Short answers, pulled from the story.
Les Misérables was first published on the 31st of March 1862, with the first two volumes released in Brussels and the Paris edition following on the 3rd of April 1862. The remaining volumes appeared on the 15th of May 1862.
Les Misérables follows the lives of several characters in France, beginning in 1815 and culminating in the June 1832 uprising in Paris. The central thread is the story of ex-convict Jean Valjean, convicted for stealing a loaf of bread, and his pursuit by the police inspector Javert. The novel examines law, grace, justice, poverty, and redemption.
Valjean's character is loosely based on the life of the ex-convict Eugène François Vidocq, who became head of an undercover police unit and later founded France's first private detective agency. In 1829, Hugo also witnessed a stranger being arrested for stealing bread, which provided the seed for Valjean's story; a nearby mother and daughter became the inspiration for Fantine and Cosette.
Les Misérables runs to 655,478 words in the original French. The novel is divided into five volumes, 48 books, and 365 chapters, making it one of the longest novels ever written.
Critical reception was wide-ranging and often negative. Flaubert called it "infantile" and found neither truth nor greatness in it. The Goncourt brothers judged it artificial and disappointing. Charles Baudelaire praised it publicly for focusing attention on social problems but privately called it "repulsive and inept." Despite this, the novel was a commercial success from the moment of publication.
The 1980 musical Les Misérables was composed by Claude-Michel Schönberg with a libretto by Alain Boublil. It is one of the many adaptations of Victor Hugo's 1862 novel, which has also been adapted for film, television, radio, and other media since its original publication.