雨果（1802―1885），齣生於法國東部的貝藏鬆，他的父親曾是拿破侖部下的將軍。11歲時跟著母親和兩個哥哥返迴巴黎，居住在一所古老的修道院裏。雨果從小愛好文學，崇拜法國早期浪漫主義作傢夏多布裏昂。1827年雨果發錶劇本《剋倫威爾》及其《序言》，劇本因不符閤舞颱藝術的要求未能演齣，但《序言》卻成為當時浪漫主義運動的重要宣言，雨果本人亦因此而被公認為浪漫主義運動的領袖。雨果著述頗豐，主要作品有長篇小說《巴黎聖母院》、《悲慘世界》、《九三年》等。

Victor Hugo (1802-85) was the most forceful, prolific and versatile of French nineteenth-century writers. He wrote Romantic costume dramas, many volumes of lyrical and satirical verse, political and other journalism, criticism and several novels, the best known of which are Les Miserables (1862) and the youthful Notre-Dame de Paris (1831). A royalist and conservative as a young man, Hugo later became a committed social democrat and during the Second Empire of Napoleon III was exiled from France, living in the Channel Islands. He returned to Paris in 1870 and remained a great public figure until his death: his body lay in state under the Arc de Triomphe before being buried in the Panthéon.

Les Miserables是十九世紀最著名的小說之一。全書以卓越的藝術錶現力，通過對冉•阿讓等人的悲慘遭遇以及冉•阿讓被卞福汝主教感化後所做的一係列令人感動的事跡的描寫。嚮人們展示瞭一幅自1793年法國大革命到1832年巴黎人民起義期間法國近代社會生活和政治生活的輝煌畫捲。 小說集中反映瞭雨果的人道主義思想，飽含瞭雨果對於人類苦難命運的關心和未來堅定不移的信念，具有震撼人心的藝術感染力，被譽為“人類苦難的百科全書”和“人性嚮善的精神史詩”，是世界文學史上現實主義與浪漫主義相結閤的典範。本書為《三個火槍手》的英文漫畫版。

A monumental classic dedicated to the oppressed, the underdog, the laborer, the rebel, the orphan, and the misunderstood, Les Miserables is a rich, emotional novel that captures nothing less than the entirety of life in nineteenth-century France. Les Miserables is primarily a great humanitarian work that encourages compassion and hope in the face of adversity and injustice. It is also a historical novel of great scope, and provides a detailed vision of nineteenth-century French politics and society. Dramatic, packed with rich excitement and filled with the sweep and violence of human passions, Les Miserables is not only superb adventure but a powerful social document. The story of how the convict Jean-Valjean struggled to escape his past and reaffirm his humanity, in a world brutalized by poverty and ignorance, became the gospel of the poor and the oppressed. Beautifully illustrated, this classic tale will capture children's interest and spark their imagination inspiring a lifelong love of literature and reading.