50 Fun Facts About Les Misérables

Who wrote the novel Les Misérables?

Victor Hugo completed Les Misérables during his exile on Guernsey; Flaubert disliked the finished book, finding 'neither truth nor greatness' in it.

In which year was the novel first published?

Les Misérables appeared in 1862 in instalments: the first part, Fantine, in early April, parts two and three on 15 May, and the last two parts on 30 June.

What did Jean Valjean steal, earning him five years in prison that grew to nineteen?

A loaf of bread was all he took, to feed his widowed sister's seven starving children; four failed escape attempts stretched his sentence to nineteen years.

What is Valjean's prisoner number in the musical?

Valjean's number is 24601; the prologue in which Javert barks it at him was written for the 1985 London production, since the French original opened without a prologue.

Which cleric shelters Valjean and then lies to the police, saying the stolen silver was a gift?

The Bishop of Digne, Monseigneur Myriel, tells the gendarmes he gave Valjean the silver; Hugo modelled him on Bienvenu de Miollis, the real bishop there at the time.

What does Monseigneur Myriel give Valjean in addition to the silverware he had stolen?

Two silver candlesticks are added to the gift; Myriel tells Valjean he has bought his soul for God and that the silver should make him an honest man.

Under what alias does Valjean become a factory owner and mayor of Montreuil-sur-Mer?

Monsieur Madeleine is the name under which he grows rich making black glass beads and becomes mayor; the other three names are aliases he uses later in the novel.

Valjean was loosely based on which ex-convict who founded France's first private detective agency?

Eugène François Vidocq, the ex-convict who ran the Sûreté, opened his private detective bureau in 1833; in 1828 he reportedly lifted a cart off a trapped worker in his paper factory.

Fantine, desperate to pay the Thénardiers, sells her hair and what else?

Her two front teeth are sold to a travelling dentist for two gold napoleons, after her hair fetched ten francs; she then turns to prostitution.

The Thénardiers, who abuse young Cosette, run an inn in which village?

Montfermeil, east of Paris, is where the Thénardiers keep their inn; Émile Bayard's drawing of Cosette sweeping there became the musical's emblem.

In the musical, how much does Valjean pay the Thénardiers to release Cosette?

The sum is 1,500 francs, which Valjean hands over in the number called 'The Bargain', leading straight into 'The Waltz of Treachery'.

Where do Valjean and Cosette hide from Javert for several years in Paris?

A convent, the Petit-Picpus, takes them in; its gardener is Fauchelevent, the man Valjean once rescued from under a cart, and Valjean works there as a gardener too.

Street urchin Gavroche is secretly the eldest son of which couple?

The Thénardier innkeepers are his parents, though they show him no affection, so he fends for himself on the streets of Paris; Éponine and Azelma are his sisters.

The story culminates in which real Paris uprising?

The June Rebellion of 1832 broke out at the funeral of General Lamarque, who had died of cholera, and was crushed at the barricades within two days.

How does Valjean escape from the fallen barricade carrying the wounded Marius?

Through the sewers of Paris he carries the unconscious Marius; at the locked outlet grate he runs into Thénardier, who lets him out in exchange for his money.

How does Javert die?

He drowns himself in the Seine after leaving a note of suggestions for the prefect on prison conditions, unable to reconcile the law with the mercy Valjean has shown him.

Roughly how many words long is the novel in the original French?

About 655,000 words in the original French, spread over 48 books and 365 chapters, with more than a quarter of it given to digressions on subjects such as Parisian slang and monastic life.

Hugo devotes 19 chapters of Volume II to which battle, finishing the book at its battlefield?

Waterloo fills 19 chapters; in the digression's final pages Thénardier, looting corpses, accidentally saves Colonel Pontmercy, a meeting that drives much of the later plot.

Hugo supposedly asked his publisher how Les Misérables was selling with a telegram containing only what?

A question mark was the whole telegram, and the publisher supposedly answered with a single exclamation mark, making it the shortest exchange of letters on record.

Which two Frenchmen conceived and wrote the original musical?

Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg first wrote it as a 1980 French concept album; Boublil's idea came at a London musical when a street urchin walked on and he saw Gavroche.

Watching which London musical gave the show's librettist the idea for Les Misérables?

Oliver! was the show; the Artful Dodger's entrance made Boublil think of Gavroche, and the French concept album that followed in 1980 sold 260,000 copies.

Where was the original French stage version presented in 1980?

The Palais des Sports in Paris staged Robert Hossein's production for a run of about 100 performances seen by roughly half a million people; Michel Sardou sang Enjolras on the album.

Which producer, fresh from opening Cats on Broadway, took on the English-language version?

Cameron Mackintosh was initially reluctant when the Hungarian-born director Peter Farago pressed the French concept album on him, but he soon assembled an RSC team to adapt it.

Who wrote the English lyrics, refusing to call them a 'translation'?

Herbert Kretzmer, a South African-born journalist and lyricist, said about a third of his lyrics were rough translations, a third adaptations and a third entirely new material.

The English-language Les Misérables opened in October 1985 at which London venue, then home of the RSC?

The Barbican Centre, the RSC's London base, hosted the October 1985 opening; the show moved to the Palace Theatre that December and in 2004 to the smaller Queen's, renamed the Sondheim in 2019.

Which two RSC directors shaped and directed the English version?

Trevor Nunn and John Caird, the RSC team behind the 1980 Nicholas Nickleby staging, co-directed and co-adapted the English version and shared the 1987 Tony for Best Direction of a Musical.

Who originated the role of Jean Valjean in London and on Broadway?

He also created the Phantom at Sydmonton in 1985 and cameos as the Bishop of Digne in the 2012 film.

Which Broadway star played Fantine in the original 1985 London cast?

Patti LuPone crossed the Atlantic to play Fantine, alongside Michael Ball as Marius and Frances Ruffelle as Éponine, a role that later won Ruffelle a Tony on Broadway.

Which play is the only West End show to have run longer than Les Misérables?

The Mousetrap, Agatha Christie's whodunnit, has played in the West End since 1952 and is the only show there with a longer run than Les Misérables, which opened in 1985.

The original Broadway run closed in 2003 after how many performances?

The count was 6,680 performances, from March 1987 to 18 May 2003; the closing had been set for March but was pushed back when the announcement sent ticket sales surging.

How many Tony Awards did the original Broadway production win from twelve nominations?

Eight of the twelve nominations converted, including Best Musical, Best Original Score, Best Direction and featured-acting awards for Michael Maguire and Frances Ruffelle.

Which solo does Fantine sing after she is thrown out of the factory?

I Dreamed a Dream is Fantine's lament after she loses her factory job; it began as 'J'avais rêvé d'une autre vie' on the 1980 French concept album.

Which Scottish singer's 2009 Britain's Got Talent audition went viral worldwide?

Susan Boyle, a 47-year-old from West Lothian, sang Fantine's big number and stunned the judges; Piers Morgan called it 'the biggest yes' he had ever given on the show.

Who directed the 2012 film of the musical?

Tom Hooper came to it fresh from his Oscar win for The King's Speech; his film had its world premiere at the Odeon Leicester Square in December 2012.

Who plays Jean Valjean in the 2012 film?

Hugh Jackman slimmed down and went without water for 36 hours to look gaunt in the opening prison scenes, and earned a Best Actor Oscar nomination for the role.

Whose singing as Javert drew most of the film's criticism?

Russell Crowe drew the criticism, reviewers finding his rock-baritone Javert strained beside the trained voices around him, while the rest of the principal cast were widely praised.

Anne Hathaway won which Academy Award for playing Fantine?

Best Supporting Actress went to Anne Hathaway at the 2013 ceremony; she had her real hair cut off on camera for the scene in which Fantine sells it.

Which new song was written for the film, sung by Valjean after he takes Cosette from the inn?

Suddenly was written specially for the film and earned an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song; Valjean sings it in the carriage after taking Cosette away from the inn.

Who plays Éponine in the 2012 film?

Samantha Barks plays Éponine in the film, a part she had already sung in the West End and at the 25th-anniversary concert at London's O2 in 2010.

Roughly how much did the 2012 film gross worldwide, against a $61M budget?

$443 million or so worldwide, against a $61 million budget; its $18 million Christmas Day opening was the biggest first day for a musical film, beating High School Musical 3.

Who plays Enjolras, leader of Les Amis de l'ABC, in the film, having auditioned for Marius?

Aaron Tveit, a Broadway leading man from Next to Normal and Catch Me If You Can, had never appeared in the stage musical before being cast as Enjolras in the film.

The 1998 non-musical film version starred which actor as Valjean, opposite Geoffrey Rush's Javert?

Liam Neeson played Valjean for director Bille August, with Uma Thurman as Fantine and Claire Danes as Cosette; much of it was shot at Barrandov Studios in Prague.

The 1935 Hollywood version, nominated for Best Picture, starred which pair as Valjean and Javert?

Fredric March and Charles Laughton took the roles in Richard Boleslawski's 1935 film; Raymond Bernard's French version of the year before ran about four and a half hours.

Who adapted the novel as a 2018 BBC series starring Dominic West, David Oyelowo and Lily Collins?

Andrew Davies, who had already adapted Pride and Prejudice and War & Peace for the BBC, wrote the six-part series with Dominic West as Valjean and David Oyelowo as Javert.

Charles E. Wilbour's first English translation of the novel appeared within months in which city?

New York publisher Carleton issued Wilbour's translation within months of the French original; a Confederate edition printed in Richmond the next year quietly cut Hugo's antislavery passages.

What name did Hugo first give his hero in the early drafts?

Jean Tréjean was the hero's name in Hugo's early draft, begun in 1845 under the title Les Misères; he became Valjean in the finished novel.

Where does street urchin Gavroche sleep in the novel?

Inside an elephant statue he makes his home: the crumbling plaster Elephant of the Bastille, a real abandoned monument, where he also shelters two small boys who are secretly his brothers.

In French, the student club's name 'ABC' is a pun on which word?

The pun is 'Abaissés (the abased)': said aloud, the letters A-B-C sound like abaissé, so the Friends of the ABC are friends of the downtrodden, the students who build the barricade with Marius.

How many volumes make up the novel, which is subdivided into 48 books and 365 chapters?

Five volumes, titled Fantine, Cosette, Marius, Saint-Denis and Jean Valjean, make up the novel; their chapters are short, commonly only a few pages each.

Which serialized 1842-43 novel by Eugène Sue did Hugo borrow plot elements from?

Les Mystères de Paris, Sue's serial of the city's underworld, was a sensation in the Journal des Débats, and like Hugo's book it viewed Paris through its most downtrodden.