"Les Miserables," by Victor Hugo, is set in the 1830s, toward the end of a cycle of events that started with the French Revolution and the overthrow of King Louis XVI, "Napoleon," and then the restoration of the French monarchy, first under Louis XVIII, (1815-24), then (Charles X, 1824-30) and then Louis Philippe (1830-1848), whose reign led to a "second Napoleon" (Napoleon III, actually).
Hugo was part of the so-called Romantic Movement in Europe, which did not reach France until the late 1820s. This built on the philosophy of the Enlightenment of the 18th century, with its emphasis on individual freedom and human progress. (The corresponding 1830s movement in the United States was the "Transcendentalism" of philosophers Emerson and Thoreau, which is sometimes referred to as the Second Great Awakening.)