| JEANVALJEAN | Ex-convict protagonist of the 1862 Victor Hugo novel Les Miserables (4,7) |
| COSETTE | Orphan in the 1862 Victor Hugo novel Les Miserables whose birth name is Euphrasie (7) |
| JEAN | Protagonist of 1862 Victor Hugo novel Les Miserables (4,7) |
| VALJEAN | Protagonist of 1862 Victor Hugo novel Les Miserables (4,7) |
| CINCODEMAYO | Mexican holiday in spring commemorating the 1862 victory over the French: 3 wds. |
| ANNIEERNAUX | Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature who described her prose in the novel "Les Armoires Vides" as "brutally direct, working-class and sometimes obscene" (October, 2022) |
| LES | 1862 Victor Hugo novel, ___ Miserables |
| JEANCOCTEAU | French writer, designer and film director whose works include the novel Les Enfants terrible |
| LESMISERABLES | 1862 Victor Hugo novel (3,10) |
| HUGO | Victor ___, author of the novels Les Miserables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (4) |
| VICTORHUGO | French poet, novelist, and dramatist best known for the novels Les Miserables and Notre-Dame de Paris |
| NOTREDAME | Title of the Parisian landmark which appears in the title of a Victor Hugo novel (5-4) |
| QUASIMODO | Character in the Victor Hugo novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame (9) |
| HEBBEL | German poet and dramatist who won the Schiller Prize for the 1862 trilogy Die Nibelungen (6) |
| REDFLAG | Ex-convict following judge outside department - it's a sign of danger (3,4) |
| HUNCHBACK | The --- Of Notre-Dame, Victor Hugo novel first published in 1831 (9) |
| COCTEAU | French writer of the 1929 novel Les Enfants Terribles (7) |
| EMILEZOLA | French writer of the series of 20 novels Les Rougon-Macquart (5,4) |
| LAG | Delay for the ex-convict (3) |
| DAME | The Hunchback of Notre ___ (Victor Hugo novel) |
