Great Big Novels: Hugo Les Misérables
This course was available in the past and may be presented again as part of the Open Enrollment curriculum.
Hugo's masterpiece Les Misérables is a sophisticated novel that combines history, philosophy, and literature, crossing genres in a way that influenced Tolstoy’s War and Peace, and genuinely earning its place as one of the greatest novels of the 19th century. Interweaving the story of Jean Valjean with a meta-structure that involves us in French post-revolutionary history, including the Napoleonic wars, class relations, the place of the church, the criminal law code, education, the architecture of Paris, and the situation of women, Hugo casts a wide net, aiming at nothing less than capturing the human condition and the wide-ranging attempts to progress “from injustice to justice, from falsehood to truth,...from corruption to life...” Using Christine Donougher’s 2015 translation (Penguin), we will undertake a careful reading of the novel over our 10 weeks, relishing its pleasures and delving deeply into Hugo’s aims and meaning.
Course Outline
Course SyllabusNotes
Online registration deadline: Sep 19, 5 PM CT