Wolves and Urchins: The Early Life of Inspector Javert

Wolves and Urchins is a derivative work of Victor Hugo’s acclaimed and beloved Les Misérables. The character of Javert is among the most intriguing in Hugo’s novel, but the reader learns little of his existence prior to reuniting with Jean Valjean in 1823. Wolves and Urchins explores Javert’s life up to this point. The novella examines how Javert’s life experiences shaped him into the unyielding legalistic whose black-and-white view of right and wrong leads to his eventual suicide. Wolves and Urchins begins with Javert’s birth to an imprisoned Gypsy mother. Following her death, Javert is turned loose on the world. Navigating a complex world of rebellion, human relationships, and warfare, young Javert is shaped and molded into the absolutist lawman we behold in Hugo's work.