Historical Novels set in Paris

Published in 1862, this monumental work by the great French author Victor Hugo (1802-1885), describes life in Paris in the 19th century. The hero of the novel, Jean Valjean, is a man who is treated unfairly by society, condemned to years of prison when stealing bread to feed his starving family. When he finally leaves prison, he is a man whose soul has been brutalised by the experience. He steals a coin from a little boy, an act which is to haunt him for the rest of his life. He is soon saved as a human being by a priest, who restores his faith in life an humanity. He goes on to create a fortune, but is haunted by his past as a convict and the meaningless theft, and this is the story.

The book is one of the monuments of French literature, and the story is filled with characters that have become legendary, like those of Dickens. - This is a work of literature you shouldn't deny yourself.

 This gothic novel was published in 1831, and written by Victor Hugo. The story is set in medieval times and tells the fantastique story of Quasimodo, a miserable human being who falls in love with the beautiful Esméralda, a young bohemian (ie from Bohemia), who's is also very desired by the dark and sinister priest of Notre-Dame. It is in many ways a very dark story of love and outrageous deires. No happy ending (unlike the Disney version!).

 In this magnificent book, Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850), the author of La Comédie Humaine, portrays the elderly gentleman Goriot, who is exploited to the fullest by his daughters. Also in this book is one of Balzac's great characters, Vautrin.

Scènes de la vie Bohème by Henri Murger (1822-1861), is another great novel set in Paris. It's the story of young and struggling artist, bohèmes, in Paris, based on Murger's own experiences as a struggling young writer in 19Th century Paris.

The book is a collection of loosely connected stories about the young, struggling artists, which romanticizes the life of these in Paris in the 1840s.

The book inspired Puccini's (1858-1924) opera La Bohème (1896), and the lovestory, the tragic life and lovestory of Mimi, one of the main characters, is one which has been immortalized in the song from Puccini's opera La Bohème: Si, mi chiamo Mimi.  

This book is a must-read for any one interested in the artistic life of Paris, or any one with a romantic side to them.

The Mysteries of Paris (Les Mystères de Paris) is a novel by Eugène Sue. It is a sometimes overlooked novel, among all the great French novels of the 19th century, by such exceptional writers as Stendhal, Balzac, Hugo and Dumas. It was published as a series in Journal des Débats between June 19th, 1842 and October 15th, 1843.

The story is a very colorful trip among various Parisian characters, mostly from the lower classes, and their problems, and this way it depicts the life of the city's inhabitants very good, and very lively. The novel also shows the Parisian nobility as indifferent towards the misery of the common people and instead they are focused on meaningless intrigues.

The hero of the novel is the mysterious Rodolphe, who is really the Grand Duke of Gérolstein, but is disguised as a Parisian worker. Rodolphe is accompanied by his friends Sir Walter Murph, an Englishman, and David, a gifted doctor, and former slave.