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Les Miserables


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(1862)




Les Misérables is set in the Parisian underworld. The protagonist, Jean Valjean, is sentenced to prison for 19 years for stealing a loaf of bread. After his release, Valjean plans to rob Monseigneur Myriel, a saintlike bishop, but cancels his plan. However, he forfeits his parole by committing a minor crime, and for this crime Valjean is haunted by the police inspector Javert. Valjean eventually reforms and becomes under the name of M. Madeleine a successful businessman, benefactor, and mayor of a northern town. To save an innocent man, Valjean gives himself up and is imprisoned in Toulon. He escapes and adopts Cosette, an illegitimate child of a poor woman, Fantine. Cosette grows up and falls in love with Marius, who is wounded during a revolutionary fight. Valjean rescues Marius by means of a flight through the sewers of Paris. Cosette and Marius marry and Valjean reveals his past. The story has been filmed several times and made into a musical by the composer Claude-Michel Schönberg and the librettist Alain Boublil, opening in 1980 in Paris. The English version was realised in 1985 and the Broadway version followed two years later.

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Recent Forum Posts on Les Miserables

What is the inscription on Valjean's stone?

At the end of Les Miserables, Hugo writes that someone wrote in pencil on Valjean's gravetone. The lines are in french. Can someone tell me what the inscription on the stone says in english? Thanks:blush:

Posted By johnevans1 at Fri 12 Sep 2008, 9:36 PM in Les Miserables || 1 Reply

Classic of the Week (Poll): Les Misérables

http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/13740000/13745233.JPG One of the most widely read novels of all time, Les Misérables was the crowning literary achievement of Victor Hugo’s stunning career. Though he was considered the greatest French writer of his day, Hugo was forced to flee the country because of his opposition to Napoleon III. While in exile he completed Les Misérables, an enormous melodrama set against thebackground of political upheaval in France following the rule of Napoleon I. How do you like this classic and how would you rate it on a 1-10 scale? This poll will close in 1 week!

Posted By misterlit at Mon 11 Aug 2008, 8:27 AM in Les Miserables || 4 Replies

movie?

Is anyone going to make a movie version of the musial "LES MISERABLES"? It seems that every other broadway play has been made, some even twice.

Posted By sonnyfla at Sun 6 Jul 2008, 3:38 PM in Les Miserables || 0 Replies

Les Miserables; A new translation by Julie Rose

This may be a silly question, but, I took an interest in Les Miserables by watching the play. Recently I purchased the book with a new translation by Julie Rose; and am wondering how I went about reading it. The contents pages tell me that there are five parts, but within them parts are chapters (I am guessing) from books of Les Miserables. E.g. Part One: Fantine BOOK ONE. A Just Man BOOK TWO. The Fall BOOK THREE. In The Year 1817 BOOK FOUR. To Entrust Is Sometimes To Abandon BOOK FIVE. The Descent BOOK SIX. Javert BOOK SEVEN. The Champmethieu Affair BOOK EIGHT. Aftershock Do I read through the book as any other book or do i read all of book one in part one, then two, then three, four and five; then carry one book two in parts one, two, three, four and five? Please advise. Thankyou.

Posted By whitney.g at Sat 5 Jul 2008, 1:29 PM in Les Miserables || 2 Replies

A few questions

Les Mis is the story of a man who is almost "perfect" in virtue, of a man who is (to quote the book) "a beneficent malefactor, a compassionate convict, kind, helpful, clement, returning good for evil, returning pardon for hatred, loving pity rather than vengeance, preferring to destroy himself than to destroy his worst enemy, saving the one who had struck him, kneeling on the heights of virtue, nearer angels than men." My first question is this: Can such a man really exist in real life? Jean Valjean seems real enough in the book, but in real life, will anyone be able to conquer human nature as he did? For in the beginning of the book, something happened when he stole Gervais' coin... I think that maybe that's when something inside him overcame human nature. Because from what I have observed, human nature is self-centeredness and desire, with a bit of love mixed in, and it looks like the love part of his nature destroyed the other two. He is so selfish that I doubt that it could be real. My second question is this: I was reading Javert's thoughts that lead him to suicide, and he asks himself some questions. He says that it made sense for Valjean to kill him, but he wasn't killed, and it wasn't because of duty, but something else. What I am thinking is that if it was any other man, he would've killed Javert. For safety and revenge, says the book. Maybe Valjean just could not bring himself to kill a man? That's understandable, but then why did Valjean give Javert his address? What virtue is this that makes Valjean turn himself in?

Posted By Shya at Sun 29 Jun 2008, 7:31 AM in Les Miserables || 1 Reply

Pointless

I haven't read the entire book yet, so nobody give anything away, but didn't anyone find this book having so many pointless parts? I am on page 490 and so far there have been 210 pages completely irrelevant to the story. For instance: 1. The 50+ page history of the Bishop of Myriel(I kind of liked this but it still had no point). 2. The 30+ page background of Fantine had very little purpose, mainly just Tholymyes ranting on about indigestion(it was really 40 pages but it wasn't completely pointless). 3. The 57 page description of Waterloo. 4. The 35 page description of the convent of the Benedictine-Bernardines(and that's as far as I've gotten). That's not including the other pointless deviations from the plot(giving you backrgound in the origin of the street names the Jean Valjean is on).

Posted By iamwhoiam1492 at Fri 16 May 2008, 9:41 PM in Les Miserables || 6 Replies

chicken wing

Toward the end of the story it says that Jean sat down to dinner and ate a chicken wing with a good appetite. My question is does a chicken wing make a dent in a good appetite? Do you suppose that there was a time before big gulp and super size me that a chicken wing was considered a reasonable portion? I think that if I were to sit down to a chicken with a good appetite I would go for the thigh! http://hinessight.blogs.com/photos/uncategorized/chicken.jpg

Posted By motherhubbard at Fri 16 May 2008, 8:43 PM in Les Miserables || 4 Replies

Who is the female main character?

Hi, i heard all of the musical songs, but i was wondering if Epponine or Fantine was the female lead.

Posted By broadwaybound01 at Sat 10 May 2008, 8:57 AM in Les Miserables || 6 Replies

difficult quotation

Could someone please help me with the meaning of "Love is the foolishness of men, and the wisdom of God." Book V Chapter 4

Posted By Ron Alphin at Tue 15 Apr 2008, 11:43 AM in Les Miserables || 6 Replies

Les Miserables play

I have to do a play for this book on friday and for a better understanding of the book my drama teacher is giving us a quiz. Here is a pre quiz. Can someone please help me. Thanks you. 1. Who is the author of Les Miserables? 2. Who is the main character? 3. How long was he in prison? 4. Why was he in prison? 5. Why did his term in prison keep on being extended? 6. What is the color of his pass? 7. Who welcomes him in for dinner and a night’s rest? 8. Who is Madame Magloire? 9. Who is Petit Gervais? 10. Who are the Thenardiers? 11. What little girl is left with the Thenardiers? 12. Who leaves the girl? 13. Who is Father Madeleine? 14. Father Madeleine is later called --------Madeleine. 15. He is later called Monsieur --- -----. 16. How did he become so rich? 17. What is M----------sur M-----------? 18. The mayor became very sad when he hears of whose death? 19. The mayor gives money to any Savoyard who passes through town. Why? 20. Who is the mayor? 21. Who is the inspector who mistrusts the mayor? 22. Whom does Monsieur Madeleine save from being crushed to death? 23. Who says he only knows of one man who could lift such a load? 24. Who is that one strong man? 25. Madeleine gets a job for Fauchelevent in Paris as a -------. 26. Javert confesses what to the Mayor? 27. Who is Champmathieu? 28. Explain the Mayor’s horrible dilemma. 29. Who are Brevet, Chenildieu, and Cochepaille? 30. Whom does Fantine want to see before she dies? 31. Who comes to arrest the Mayor? 32. The Mayor asks for three days to do what? 33. How does Sister Simplice save the Mayor? 34. Why does Javert believe Sister Simplice? 35. Jean Valjean goes to Laffitte’s for what reason? 36. What happens aboard the Orion? 37. Jean takes Cossette to what city? 38. What does Jean keep in the lapel of his coat? 39. Who spies on Jean as he is ripping open his coat? 40. To escape from Javert, Jean has to go up a ---- and then pull -------- up with a ----. 41. They end up in the garden of a what? 42. Who turns out to be the gardener there? 43. Explain how the convent is the "most dangerous" and yet also the "safest" place for Jean. 44. Jean pretends to be whose brother? 45. Two houses of --- have saved Jean Valjean.v 46. Jean takes the name Ultimus ------------. 47. Who is M. Gillenormand? 48. Who is his grandson? 49. Who is Colonel Baron Pontmercy? 50. Why does Marius never see his father? 51. Why, at age 18, is Marius finally sent to see his father? 52. At what battle was Pontmercy made a baron? 53. By whom? 54. What sergeant saved Pontmercy’s life at that battle? 55. Who is Theodule Gillenormand? 56. Theodule finds that Marius is not visiting a lass but a ----. 57. Who is Courfeyrac? 58. Marius pays the rent for the Jondrettes. What is the family’s real name? 59. Whom does Marius name Mademoiselle Lenoire? 60. What name does he give to Jean? 61. What is the Luxembourg? 62. What is left behind, with the initials U.F., on the bench? 63. What does Marius then think her first name is? 64. Who lives next door to the Jondrettes and is able to spy on them? 65. Why does M. Jondrette put a hole in a chair, order a window broken, have the fire put out, have his wife go to bed, etc.? 66. What is a fiacre? 67. When Jondrette tells LeBlanc that he is really Thenardier, what is Marius’ dilemma? 68. Thenardier refers to the Lark? Who is that? 69. Who uses the name Urbain Fabre? 70. Who, ironically, shows up to stop the killing of M. LeBlanc? 71. Who is the elder of the Thenardier daughters? 72. Who helps Marius track down M. LeBlanc’s "daughter"? 73. What does Cosette call "the inseparable"? 74. Who is Toussaint? 75. What major character is in the National Guard? 76. Why is Jean saddened to see Cosette growing beautiful? 77. Who left what and for whom on a bench in the garden? 78. What is the barricade? 79. Who goes there disguised as a man? 80. Who is Gavroche? 81. What enemy is captured at the barricade and told he will soon die? 82. Who shields Marius from a bullet and dies? 83. She requests that Marius do what after she dies? 84. Before she dies, she gives a letter to Marius from whom? 85. Who intercepts Marius’ letter to Cosette, carried by Gavroche? 86. Who is Gavroche the son of? 87. What "favor" does Enjolras bestow on Jean? 88. What does Jean do instead? 89. Whom does Jean carry and where? 90. Who has the key to get out of the sewer? 91. What does he first rip off a piece of? 92. Who captures Jean shortly after he comes out of the sewer? 93. What one favor does Jean ask of that man? 94. Where is Marius taken? 95. Strangely, Javert leaves and then does what? 96. Who gets married? 97. What does Jean do with all his money? 98. What confession does Jean make to Marius? 99. Who says, "To live, once I stole a loaf of bread; to-day, to live, I will not steal a name"? 100. Who thinks Jean stole from Madeleine and killed Javert? 101. Who comes to bribe Marius by telling "tales" about Jean? 102. Why does his attempt backfire? 103. Who says, "He who was carrying the corpse was Jean Valjean; he who had the key is now speaking to you, and the piece of the coat ——"? 104. Why does Marius not turn in this liar? 105. Thenardier goes to ------- and becomes a ------. 106. Who dies at the end of the book?

Posted By crfdude86 at Tue 8 Apr 2008, 2:21 PM in Les Miserables || 1 Reply

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