Tag: TODO: Les Mis Check

An Extra Wrinkle

Completely skipped by the musical: Jean Valjean is recaptured, tried for robbing the chimney-sweep boy after his release, and sent back to prison. He offers no defense (he did take the coin), even though the prosecution claims he committed armed robbery with accomplices, which gets him the death penalty (though the king commutes it to life in prison). What he really did was step on a coin and refuse to move his foot.

Not long after he’s sent back to prison, he saves the life of a crewman on a ship that’s in for repairs, then “falls” to his apparent death in the waters below. No body is found, but who could survive that?

Honestly, the whole sequence doesn’t add much that we don’t already know, though it does give him a little anonymity in that he’s presumed dead until Javert figures out that he isn’t, making it even more of a one-man crusade to recapture him.

It also sets up a nice parallel between Valjean’s escape and Javert’s suicide, which the musical picked up on by using the same song for Valjean breaking parole and Javert breaking down.

On Tumblr (Re-Reading Les Mis)

Thénardier at Waterloo

The one scene in the entire 45-page section on Waterloo that figures into any character’s story occurs at the very end, when Thénardier accidentally saves Marius’ father’s life.  He was in a pile of dead bodies, and Thénardier pulled him out to better get at his stuff. The “body” wakes up. “You saved my life!” “Um, yes, I did!”

Years later, the dying Col. Pontmercy impresses upon his son that he must find and repay the great man who saved his life, leading to some difficult choices when Marius finds out just what kind of person Thénardier is.

This is also why you need to be careful when abridging. Yes, you can pick up the basics from Pontmercy’s letter…but he doesn’t know what Thénardier was really doing before he regained consciousness.

The year I read the book the first time, I was in high school, and one of my teachers was using an abridged version of Les Misérables in another of his classes. I caught a glimpse of a student’s character study of Thénardier. Because their edition left out Waterloo entirely, the later misrepresentation of his actions here was taken at face value. It significantly altered the character by giving him a noble past that he never actually had.

On Tumblr (Re-Reading Les Mis)

Who the heck am I?

On stage, Valjean’s debate over whether to reveal his identity takes a couple of minutes.  In the book, it takes about 50 pages of small print, from the sleepless night at home through the long, complicated journey to the courthouse in another town, though the hour he spends in the courthouse before he finally makes up his mind.

His two driving principles: redeem his soul and conceal his identity – have come into conflict for the first time. (Well, not really the first time. There was the incident with the cart, but that was only a minor risk.)

To take the chance fate has offered him, he has to do nothing. To make things right for the falsely accused, he has to go to great lengths just to get to the trial on time. He keeps deciding not to turn himself in, but taking another step towards reaching Arles, just in case he changes his mind.

On Tumblr (Re-Reading Les Mis)

Those who falter…

Javert is so angry at being overruled regarding Fantine that he reports M.Madeleine as being Jean Valjean even though he still has no proof. So when he’s told that the “real” Valjean has been found, he not only feels that he’s been insubordinate, but that he’s done so for the wrong reason, and must be made an example of. He insists on being dismissed — simply resigning isn’t enough, because that would be honorable — because of the one-slip-and-you’re-out philosophy summed up in “Stars.”

This figures years later, when he allows Valjean to go free and feels he’s again in conflict with superior authority. But how can you resign from God?

This is one of those bits that wasn’t in the stage musical, but was added to the movie. I didn’t like it the first time through the film, mainly because of the execution (sorry, Russel Crowe), but after rereading the book, I agree with adding it. Even if it didn’t come off as well as it could have.

On Tumblr (Re-Reading Les Mis)

Cosette’s best Christmas present ever: Jean Valjean showing up and taking her away from the Thenardiers.

Cosette’s best Christmas present ever: Jean Valjean showing up and taking her away from the Thenardiers.

https://hyperborea.org/les-mis/book/escaping-montfermeil/

Would a French village in 1823 have had a Santa Claus? Thinking of the over-the-top movie version of Master of the House.