Figuring Transcendence in Les Misrables

First published in 1994, Figuring Transcendence in Les Misrables is a book-length study of Victor Hugos Les Misrables. Kathryn M. Grossmans authoritative command of Hugos work and Hugo criticism enables her to situate the novelists masterpiece in relation both to his earlier novelsup to and including Notre-Dame de Parisand to the poetry published during his exile under the Second Empire. Drawing on Paul Ricoeurs theory of metaphor and on Thomas Weiskels analysis of the romantic sublime, Grossman illustrates how the novels motifs and structures correspond to a closely connected set of ethical, spiritual, political, and aesthetic concerns.