100 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.

How did the 2012 film of Les Misérables break with Hollywood practice in recording its actors' songs?

Sung live on set, each take was guided by a pianist playing into the actors' earpieces, and the orchestra was added afterwards.

What color is the passport that brands Jean Valjean an ex-convict at every inn in Les Misérables?

Yellow marked the papers of a paroled convict, and Valjean's also ordered him to report to the town of Pontarlier and stay there under strict limits.

Valjean first meets young Cosette in Les Misérables alone in the woods as she struggles to carry what?

A pail of water was her errand for the Thénardiers, and Valjean walks her back to the inn, where he sees how they treat her beside their own daughters.

Which pop star sang Marius at the 25th-anniversary Les Misérables concert after playing Gavroche on Broadway?

Nick Jonas shared the O2 Arena stage with Alfie Boe as Valjean and comedian Matt Lucas as Thénardier.

Often mistaken for the French Revolution, the uprising in Les Misérables is actually against which ruler?

Louis-Philippe had taken the throne only two years earlier, in the July Revolution of 1830, and he rode through the streets during the fighting to show he remained in charge.

The pistol-waving boy in which famous French painting may have inspired Gavroche in Les Misérables?

Liberty Leading the People shows the July Revolution of 1830, two years before the uprising in the novel, with the boy striding beside a woman who carries the tricolor.

To leave his Paris hiding place unseen in Les Misérables, Valjean has himself carried out inside what?

A coffin carries Valjean all the way to the cemetery, where he loses consciousness as the fourth shovelful of earth lands on the lid.

Victor Hugo was living in exile on which island under the British Crown when Les Misérables was published?

Guernsey was Hugo's home from 1855, and he turned down an 1859 amnesty for political exiles rather than soften his attacks on Napoleon III.

On which night of the year does Valjean arrive to rescue Cosette from the Thénardiers in Les Misérables?

Christmas Eve ends with a gift: Valjean slips out and returns with an expensive new doll for Cosette, to the envy of the Thénardier daughters.

The longtime London home of Les Misérables was renamed in 2019 in honor of which American composer?

Stephen Sondheim gave his name to the former Queen's Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue, which reopened after a 20-week refurbishment with a new staging of the show.

Inspector Javert, the lawman of Les Misérables, was born in which unlikely place to a fortune-telling mother?

In a prison, where his father was serving in the galleys; feeling shut out of respectable society from birth, Javert chose to become one of its guards.

Gavroche is shot dead in Les Misérables after slipping outside the barricade to gather what from fallen soldiers?

Cartridges were running out behind the barricade, and Gavroche was singing as he collected them from the bodies of dead National Guardsmen when he was hit.

At the end of Les Misérables, Thénardier takes Marius's money to America and sets himself up in which trade?

Slave trading is Hugo's bitter last word on the villain, who sails with his surviving daughter on money Marius paid to make him leave France.

Fresh from Monseigneur Myriel's mercy in Les Misérables, what does Valjean steal from the boy Petit Gervais?

A 40-sou coin that the boy drops ends up under Valjean's foot; he keeps it out of habit, then panics and searches for the child in remorse.

Which old man does Valjean free from under a fallen cart in Les Misérables, a feat that Javert witnesses?

Fauchelevent repays the favor years later as a gardener, sheltering Valjean and Cosette behind the walls where he works and passing Valjean off as his brother.

Which vagabond, caught stealing apples in Les Misérables, is put on trial after being mistaken for Valjean?

Champmathieu walks free only because the real Valjean, by then a respected mayor, spends a night wrestling with himself and then goes to the trial to give himself away.

Which royalist grandfather raises Marius in Les Misérables and keeps him from his father, an officer of Napoleon?

Gillenormand threatened to disinherit the boy if his father came near, so the old soldier hid behind a pillar just to watch his son at Mass.

The Paris funeral of which popular general, a victim of cholera, sets off the uprising in Les Misérables?

Lamarque was a hero of Napoleon's wars who had become a critic of the monarchy in parliament, so republicans chose his public funeral as the moment to launch their revolt.

In which Paris park does Marius fall for Cosette in Les Misérables after seeing her on walks with Valjean?

Luxembourg Garden is where he passed her for months without interest, until he came back after a six-month break and found she had grown into a young lady.

In which famous Paris cemetery is Jean Valjean laid to rest beneath a blank stone at the end of Les Misérables?

Père Lachaise holds Valjean under a slab left bare at his own request, on which an unknown hand later pencils a four-line verse.

In which Mediterranean port does Jean Valjean serve his nineteen years of hard labor in Les Misérables?

Toulon held one of France's great convict prisons, and Hugo toured it in 1839 and took extensive notes, six years before he began writing the book.

Before his arrest in Les Misérables, Valjean supports his widowed sister and her seven children in which trade?

Tree pruner was his living in the small town where he had been orphaned as a child, until a winter of scarce resources drove him to steal food for the family.

By which affectionate nickname do the townspeople know the saintly Monseigneur Myriel in Les Misérables?

Bienvenu means welcome, and Hugo took it from a real churchman of the period, Bienvenu de Miollis, who served as his model for the character.

Cosette is only a pet name in Les Misérables; which formal first name did Fantine give her daughter at birth?

Euphrasie comes from the Greek for good cheer, and the novel mentions it only briefly before her mother's nickname, which means little thing, takes over for good.

Which wealthy Paris student in Les Misérables abandons Fantine when their daughter Cosette is two years old?

Tholomyès, a self-centered student from Toulouse, walks out together with three friends who drop their own girlfriends too, treating the affairs as youthful amusements.

Which gang of four bandits helps Thénardier ambush Jean Valjean at the Gorbeau House in Les Misérables?

Patron-Minette was old slang for the first light of dawn, the hour when the gang's night work ended and its members melted away.

Under which false surname do the bankrupt Thénardiers live next door to Marius in Paris in Les Misérables?

Jondrette is the name they are using when Marius, peering through a crack in the wall, watches the family prepare to fleece a visiting philanthropist.

Which hard-drinking skeptic among the student rebels of Les Misérables asks to die at Enjolras's side?

Grantaire had always scoffed at the cause, but he declares himself a republican at the last and the two men fall hand in hand in the same volley.

Believing he has falsely denounced the mayor in Les Misérables, what does Javert ask for as punishment?

His own dismissal is the only penalty Javert thinks fits, and he argues that simply resigning would be too honorable an exit for a man who had wronged a magistrate.

Which nun in Les Misérables, known for never having told a lie, lies to Javert to protect Jean Valjean?

Sister Simplice, one of the hospital nuns nursing Fantine, tells the inspector that there is nobody in the room but her.

Which later hit musical by the writers of Les Misérables retells the opera Madame Butterfly?

Miss Saigon moved the opera's story to the final days of the Vietnam War, swapping the geisha and the naval lieutenant for a young bar girl and a US Marine.

Which first-act finale of the musical Les Misérables layers nearly every main character's melody in counterpoint?

One Day More borrows tunes heard earlier in the act and has each character sing a different one at the same time before the cast unites for the last chorus.

Which comic number in the musical Les Misérables introduces the Thénardiers and the crooked way they run their inn?

Master of the House is one of the few songs in the show played for laughs, and the 1980 French original gave it a title meaning The Innkeeper's Motto.

Which solo does Jean Valjean sing at the barricade in the musical Les Misérables as a prayer for Marius's safety?

Bring Him Home did not exist in the 1980 French original; it was written later, specifically for the tenor who first played Valjean in English.

Seventeen Valjeans from around the world each sang a line of which Les Misérables song at a 1995 concert?

Do You Hear the People Sing? has since become a real protest anthem, sung on the streets of Hong Kong and then removed from music platforms in mainland China.

Which London venue staged the star-studded tenth-anniversary concert of the musical Les Misérables?

Royal Albert Hall hosted the concert in October 1995, and the filmed recording was on sale on VHS in Britain within a month.

Which singer won a Tony Award as Éponine after creating the role in the original London cast of Les Misérables?

Frances Ruffelle left Starlight Express to join the cast, later sang for the United Kingdom at Eurovision, and turns up in the 2012 film in a cameo.

Which French illustrator drew the picture of young Cosette that became the logo of the musical Les Misérables?

Émile Bayard also illustrated, with Alphonse de Neuville, Jules Verne's Around the Moon, the sequel to From the Earth to the Moon.

Which English poet was the original librettist of the London version of Les Misérables before being replaced?

James Fenton was credited with shaping the adaptation's structure, and his contract entitles him to royalties for the additional material he is credited with.

Which Victor Hugo novel, set in the 1480s, came out three decades before Les Misérables?

The Hunchback of Notre-Dame was the title an 1833 English translation gave a book that Hugo had simply named after the cathedral, Notre-Dame de Paris.

Which actor played Marius opposite Amanda Seyfried's Cosette in the 2012 film Les Misérables?

Eddie Redmayne suggested to the director that Marius's lament for his dead friends should begin unaccompanied, to draw out the character's guilt and pain.

Sacha Baron Cohen gave up a role in which Quentin Tarantino film to play Thénardier in the 2012 Les Misérables?

Django Unchained ended up opening in American cinemas on the very same day as the musical, which took first place at the box office on its opening day.

Usually left untranslated in English, the title Les Misérables has sometimes been rendered as which of these?

The Wretched is one of at least seven English titles that have been tried, The Victims and The Dispossessed among them, but none has displaced the French.

Gavroche's makeshift home in Les Misérables stands on the site of which demolished Paris fortress?

The Bastille site was chosen by Napoleon for a monumental fountain, but the project was abandoned unfinished, leaving a hollow shell that Gavroche shares with other street children.

Fantine is fired from the factory in Les Misérables when a supervisor discovers which secret about her?

She is an unwed mother, as a town gossip confirms by travelling to see the child, and the workroom's overseer then dismisses her without the mayor's knowledge.

Which institution placed Les Misérables on its official list of forbidden books, beside another Victor Hugo novel?

The Catholic Church kept its Index of forbidden books until 1966, and Voltaire, Rousseau, Descartes and Galileo all appeared on it too.

Which younger Thénardier daughter survives Les Misérables and sails for America with her father?

Azelma is the one her father orders to punch out a window pane before a rich visitor arrives, cutting her hand just as he had hoped.

Which 22-year-old adapted, directed and starred as Valjean in a seven-part American radio serial of Les Misérables?

Orson Welles made the 1937 series as his first job as a writer-director for radio, and it marked the radio debut of his Mercury Theatre company.

Recaptured in Les Misérables, Jean Valjean escapes by seeming to drown after saving a sailor aboard which ship?

The Orion rescue was lifted almost word for word from a real letter in which an acquaintance described just such an incident to Hugo.

In which Paris monument was Les Misérables author Victor Hugo buried after a funeral procession of two million?

The Panthéon crypt he lies in is shared with two other giants of French fiction, Alexandre Dumas and Émile Zola.