Whether we encounter Victor Hugo's epic on the page, onstage, or on-screen, Les Misérables continues to captivate while also, perhaps unexpectedly, speaking to contemporary concerns. Here David Bellos tells us why, offering an enchanting biography of a classic, written for "Les Mis" fanatics and novices alike. Bellos—the winner of a Man Booker International Prize for translation—brings to life the extraordinary story of how Hugo managed to write his novel of the downtrodden despite a revolution, a coup d'état, and his own political exile, as well as how he pulled off a groundbreaking deal to get it published, and how his approach to the "social question" would define his era's moral imagination.