Poor wretches

The novel

Genesis

Worried by the adequate one between social justice and human dignity, Victor Hugo already wrote in 1829 the Last Day of one condemned , long monolog and plea against the Capital punishment. He continues in 1834 with Claude Gueux . In 1845, he undertakes a large epic fresco which he entitles initially Miseries . He stops his task in February 1848, but written at the same time his Discours on misery (1849).

During its exile, after the drafting of the '' Contemplations '' (1856) and of the Legend of the centuries (1859), it recovers to the writing from the Poor wretches in 1860. The work is finished and published in 1862

Motivation

the Poor wretches is at the same time a realistic novel, a novel epic, an anthem with the love and a social novel.

Realistic novel, the Poor wretches describes a whole universe of humble people. It is a very precise painting of the life in France and poor Paris of the beginning of the 19th century. Its popular success is due to the feature sometimes charged with which the characters of the novel are painted.

Novel epic, the poor wretches depicts at least three large frescos: the Battle of Waterloo, the riot of Paris in June 1832, the crossing of the sewers by Jean Valjean. But the novel is also epic by the description of the combat of the heart: the combat of Jean Valjean enters the good and the evil, its repurchase until its abnegation, the combat of Javert between respect of the social law and respect of the moral law.

The Poor wretches is also an anthem with the love: Christian love without concession of Mgr Myriel, loves disappointed of Fantine and Éponine, paternal love of Jean Valjean for Cosette. But it is also one of the most beautiful pages of the French literature dedicated to the fatherland. Retranscribed Hugo, of the bottom of its exile, its memory and its heart, its vision of the so much liked places which are used as backdrop with its masterpiece. Often helped from France by friends whom it charges with checking if such corner of street always exists, it engraves, for the posterity, its sublime declaration of love on the walls of the memory.

But the principal motivation of Victor Hugo is the social plea. “If the unfortunate ones and the infamous ones are interfered (...) which is this the fault? ” According to Victor Hugo, it is the fault of misery, the indifference and a repressive system without pity. Idealist, Victor Hugo is convinced that the instruction, the accompaniment and the respect of the individual are the only weapons of the company which can prevent the unfortunate one from becoming infamous. Victor Hugo violently tackles the idea of political realism which leads to massacres like that of Waterloo or the riots of Paris. The novel engages a reflection on the problem of the evil… It is that all its life Hugo was confronted with the Capital punishment, it saw executions with the Guillotine. One of the topics of the novel is thus “the crime of the law”. If the work shows how social coercions and morals can involve without fine men and the women with their forfeiture if no solution of rebuilding is found, it is especially an immense hope in the human generosity whose Jean Valjean is the prototype. Almost all the other characters incarnate, unfortunately always nowadays, the exploitation of the man by the man. The postface of Hugo is a call to humanity so that it does not cease working at better times: As long as there will exist, by the fact of the laws and manners, a social damnation creating artificially, in full civilization, of the hells, and complicating of a human fate the destiny which is divine; as long as the three problems of the century, the degradation of the man by the proletariat, the forfeiture of the woman by the hunger, the atrophy of the child by the night, will not be solved; as long as, in certain areas, social asphyxiation will be possible; in other words, and from a wider point of view still, as long as there will be on the ground ignorance and misery, of the books of the nature of this one could not be useless. (Victor Hugo, Hauteville-House, 1862.)

Reception

The first two volumes of the Poor wretches are published on April 3rd, 1862 with great reinforcement of publicity, extracts of pieces selected in the newspapers and criticisms eulogistic. The continuation appears on May 15th, 1862. At that time, Victor Hugo is regarded as one of the first men of letters French of his century and the public precipitates for reading its new novel.

The reactions are varied. Some consider it immoral, others too sentimental, others still too obliging with the revolutionists. The brothers Goncourt express their deep disappointment, considering the novel very artificial and very disappointing. Flaubert finds “neither truth there nor size”. Baudelaire makes of it a very eulogistic criticism in the newspapers but into private will describe it as “book immonde and inept”.

The book however aquiert a great popular success. Translated as of the year of its publication into several languages (Italian, Greek, Portuguese), it receives in these countries, on behalf of the readers, a triumphal reception.

Summary

The action proceeds in France at the beginning of the 19th century framed by the two large combat which are the Bataille of Waterloo (1815) and the riots of June 1832. One follows there, during five volumes, the life of Jean Valjean, the return of the Bagne until his death. Around him revolve the characters of which some will give their name to the various volumes of the novel, witnesses of the misery of this century, poor wretches themselves or close to misery: Fantine, Cosette, Marius, but also the Thénardier (of which Éponine and Gavroche) as well as the representative of the law Javert.

First lines of work or Incipit

“In 1815, Myriel Mr. Charles-François-Welcome was bishop of Worthy. It was an old man from approximately seventy-five ans ; he occupied the seat of Worthy since 1806. ”

Volume I: Fantine

In this volume two destinies intermingle: that of Fantine and that of Jean Valjean.

Jean Valjean, having purged several years of bagne to have stolen a bread, rejected by all is close rocking, able to steal a priest or even a small chimney sweeper. Its meeting with Monseigneur Myriel, bishop of Worthy, incarnation of the Christian love led to its pinnacle, is the occasion of its conversion. Transformed in the Alps, Jean Valjean reappears with the other end of France, under the name of Mr. Madeleine. It is a complete redemption. Mr. Madeleine, enriched honestly, became the benefactor then the mayor of the town of Montreuil-sur-Mer.

Symmetrically with the rise of Jean Valjean, with his repurchase could one say, one attends the fall of Fantine, unmarried mother which will nourish his/her Cosette daughter, from forfeiture in forfeiture, until the prostitution and death.

This volume is the occasion to introduce the characters who will follow Jean Valjean of the beginning at the end of his adventures.

Thénardier, which will plunge dishonesty and ordinary spite to the banditism, not victim of company but victim of their clean selfishness
Javert, which incarnates the justice rigid relentless and, which put all its energy at the service of the law, its religion.

Can one believe Valjean-Madeleine saved, reinstated in the company? Victor Hugo does not want it. For him, honesty cannot suffer compromising. Under the terms of a long night of hesitation (storm under a cranium), Mr. Madeleine will denounce himself to avoid with a poor devil, a little simple of spirit, Champmathieu, to be condemned to his place. All the benefits which could have brought Mr. Madeleine could not compensate, according to Victor Hugo, the only made injustice with Champmathieu. Jean Valjean escapes justice however, turns over in clandestinity to respect a last promise: to currently save Cosette boarder unhappy of Thénardier.

Volume II: Cosette

In this volume, two books frame the action, one is devoted to the Bataille of Waterloo and the other with the life monacale.

Victor Hugo approaches the second volume of the Poor wretches by the battle of Waterloo which was held 7 years earlier. The bond with the intrigue is very thin: Thénardiers would have saved the father of Marius at the conclusion of this battle. There under this light dramatic pretext, Victor Hugo places a reflection which is due to him in heart on the battle of Waterloo, battles which sees the fall of a character that he admires, Napoleon 1 {{er}}. For a long time, Victor Hugo is haunted by this battle. This one will inspire the poem to him the atonement book V of the Châtiments. He refused on several occasions to go on the spot and it is only in 1861 qu ' he visits the battle field and it is there that he finishes this account epic.

The Parenthèse (penultimate book) which constitutes the reflection on the life monacale, faith and the prayer, for surprising in a revolutionist like Victor Hugo, is presented in the form of a profession of faith. Violent indictment against the Church yoke, it is also an apology for the meditation and true faith. “We are for the religion against the religions. ”, Victor Hugo specifies.

The remainder of this volume is devoted to the tracking of Jean Valjean. Victor Hugo puts in this account all his qualities of dramatic novelist at the service of a fascinating suspense, with, change break in rhythm of focusing. Alternation of period of lull (with Cosette with Montfermeil, then at the Gorbeau house.) and of haletante continuation. Escaping Javert at the end from volume I, Jean Valjean is caught up with in Paris but had time to put to side a money large sum. Sent to the galères, he escapes from it, turns over to seek Cosette and settles in Paris in the Gorbeau hovel. Javert finds it and continues it the night through the streets of Paris. Jean Valjean finds his safety only in the convent of small Picpus under the protection of Mr. Fauchelevent, a carter of which it had saved the life with Montreuil on Mer. After a dramatic episode of false burial, Jean-Valjean settles with the convent with Cosette under the name of Ultime Fauchelevent. Victor Hugo introduces a sublime Jean Valjean: the falls did not make him lose morals qualities that it had as a Mr. Madeleine: it is by saving another convict of the drowning that he escapes from the galères; it is because of its generosity that it is located by Javert. One could however reproach Victor Hugo a little large dramatic strings: the crossing on the battle field of Thénardier and the father of Marius or the miraculous and convenient meeting of Jean Valjean and of the Fauchelevent father.

Volume III: Marius

The action proceeds in 1832. The Fauchelevent father died. Cosette is 17 years old and left the convent. The volume opens and is closed again on the character of Gavroche. Victor Hugo launches out in a long digression on the Paris urchin, heart of the city whose emblematic figure is Gavroche, wire of Thénardier but especially boy of the streets.

Victor Hugo centers all the volume on the person of Marius in which it is recognized young person. He will even acknowledge to have written with Marius his quasi-memories. One discovers there Marius, small son of a royalist, wire of a Bonapartist, who chooses his camp at 17 years, leaves his grandfather and attends the friends of the ABC, groups idealistic revolutionists, and côtoie misery.

Its destiny crosses that of Cosette with which it falls in love. One can notice on this subject the tenderness of Victor Hugo describing with humor and derision his first agitations in love. Despizing of any dramatic probability, Victor Hugo causes the meeting of Jean Valjean alias Madeleine - Fauchelevent - Leblanc - Fabre with Thénardier alias Jondrette - Fabantou - Genflot under the eyes of an invisible pilot Marius of confrontation, in this same Gorbeau hovel met with volume II. Superb face-to-face discussion of two characters to the multiple names which hide justice but from which one is descended until the bottom from the infamy while the other reaches the moral nobility. All the end of the volume is worthy of the Mystères of Paris with band of robbers and assassins, ambush, victim taken as an hostage and threatened, intervention of the police force and appearance of Javert. Marius discovers thus that the saver of its father is an infamous gangster and than the father of that with which it is in love hiding place police force.

Volume IV: The idylle street Plumet and the epopee street Saint-Denis

All the action of this volume is underlain by the riot of June 1832 and street Saint-Denis barricades it. Victor Hugo even estimates that it is to some extent there the heart of the novel. The first book replaces the events in the historical context of the insurrectionary situation in Paris at the beginning of the année1832.

Then are held in parallel several lives which will converge towards the street of Chanvrerie. Victor Hugo specifies initially the character of Éponine, in love disappointed with Marius, angel of happiness when she entrusts to Marius the address of Cosette or when she defends the residence of this one against the attack of Thénardier and her band, angel of misfortune when she sends Marius on the barricade or that she hiding place the letter of Cosette to him. Éponine martyr of the love when it intercepts the ball intended for Marius and that it dies in its arms.

The author joins again then with the course of Jean Valjean and Cosette since their entry with the convent of Small-Picpus. One attends the blossoming of Cosette. With the remark of the prioress of the convent, “ It will be ugly ” answers the observation of All Saints' day “ Miss is pretty ”. Thanks to information of Éponine, the idylle between Cosette and Marius can take again street Plumet initiated by a love letter (a heart under a stone) and continue until the rapid departure of Jean Valjean and Cosette for the street of Man-Armed.

Victor Hugo supplements then the character of Gavroche, street urchin, spontaneous and generous, capable of free gestures (the stolen purse with Montparnasse and data with Mabeuf, assistance brought to the escape from his/her father). It is discovered also paternal and person in charge when it collects the two lost kids of which it is unaware of that he is the brother.

All the protagonists of the history, or almost, converge then towards the street of Chanvrerie and the barricade of the street Saint Denis: friends of the ABC by revolutionary conviction, Mabeuf and Marius by despair, Éponine by love, Gavroche by curiosity, Javert for espionner and Jean Valjean to save Marius.

Divide into volumes V: Jean Valjean

The fifth volume is that of died and obliteration. Died of risen on the barricade which started at the end of the preceding volume with that of Eponine and Mr. Mabeuf and which continues with that of Gavroche then by the destruction of the barricade. Jean Valjean is located like a protective angel: its shots do not kill anybody, he proposes to carry out Javert but allows him to flee and saves Marius with the last moment of the barricade.

The rescue epic is carried out by the sewers of Paris (intestine of Léviathan) that Victor Hugo describes with abundance. Escaping from the continuations and stagnation, Jean Valjean leaves the sewers thanks to Thénardier but to fall into the nets from Javert. Marius, saved, is taken back in his grandfather.

One attends then with the suicide of Javert and the obliteration of Jean Valjean. At the end of five volumes, the convict convinced the representative of the law which a repurchase is possible. This discovery destroys the deep convictions of Javert (chapter Javert runs off the line - title of avant-garde for the time) which commits suicide. The idylle between Marius and Cosette is concretized by a marriage. Jean Valjean is erased little by little life of the couple encouraged by Marius who sees in him a criminal and an assassin. He is undeceived by Thénardier only in the last lines of the novel and assists, with Cosette, confused and grateful, with the last moments of Jean Valjean.

Characters

The novel swarms characters. Number of them make a short appearance and turn over in the lapse of memory. It is an deliberate intention of Victor Hugo: he seeks to show that misery is anonymous. Thus one sees appearing and disappearing from the characters like, for example, the sister of Jean Valjean, the Smallone, Azelma, the brothers of Gavroche. There remains however a restricted number characters whose destinies cross and who belong to the heart of the action

Jean Valjean : to see article dedicated Jean Valjean
Marius : to see article dedicated Marius
Javert : to see article dedicated Javert
Fantine : to see article dedicated Fantine
Cosette : to see article dedicated Cosette
Thénardier : to see article dedicated Thénardier
Gavroche : to see article dedicated Gavroche
Éponine : to see article dedicated Éponine

In periphery, Victor Hugo sticks to some other figures until their devoting a book or several chapters. These characters are used to him of sales leaflets for its plea or articulation for its novel.

Monseigneur Myriel : Victor Hugo begins and finishes the novel on the evocation of Monseigneur Myriel. He devotes to him a whole book (a Juste). He incarnates for Victor Hugo Christian charity and it is him the release of the conversion of Jean Valjean (episode of the two candlesticks). Bishop of Worthy, called by his parishioners Monseigneur Bienvenu, it is attentive with the good being of most miserable and even exchanges its évêché against the hospital which it considers too small. But Mgr Myriel would not be complete without its meeting with conventional G. For Victor Hugo the holiness of the man of God needs the lighting of the revolution so that its charity becomes social work.
Father Fauchelevent : Easy peasant, it is gradually ruined and becomes carter. he dedicates a jealous hatred towards Mr. Madeleine until the day when that Ci saves it crushing. Gardener with the convent of Small-Picpus, it offers to Jean Valjean and Cosette a shelter and a name.
Mr. Luc Spirit Gillenormand : it is the only high bourgeoisie of the novel to being developed as much. Victor Hugo devotes a whole book to him, it is the occasion for him to describe the Restoration and the Extremists. Grandfather of Marius, tenderly loving his small son, it behaves in an abominable way with his son-in-law depriving it of his son. Man of spirit and society man, it preserves a certain elegance.
Mr. Mabeuf, marguillier : It is him which reveals in Marius which man was his father. Impassioned of book and nursery gardener amateur, he is the author of a flora. Soft man, ruined by the bankruptcy of his notary, it sinks gradually in misery. Tiny room to sell the last specimen of its flora, in a state second, it follows the insurrectionists and becomes the first martyr of the barricade.
Montparnasse : young 19 years shady, with the easy stab, it is one of the possible evolutions of the kids like Gavroche. Jean Valjean will in vain try by a sermon to make him reinstate the right way.

Editions

an edition of reference is that established by Maurice Allem for the Bibliothèque of the Pleiad in only one volume. The critical apparatus is important (bibliographic record, alternatives, notes on text etc…).
In the range of the paperbacks, the edition of the full text is often divided into three volumes of five hundred each one pages.
There in addition exist shortened editions of the text (school editions in particular).

Bibliographical resources

Annette Rosa, Presentation of the Poor wretches - complete Works/Victor Hugo. II - Available on Gallica
Hubert de Phalèse, Dictionary of the Poor wretches , Nizet Editor, ISBN-13: 978-2707811851
the Hugo Group puts in line of many documents and studies on the Poor wretches , in particular

Bibliographie on '' the Poor wretches ''
Guy Rosa, Histoire social and Romance of misery
the Notebooks of the '' Misérables ''
Thomas Bouchet, June 5th and 6th 1832, the event and '' the poor wretches ''
Nicole Savy, the procedures of realization: the example of Small-Picpus of the '' Misérables ''

Richard Hendriks, To adapt '' the Poor wretches '' (Memory - 2006)

Adaptations

Cinema

1907 : One the Barricade , of Alice Guy Blaché, adaption of part of the novel
1907: Chemineau
1909: the Poor wretches , of J. Stuart Blackton
1911: the Poor wretches , of Albert Capellani
1913: the Poor wretches , of Albert Capellani
1913: the Poor wretches ( The Bishop' S Candelsticks ), of Herbert Brenon, adaption of Volume I. - Book II
1917: the Poor wretches , of Frank Lloyd
1922: the Poor wretches
1923: the Poor wretches ( Aa mujo ), of Kiyohiko Ushihara and Yoshinobu Ikeda
1925: the Poor wretches , of Henri Fescourt (5. 22 '), with Gabriel Gabrio
1929: the Poor wretches ( The Bishop' S Candlesticks ), of Norman McKinnell, first sound adaption
1929: the Poor wretches ( Aa mujo ), of Seika Shiba
1931: Jean Valjean , of Tomu Uchida
1934: the Poor wretches , of Raymond Bernard, with: Harry Baur (Jean Valjean), Charles Vanel (Javert), Florelle (Fantine), Josseline Gael (Cosette), Jean Served (Marius), Orane Demazis (Éponine), Charles Dullin (Thénardier), Marguerite Moreno (Mrs. Thénardier) (4. 25 ')
1935: the Poor wretches , of Richard Boleslawski, with: Fredric March (Jean Valjean), Charles Laughton (Javert), La Rochelle Hudson (Cosette), Florence Eldridge (Fantine), Frances Drake (Éponine), John Beal (Marius), Ferdinand Gootschalk (Thénardier), Jane Kerr (Mrs. Thénardier) (1. 49 ')
1937: Gavroche ( Gavrosh ), of Tatyana Lukashevich
1938: the Poor wretches ( Kyojin-den ), of Mansaku Itami
1943: the Poor wretches ( Los Poor wretches ), Mexican film of Fernando A. Rovero
1944: the Poor wretches ( El Boassa ), Egyptian film of Kamal Selim
1947: the Poor wretches or the Escaped prisoner of the bagne ( I miserabili ), of Riccardo Freda, with: Gino Cervi (Jean Valjean), Valentina Cortese (Cosette/Fantine), Hans Hinrich (Javert), Aldo Nicodemi (Marius)
1949: the New Poor wretches , of Henri Verneuil
1950: Angels and demons ( Re Mizeraburu: Kami to Akuma ), of Daisuke Ito
1950: the Poor wretches ( Ezai Padum Pado ), of K. Ramnoth
1952: the Poor wretches , of Lewis Milestone, with: Michael Disavows (Jean Valjean), Debra Paget (Cosette), Sylvia Sidney (Fantine), Robert Newton (Javert), Cameron Mitchell (Marius)
1952: the Poor wretches ( I miserabilli ), republication of film of 1947
1955: the Poor wretches ( Kundan ), of Sohrab Modi
1958: the Poor wretches , of Jean-Paul Chanois, with: Jean Gabin (Jean Valjean), Bernard Blier (Javert), Daniele Delorme (Fantine), Beatrice Altariba (Cosette), Bourvil (Thénardier), Giani Esposito (Marius), Silvia Monfort (Éponine), Elfriede Guilder (Thénardier) (3 H)
1961: Jean Valjean (film, 1961) of Seung-ha OJ
1967: the Poor wretches ( Sefiller ) Turkish film of Zafer Davutoglu
1978: the Poor wretches , of Glenn Jordan, with: Richard Jordan (Jean Valjean), Anthony Perkins (Javert), Caroline Langrishe (Cosette), Angela Pleasence (Fantine), Christopher Guard (Marius), Ian Holm (Thénardier)
1978: the Poor wretches ( Al boasa )
1982: the Poor wretches , of Robert Hossein, with: Lino Ventura (Jean Valjean), Michel Bouquet (Javert), Jean Carmet (Thénardier), Evelyne Bouix (Fantine), Christiane Jean (Cosette), Frank David (Marius), Francoise Seigner (Mrs. Thénardier), Candice Patou (Éponine) - to note the existence of 30 minutes a version longer, divided into four parts, presented on television in 1985.
1995 : the Poor wretches , of Claude Lelouch, with: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Michel Boujenah, Ticky Holgado, Annie Girardot
1998: the Poor wretches , of Ball August, with: Liam Neeson (Jean Valjean), Geoffrey Rush (Javert), Claire Danes (Cosette), Uma Thurman (Fantine), Hans Matheson (Marius)

Television serials

1958 : Os Miseráveis of Dionísio Anevedo
1961: Cosette of Alain Boudet, Theater of the Youth of Claude Santelli
1962: Gavroche of Alain Boudet, Theater of the Youth of Claude Santelli
1963: Jean Valjean of Alain Boudet, Theater of the Youth of Claude Santelli
1967: the Poor wretches , British television serial in 10 episodes
1967: Os Miseráveis of Walter Negrao
1972: the Poor wretches , of Marcel Bluwal, with: Georges Geret (Jean Valjean), Bernard Fresson (Javert), Nicole Jamet (Cosette), Anne-Marie Coffinet (Fantine), François Marthouret (Marius), Hermine Karagheuz (Éponine), Alain Mottet (Thénardier), Micha Bayard (Mrs. Thénardier)
1973: Los Poor wretches , of Antulio Jimnez Pons
1978: the Poor wretches , of Glenn Jordan
1982: the Poor wretches , by Robert Hossein. See on this subject the section cinema.
2000 : the Poor wretches , of Josée Dayan, with: Gerard Depardieu (Jean Valjean), John Malkovich (Javert), Virginia Ledoyen (Cosette), Charlotte Gainsbourg (Fantine), Christian Clavier (Thénardier)

Musical comedy

1980 : the Poor wretches , music of Claude-Michel Schönberg and words of Alain Boublil. The spectacle is presented to the Sport hall of Paris in a setting in scene of Robert Hossein (which, inspired, will carry out then its cinematographic version in 1982). The spectacle of 1980, also available on disc, puts in particular in the high-speed motorboat Pink Laurens in the role of Fantine, Maurice Barrier in the role of Jean Valjean, Michel Delpech in the role of Feuilly, Michel Sardou in the role of Enjolras, Salvatore Adamo in the role of Combeferre and Richard Dewitte in that of Marius.
In 1982, Cameron Mackintosh starts to work on an English version. The English first takes place in 1985 in London.
1991 : the Poor wretches , version of Schönberg and Boublil, whose booklet grew rich by the translation of the English text of Herbert Kretzmer amalgamated with the original text of Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel, arrive at Paris haloed of their Anglo-Saxon glory. the Poor wretches are with the program of the Théâtre Mogador starting from the October 12th. The representations will continue until in 1992 with much of succès.

Video game

ARM Joe (the title is an erroneous interpretation of the Japanese title of the Misérables , Aa Mujou ): play of combat based on the musical comedy and entirely conceived by only one man, Takase.

Animated films

1977 : Cosette

1979 : Jean Valjean Monogatari ( “History of Jean Valjean” ), animated telefilm of Takashi Kuoka

1988: the Poor wretches , film animated

1992: the Poor wretches , cartoon in 26 episodes

2007: Poor wretches - Shôjo Cosette , 52 episodes “Japanese animation”.

See too

François Cérésa - which took an action pursuant discussed to the miserable .

External bonds

the text of work, in French, (in several formats) on www.Gutenberg.org
Poor wretches of Victor Hugo, on Alalettre
films entitled '' the Poor wretches '' on the IMDb
the book in several formats on Ebooks free and free

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