Editing Jean Valjean (section)

==Hugo's sources==
[[File:Achille Devéria - Vidocq.jpg|thumb|left|Eugene Vidocq, whose career provided a model for the character of Jean Valjean]]
Valjean's character is loosely based on the life of [[Eugène François Vidocq]], an ex-convict who became a successful businessman widely noted for his social engagement and philanthropy. Vidocq helped Hugo with his research for [[Claude Gueux]] and ''Le Dernier jour d'un condamné'' (''[[The Last Day of a Condemned Man]]'').{{citation needed|date=January 2013}} In 1828, Vidocq saved one of the workers in his paper factory by lifting a heavy cart on his shoulders as Valjean does.<ref>{{cite book|last=Morton|first=James|title=The First Detective: The Life and Revolutionary Times of Vidocq, Criminal, Spy and Private Eye|year=2004|publisher=Overlook Press|location=NY|pages=??|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N_pZvqQdbnsC&pg=PP132|isbn=9781590208908}}</ref> Hugo's description of Valjean rescuing a sailor on the ''Orion'' drew almost word for word on a friend's letter describing such an incident.<ref>Hugo, Victor, ''Les Misérables'' (Preface by A. Rosa), Laffont, 1985, {{ISBN|2-221-04689-7}}, p. IV.</ref> On 22 February 1846, when he had begun work on the novel, Hugo witnessed the arrest of a bread thief while a duchess and her child watched the scene pitilessly from their coach.<ref>Victor Hugo, ''Choses vues: nouvelle série'' (Paris: Calman Lévy, 1900), 129–30</ref>

The revolt of the university students is based on the [[1832 June Rebellion]].

In 1871, when Hugo was living in Brussels during the radical revolt known as the [[Paris Commune]], anti-revolutionary mobs attacked his house and broke windows shouting "Down with Jean Valjean!"<ref>{{cite book |last=Behr |first=Edward |title=The Complete Book of Les Misérables|year=1989|publisher=Arcade|location=NY|page=24}}</ref>