<P> Louis - Philippe's regime was finally overthrown in the French Revolution of 1848, though the subsequent French Second Republic was short - lived . In the 1848 Revolution, Friedrich Engels published a retrospective in which he analyzed the tactical errors which led to the failure of the 1832 uprising, and drew lessons for the 1848 revolt . The main strategic deficit, he argued, was the failure to march immediately on the centre of power, the Hôtel de Ville . </P> <P> On 5 June 1832, young Victor Hugo was writing a play in the Tuileries Gardens when he heard the sound of gunfire from the direction of Les Halles . The park - keeper had to unlock the gate of the deserted gardens to let Hugo out . Instead of hurrying home, he followed the sounds through the empty streets, unaware that half of Paris had already fallen to the insurgents . All about Les Halles were barricades . Hugo headed north up rue Montmartre, then turned right onto Passage du Saumon, at last turning before rue du Bout du Monde (World's End Street). Halfway down the alley, the grilles at either end were slammed shut . Hugo was surrounded by barricades and found shelter between some columns in the street, where all the shops were shuttered . For a quarter of an hour bullets flew both ways . </P> <P> In his novel Les Misérables, published thirty years later in 1862, Hugo depicts the period leading up to the rebellion, and follows the lives and interactions of several characters over a twenty - year period . The novel begins in the year of Napoleon Bonaparte's final defeat and climaxes with the battles of the June Rebellion . An outspoken republican activist, Hugo unquestionably favored the revolutionaries, although in Les Miserables he wrote about Louis - Philippe in sympathetic terms . </P> <P> Scenes of Parisian students and the poor planning of the rebellion on the eve of the benevolent General Lamarque's death are portrayed in the novel through the activities of the fictional "Friends of the ABC" (a pun on the French term abaissé, or "oppressed"), led by the charismatic character Enjolras and portrayed as a sub-group of the Rights of Man Society . The building of barricades throughout Paris's narrow streets is also described . The ABC organized the building of a barricade in rue de la Chanvrerie, a side - road running into rue Saint - Denis near a wine shop which they use as their base of operations . During the climactic battle the main characters all come together and many of them are killed . </P>

Does les miserables take place during the french revolution