Based on lectures during his residency at Oxford, Llosa, with equal parts affection and exasperation, engages with Victor Hugo and Les Miserables--the 19th century stock characters, the true believers, the insane coincidences, Hugo's own shifting political beliefs over the 12 years of writing, and how all of this created powerful cultural and political traction. I have always enjoyed Hugo's attempt to explain his political affiliation--"I am for the people, for order and for freedom."