'Brave Frenchmen, will you not surrender?' Cambronne answered, 'Merde!' A tense, dramatic account of the Battle of Waterloo - and how a rain shower changed history - from Victor Hugo's epic novel Les Miserables. One of 46 new books in the bestselling Little Black Classics series, to celebrate the first ever Penguin Classic in 1946. Each book gives readers a taste of the Classics' huge range and diversity, with works from around the world and across the centuries - including fables, decadence, heartbreak, tall tales, satire, ghosts, battles and elephants.

Author Biography

Victor Hugo was born in Besancon, France in 1802. In 1822 he published his first collection of poetry and in the same year, he married his childhood friend, Adele Foucher. In 1831 he published his most famous youthful novel, Notre-Dame de Paris. A royalist and conservative as a young man, Hugo later became a committed social democrat and was exiled from France as a result of his political activities. In 1862, he wrote his longest and greatest novel, Les Miserables. After his death in 1885, his body lay in state under the Arc de Triomphe before being buried in the Pantheon.