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Victor Hugo spent 16 years writing “Les Misérables”, between Paris, Guernsey and Waterloo. It was a long creative process and not only because the manuscript contains 828 pages. The story of the writing of “Les Miserables” was a true serial novel, very 19th century style.

“Les Misérables” was created in scabrous circumstances to say the least. Hugo, the inveterate ladies' man, was caught in the act of adultery on the 5th of July, 1845, with Léonie d´Aunet, a very married woman of letters. She is thrown in prison in Saint-Lazare, while the already famous writer, peer of France protected by his parliamentary immunity, chooses to cloister himself at home to let the scandal fall ... A confinement conducive to writing: he embarked on the writing of "Jean Tréjean", which he later renamed "Les Misères". The 1848 revolution comes to interrupt the drafting. In the aftermath of the coup d'etat of "Napoleon the Little", Juliette Drouet, Victor Hugo’s inspiring muse, literally exfiltrates her great man by train, then takes care of the famous "manuscript chest". This chest will follow Hugo and Juliette on the roads of exile. Inside, among the texts already published, the work in progress, the bundles of documents, and of course, "Les Misères". It was not until 1860, during his exile in Guernsey, that Hugo resumed writing.
Hugo had a waterproof bag made "to measure" to protect the manuscript in the event of a shipwreck then a wooden chest and finally an iron cabinet in ordrer to protect “Les Misérables”. Finally, Hugo will sell his book to a Belgian publisher for an astronomical sum, which will allow him to live until his death, free from want.