1830Charles X’s policies produce upheaval and rebellion. He eventually abdicates the throne -1830 1793King Louis XVI and Mary Antoinette are executed

5. Social Classes Before the Revolution • The First Estate- Roman Catholic Clergy • The Second Estate- Nobility • The Third Estate- Everyone else

6. The Third Estate - Everyone Else • The Bourgeoisie - well-off merchants and skilled workers • City Workers - Cooks, servants, students, etc. • Peasants - Farm workers-80% of the French people

7. Philosophic Movements Throughout European History… Enlightenment- 1700-1800Looked at science and people believed that if they understood nature, they could control it. It inspired the Scientific Revolution. People began to believe that, because they are human, they are given “natural rights.” There is order to the world. Reformation- 1500-1650Attempted to clean up the Catholic Church and do away with a corrupt clergy. Everyday humans can be close to God; people don’t need fancy church. Renaissance- 1500-1670 “Rebirth” of Classical thought, New-found focus on Humanism and worth of individual Romantic Movement 1798-1870A direct reaction to the order/laws of the Enlightenment. People began to value feelings over rational thought. Passion and expression were valued. Nature shouldn’t be controlled, but should be looked to for inspiration.

8. Renaissance Art - Titian, 1514 Art of the Reformation - Holbein, 1550 Art of the Enlightenment - Green, 1769 Art of Romanticism - Cole, 1836

9. What was the Romantic Movement? • Late 18th Century- Middle of 19th century (1798-1870) • Rejected order and rationalism of the Enlightenment • Favored expression and emotion • Inspired behind the French Revolution and appalled by the Reign of Terror. • Valued the “common people” • Art, imagination, and escape were key elements. Liberty Leading the People, Eugene Delacroix (1830)

10. Who were the Romantics? • Idealists • Optimistic-people could create utopia • Imaginative and inspired • Famous Romantics- Lord Byron, Edgar Allen Poe, William Wordsworth, Samuel Coleridge, Victor Hugo Gericault - 1818

11. Romantic Literature • Focused on the quest for beauty. • Looked to nature for inspiration, refuge, and divinity. • Looked to nature to escape from modern problems. Dahl, 1830

12. “Byronic Hero”- an archetype • Developed new archetypes like “Byronic Hero” named for Lord Byron (a poet) • characterized by: • a brooding nature • a little shady • quick-witted • often a social outcast

13. Byronic Hero • "a man proud, moody, cynical, with defiance on his brow, and misery in his heart, a scorner of his kind, implacable in revenge, yet capable of deep and strong affection". - Lord Macaulay Von Leypold, 1835

14. Byronic Hero description… • Byron described Conrad, the pirate hero of his The Corsair (1814) as follows: “That man of loneliness and mystery,
Scarce seen to smile, and seldom heard to sigh—” (I, VIII) and “He knew himself a villain—but he deem'd
The rest no better than the thing he seem'd;
And scorn'd the best as hypocrites who hid
Those deeds the bolder spirit plainly did.
He knew himself detested, but he knew
The hearts that loath'd him, crouch'd and dreaded too.
Lone, wild, and strange, he stood alike exempt
From all affection and from all contempt:” (I, XII)[2]