Not to be pedantic, but Les Mis takes place about 40 years AFTER the French Revolution and has more to do with the Socialist uprisings of the mid 19th century than the anarchist French Revolution of the 1790’s.
You are right.
However, it is also true that France was subjected to a strenuous attempt at counter-revolution and suppression of democratic tendencies, particularly to 1830, but also to 1848.
The most dramatic incidents of the book and movie revolve around the June Rebellion of 1832, which was arguably the last gasp of the French Revolution in its more or less original form.
By 1848 the revolutionaries were notably changed in character and motivation and were much more socialist, in the more or less modern sense of the term. In fact, the word “socialism” was coined in 1832, shortly before the June Rebellion.
The Revolution was not originally anarchist. It was initially not dissimilar in spirit to the American Revolution, resistance to tyranny.
It was, however, an immensely complicated process, with the original revolutionaries quickly losing control.
The biggest probable reason for the French Revolution's failure relative to the American version was the FR's unconstrained vision. They wanted to remodel society and make it perfect. The American revolutionaries simply wanted to remove the tyrants and let the people run their own lives.
“No Man Is Above the Law of Morality”.seems to be a lot of that going around lately. Odumbo thinks he is above the law and has proven it in many ways. Who made him GOD?