Human currency and the economics of death in Les Misérables

In its relationship with economics, Les Misérables is representative of the ambivalent nature of Hugo’s realism. He highlights the perversion of exchanges that transform individuals into commodities, going beyond a simple complaint to develop, within the narrative, a meditation on “human currency,” which questions systems of trade and the concept of value. In having Jean Valjean embody an economic alternative, Hugo attempts to incorporate the sublime within economics.