Les Misérables

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Nengscoz41620 (talk | contribs) at 04:22, 31 October 2007 (→‎Adaptations in other media: italicising). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

This article is about the original 1862 novel. For the musical theatre production, see Les Misérables (musical).
Les Misérables
Portrait of "Cosette" by Emile Bayard, from the original edition of Les Misérables (1862)
AuthorVictor Hugo
CountryFrance
LanguageFrench
GenreNovel
PublisherA. Lacroix, Verboeckhoven & Ce.
Publication date
1862
Media typePrint

Les Misérables (translated variously from French as The Miserable Ones, The Wretched, The Poor Ones, The Wretched Poor, The Victims) (1862) is a novel by French author Victor Hugo, and among the best-known novels of the 19th century. It follows the lives and interactions of several French characters over a twenty year period in the early 19th century that includes the Napoleonic wars and subsequent decades. Principally focusing on the struggles of the protagonist—ex-convict Jean Valjean—who seeks to redeem himself, the novel also examines the impact of Valjean's actions for the sake of social commentary. It examines the nature of good, evil, and the law, in a sweeping story that expounds upon the history of France, architecture of Paris, politics, moral philosophy, law, justice, religion, and the types and nature of romantic and familial love. Hugo was inspired by the real-life criminal/policeman François Eugène Vidocq, and split his personalities into the two main characters in his novel. Les Misérables is known to many through its numerous stage and screen adaptations, of which the most famous is the stage musical of the same name, commonly known as "Les Mis" or "Les Miz" (pronounced /leɪ mɪz/).

Plot summary

Les Misérables contains a multitude of plots, but the thread that binds them together is the story of the ex-convict Jean Valjean, 24601, who becomes a force for good in the world, but cannot escape his past. The novel is divided into five parts, each part divided into books, and each book divided into chapters. Each chapter is relatively short; usually no longer than a few pages. Nevertheless, the book in its entirety is quite lengthy by usual standards, well exceeding twelve hundred pages in unabridged editions. Within the borders of the novel's story arc, Hugo fills many pages with his thoughts on religion, politics, and society, including his three lengthy digressions, one being a discussion on enclosed religious orders, another being on argot, and most famously, his epic retelling of the Battle of Waterloo.

The story starts in 1815, in Toulon. After five years of imprisonment for stealing food for his starving family, and fourteen more for numerous attempts to escape, the peasant Jean Valjean is released. However, he is required to carry a yellow passport, which marks him as a convict. Rejected by innkeepers, who do not want to take in a convict, Valjean sleeps on the street. However, the benevolent Bishop Myriel takes him in and gives him shelter. In the night, he steals the bishop’s silverware and runs. He is caught, but the bishop rescues him by claiming that the silver was a gift and at that point gives him two candlesticks as well. The bishop then tells him he must become an honest man and must perform good deeds for others. As Valjean broods over these words, he out of habit steals two coins from a passer-by and chases him away. Immediately he realises his guilt and decides to follow the bishop's advice. At the same time, his theft is reported to the authorities which now look for him as a repeat offender.

Six years later, Valjean, having assumed the pseudonym of Monsieur Madeleine to avoid capture, has become a wealthy factory owner and is appointed mayor of his adopted town. Valjean meets the dying Fantine, who has been fired from her job at his factory and has resorted to prostitution. She has a young daughter, Cosette, who lives with a corrupt innkeeper and his selfish, cruel wife. As Fantine dies, Valjean, seeing in Fantine similarities to his former life of hardship, promises her that he will take care of Cosette, despite the imminent threat of arrest. The town's police inspector Javert had already suspected the identity of Madeleine and Valjean, whom he had seen in jail but this suspicion is momentarily dispelled when another man, mistakenly accused of being Valjean, is put on trial. To save the man, Valjean reveals himself to the court and returns to his town and barely avoids being arrested. He pays off the innkeeper, Thénardier, to obtain Cosette, and flees with her to Paris. Once in Paris, they find shelter in a convent.

Ten years later, as Cosette and Valjean are leaving the convent, angry students, led by Enjolras, are preparing a revolution on the eve of the Paris uprising on June 5–6, 1832, following the death of General Lamarque, the only French leader who had sympathy towards the working class. They are also joined by the poor, including the young street urchin Gavroche. One of the students, Marius Pontmercy, who has become alienated from his family because of his liberal views, falls in love with Cosette, who has grown to be very beautiful. The Thénardiers, who have also moved to Paris, lead a gang of thieves to raid Valjean’s house while Marius is visiting. However, Thénardier’s daughter, Éponine, who is also in love with Marius, convinces the thieves to leave.

"The War: Defence of Paris—Students Going to Man the Barricades". - a real-life scene from the Siege of Paris, eight years after Hugo's novel was published.

The following day, the students revolt and erect barricades in the narrow streets of Paris. Valjean, learning that Cosette's lover is fighting, joins them, not certain if he wants to protect Marius, or kill him. Éponine also joins to protect Marius, and ends up taking a bullet for him and dying happily in his arms. During the ensuing battle, Valjean saves Javert from being killed by the students and lets him go. Valjean carries off the injured Marius, but all others, including Enjolras and Gavroche, are killed. Valjean escapes through the sewers, carrying Marius' body on his shoulders. At the exit, he runs into Javert, whom he persuades to give him time to return Marius to his family. Javert grants this request and another, then realises that he is caught between his belief in the law and the mercy Valjean has shown him, as he can no longer give Valjean up to the authorities. Unable to cope with this dilemma, Javert throws himself into the Seine. Marius and Cosette are soon married. Valjean confesses to Marius that he is an ex-convict. Marius is horrified. Convinced that Valjean is of poor moral character, he steers Cosette away from him. Valjean loses the will to live and takes to his bed. Marius learns of Valjean's good deeds too late and rushes to Valjean's house, where he lies dying. Valjean reveals his past to the pair, and in his final moments realises happiness at long last with his adopted daughter and son-in-law by his side. He expresses his love to them, and then dies.

Primary characters

  • Jean Valjean (a.k.a. Monsieur Madeleine a.k.a. Ultime Fauchelevent): Convicted for stealing bread, he is released from prison nineteen years later. Rejected as former convict, Bishop Myriel turns his life around. He assumes a new identity to pursue an honest life, becomes a factory owner and mayor. He adopts and raises Fantine's daughter, Cosette. He dies at an old age.
  • Bishop Myriel, Bishop of Digne: A kindly old priest who is promoted to bishop by a chance encounter with Napoleon. He convinces Valjean to change his ways, after Valjean steals some silver from him.
  • Javert: An obsessive police inspector who continuously hunts, tracks down, and loses Valjean. He goes undercover behind the barricade, but is unmasked. Valjean has the chance to kill him, but lets Javert go. Later Javert allows Valjean to escape. Unable to accept that a felon has shown him mercy, and that he in turn allowed that convict to go free, Javert commits suicide by jumping into the River Seine.
  • Fantine: A Parisian grisette abandoned by her lover, Fantine leaves her daughter Cosette in the care of the Thernardiers, innkeepers in a village outside Paris. She finds work at Mayor Madeleine's factory, but is fired by a woman supervisor because she is an unwed mother. To meet repeated demands for money from the Thenardiers, she sells her hair, then her front teeth, and finally turns to prostitution. Valjean learns of her plight when she is arrested by Javert. She dies of tuberculosis before Valjean is able to reunite her with Cosette.
  • Cosette: The daughter of Fantine, she is raised by Jean Valjean after her mother dies. She falls in love with Marius Pontmercy, and marries him at the end of the novel. For the first few years she is raised, used as a worker and beaten by the Thénardiers.
  • Marius Pontmercy: An aristocrat who fell out with his royalist grandfather after discovering his father was an officer under Napoleon. He studies law, joins the revolutionary ABC students and later falls in love with Cosette.
  • Thénardiers: An corrupt innkeeper and his wife. They take in Cosette in her first years, mistreating her. Later head of a criminal gang. He is also Marius' next-door neighbour and recognized by Marius as the man who tended to his father at Waterloo.
  • Eponine: Thenardiers' daughter. She is obsessed with Marius and extremely jealous of Cosette. She dies at the barricades when she reaches out her hand to stop a bullet heading for Marius: she is mortally wounded and is the first to die. Her final request is that once she has passed, Marius will kiss her. He does, but never knows of her love for him.
  • Gavroche: Thénardiers' son, an urchin. He takes part in the barricades and is the second to die.
  • Enjolras: The leader of the revolutionary students.

Secondary characters

  • Mademoiselle Baptistine - Bishop Myriel's sister. She loves and venerates her brother.
  • Madame Magloire - Domestic servant for the Bishop and his sister. She grumbles at the life of poverty the Bishop insists upon, and is fearful that he leaves the door open to strangers.
  • Sister Simplice - A nun who cares for Fantine on her sickbed.
  • Petit Gervais - A small boy who drops a coin. Valjean, lost in thought, puts his shoe over the coin, but doesn't hear the boy's protests. When he exits the reverie, and the boy is gone, he realizes what happened, and searches for the boy in vain.
  • Fauchelevent - Fauchlevent's life is saved by Valjean when Valjean is able to lift a carriage he is caught underneath. Fauchlevant later will return the favor by providing sanctuary for Valjean and Cosette at a convent, and by providing his name for Valjean's use.
  • Monsieur Gillenormand - Marius's grandfather. A Monarchist, he disagrees sharply with Marius on political issues, and they have several arguments. He attempts to keep Marius from being influenced by his father, an officer in Napoleon's army. While in perpetual conflict over ideas, he does illustrate his love for his grandson.
  • Mademoiselle Gillenormand - M. Gillenormand's daughter, she lives with her father.
  • Colonel Georges Pontmercy - Marius's father, and an officer in Napoleon's army. Wounded at Waterloo, Pontmercy erroneously believes his life is saved by M. Thénardier. He tells Marius of this debt.
  • Azelma - The daughter of the Thenardiers; she lives with her family, and is part of the reason why Fantine leaves Cosette with them. Azelma participates in the Gorbeau robbery and, aside from Thenardier himself, she is the only Thenardier who does not die— it is implied that she goes to America with her father.

Critical Reception

The first two volumes of Les Misérables were published on 3 April 1862, heralded by a massive advertising campaign; [1] the remainder of the novel appeared on 15 May 1862. At the time, Victor Hugo enjoyed a reputation as one of France's foremost poets, and the appearance of the novel was a highly anticipated event.

Critical reactions were wide-ranging and often negative; some critics found the subject matter immoral, others complained of its excessive sentimentality, and still others were disquieted by its apparent sympathy with the revolutionaries.[2] The Goncourt brothers expressed their great dissatisfaction, judging the novel artificial and disappointing.[3] Flaubert could find within it "neither truth nor greatness."[4] Baudelaire reviewed the work glowingly in newspapers[5], but in private castigated it as "tasteless and inept."

Nonetheless, the book was a great success. First translated into foreign languages (including Italian, Greek and Portuguese) the same year it originally appeared, it also proved popular across Europe.[6][7]

Translations

English translations

At least six English translations of the novel exist, by:

  • Charles E. Wilbour. New York: Carleton Publishing Company. June 1862. The first American translation, published only months after the French edition of the novel was released.
  • Lascelles Wraxall. London: Hurst and Blackett. October, 1862. The first British translation.
  • Translator Unknown. Richmond, Virginia. 1863. Published by West and Johnston publishers.[3]
  • Isabel F. Hapgood. Published 1887, this translation is available at Project Gutenberg.
  • Norman Denny. Penguin Classics. 1976. This edition is sometimes erroneously considered to be unabridged; however, in Norman Denny's introduction, he states that several of the longer passages that did not directly relate to the plot were removed. Paperback ISBN 0-140-44430-0
  • Lee Fahnestock and Norman MacAfee. Signet Classics. March 3, 1987. An unabridged edition based on the Wilbour translation with modernization of language, generally considered the most readable of current translations. Paperback ISBN 0-451-52526-4

Arabic translations

Several translations of the novel exist, notably by:

  • Munir al-Baalbaki — both abridged and unabridged copies (the latter in five volumes) exist. They were published for the first time in 1955 in Beirut, Lebanon.
  • Hafiz Ibrahim — an abridged translation which appears in two small volumes.

Adaptations

Film adaptations

Adaptations in other media

In 1935, Solomon Cleaver published a short English-language adaptation titled Jean Val Jean. It remains a popular children's version of Les Misérables.

In 1937, Orson Welles wrote, produced and directed a seven-part series for radio. Welles himself narrated the story and played the part of Valjean. The series co-starred Martin Gabel as Inspector Javert, and featured his then wife Virginia Nicholson Welles as the older Cosette, with Gwen Davies (young Cosette), Alice Frost (Fantine), William Johnstone (Marius), and in other roles, Frank Readick, Ray Collins, Agnes Moorehead, and Everett Sloane, many of whom would perform for The Mercury Theatre on the Air.

In 1980, a musical (see Les Misérables (musical)) opened in Paris which has gone on to become one of the most successful musicals in history. It was written by the composer Claude-Michel Schönberg and the librettist Alain Boublil.

A versus fighting game, Arm Joe, was made in 1998 by a Japanese game developer known as Takase. The name is pronounced Āmu Jō, which is a pun on the title of Les Misérables in Japanese ("Ā, Mujō," meaning "Oh, Cruelty"). The game incorporates the major characters as they appear in the musical, namely Jean Valjean, Enjolras, Marius, Cosette, Eponine, Thénardier, and Javert—as well as a policeman, a robotic clone called Robojean, an embodiment of Judgement, and a stuffed rabbit.[4]

In 2001, BBC Radio 4 produced a 25-part radio dramatisation, with a cast of 27 featuring Joss Ackland narrating, Roger Allam as Valjean, and David Schofield as Javert. (Allam also originated the role of Javert in the English language version of the Boublil/Schönberg musical.)

In May 2001, François Cérésa published Cosette, or the Time of Illusions, a sequel to Les Misérables. Victor Hugo's descendants attempted to have the book banned, condemning it as a money-seeking enterprise and an attack on Hugo's work (more subjective offences aside, it is undeniable that Ceresa retconned a key scene in Hugo's novel to avoid the death of a character he wanted to use in his novel). Victor Hugo's heirs and the Société des gens de lettres lost the first trial [5] but won on appeal [6].

The plotline of Terry Pratchett's 28th Discworld novel, Night Watch, is inspired by uprisings such as the one in Les Misérables.

There has also been an Asian adaptation from a school located in Hong Kong. King George V School (King George the Fifth School) was the first ever school to perform Les Misérables in Asia.

A Les Misérables adventure game [7] is due for release Christmas 2007.

In January 2007, Nippon Animation released a Les Miserables anime series (consisting of 52 episodes) under the title Les Misérables: Shōjo Cosette, airing Mondays at 7:30. [8]

A North Korean animated series, of about 26 episodes, was made in the 1990s. It was faithful to the novel in the main narrative sense, though at times the story strays to dark and more adult oriented themes. The series focused more on Cosette than many other adaptations. It was produced by SEK Studio. [citation needed] [9]

Cultural references

24601

Popular myth states 24601, Valjean's convict number, was chosen by Hugo because it was the date that he was conceived (24th of June, 1801). It is only known that he was born on Feb 26, 1802, approximately 8 months later. Many characters in contemporary culture, most notably Sideshow Bob from The Simpsons, Eric Cartman from South Park, Oscar Bluth from Arrested Development, and the player character from the computer game System Shock, have the prisoner number 24601 as an homage to the original novel.

Corey Taylor, vocalist of the band Slipknot, has a tattoo of the number.

Musical adaptation

The musical adaptation has also made a lasting impact on popular culture because of its immense popularity. Les Misérables the musical is the third longest running show in Broadway history.[8] Episodes from the television shows South Park, Family Guy, Scrubs, Animaniacs, Saturday Night Live and Seinfeld have all parodied the musical.

Other

  • The Australian alt-rock band TISM has a member called Les Miserables. 'Les' is pronounced as though his first name is 'Leslie'.
  • The Californian band Ozma has a song titled "Eponine" that appears in 2 of their albums: Spending Time on the Borderline and Pasadena.
  • In the novel "American Psycho", the characters make frequent references to Les Misérables.
  • At one time, the letters between Victor Hugo and the British publisher Hurst and Blackett held a world record for the shortest correspondence. Hugo was on vacation and was wondering how his book was selling in Britain, in his letter to the publisher he wrote "?" and received "!" as a response.[11]

References

  1. ^ La réception des Misérables en 1862 - Max Bach - PMLA, Vol. 77, No. 5 (Dec., 1962)
  2. ^ L.Gauthier wrote in Le Monde of 17 August 1862: "One cannot read without an unconquerable disgust all the details Monsieur Hugo gives regarding the successful planning of riots." (see [1])
  3. ^ http://www.adpf.asso.fr/adpf-publi/folio/hugo_contemporain/09.html
  4. ^ Letter of G. Flaubert to Madame Roger des Genettes - July 1862 (see [2]). In this private letter, Flaubert, declaring himself exasperated by the novel and indignant at watching "the fall of a God," complains of the crude, stereotyped characters - who all "speak very well - but all in the same way" - and finally pronounces the book "infantile."
  5. ^ Les Misérables de Victor Hugo par Charles Baudelaire dans le journal Le Boulevard (1862)
  6. ^ Réception des Misérables en Grèce by Marguerite Yourcenar
  7. ^ Réception des Misérables au Portugal
  8. ^ Longest Running Shows on Broadway
  9. ^ Pickett and His Men. La Salle Corbell Pickett. 1899. p. 358.
  10. ^ Four Years under Marse Robert. Robert Stiles. 1904. P. 252
  11. ^ Guinness Book of World Records, 1979 American Edition, Bantam Books.

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Les Misérables.
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Les_Misérables&oldid=168239976"