Les Misérables Trivia
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100 free Les Misérables trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
45 free Les Miserables trivia questions with answers. Victor Hugo's 1862 novel is one of the longest ever written; the sung-through musical it inspired has run in London since 1985 and is the longest-running musical in West End history; and the 2012 film took $442 million and three Oscars. This quiz covers all three: the novel's plot and its real-life sources, the characters from Fantine to Gavroche, the concept album and the RSC production, the original casts, the songs, the Tonys, and the film's live singing, weight loss and haircut. The easy questions ask who wrote the novel, what Valjean stole and what Prisoner 24601 is called; the harder ones want the ex-convict Valjean was modelled on, the number of chapters, the show that gave Alain Boublil the idea, the theatre where the English version opened, how many performances the first Broadway run managed, and which original stars turn up in the film. It suits theatre lovers, book-club members and anyone who has ever hummed 'One Day More' on a bus. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the novel, the musical, the film, the songs and the cast, and each question carries the sentence that backs it up.
30 of 100 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who wrote the novel Les Misérables?
Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo completed Les Misérables during his exile on Guernsey; Flaubert disliked the finished book, finding 'neither truth nor greatness' in it.
Q 02In which year was the novel first published?
1862
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.
Q 03What did Jean Valjean steal, earning him five years in prison that grew to nineteen?
A loaf of bread
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.
Q 04What is Valjean's prisoner number in the musical?
24601
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.
Q 05Which cleric shelters Valjean and then lies to the police, saying the stolen silver was a gift?
The Bishop of Digne
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.
Q 06What does Monseigneur Myriel give Valjean in addition to the silverware he had stolen?
Two silver candlesticks
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.
Q 07Under what alias does Valjean become a factory owner and mayor of Montreuil-sur-Mer?
Monsieur Madeleine
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.
Q 08Valjean was loosely based on which ex-convict who founded France's first private detective agency?
Eugène François Vidocq
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.
Q 09Fantine, desperate to pay the Thénardiers, sells her hair and what else?
Her two front teeth
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.
Q 10The Thénardiers, who abuse young Cosette, run an inn in which village?
Montfermeil
Montfermeil, east of Paris, is where the Thénardiers keep their inn; Émile Bayard's drawing of Cosette sweeping there became the musical's emblem.
Q 11In the musical, how much does Valjean pay the Thénardiers to release Cosette?
1,500 francs
The sum is 1,500 francs, which Valjean hands over in the number called 'The Bargain', leading straight into 'The Waltz of Treachery'.
Q 12Where do Valjean and Cosette hide from Javert for several years in Paris?
A convent
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.
Q 13Street urchin Gavroche is secretly the eldest son of which couple?
The Thénardier innkeepers
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.
Q 21Watching which London musical gave the show's librettist the idea for Les Misérables?
Oliver!
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.
Q 22Where was the original French stage version presented in 1980?
The Palais des Sports in Paris
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.
Q 23Which producer, fresh from opening Cats on Broadway, took on the English-language version?
Cameron Mackintosh
Q 14The story culminates in which real Paris uprising?
The June Rebellion of 1832
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.
Q 15How does Valjean escape from the fallen barricade carrying the wounded Marius?
Through the sewers
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.
Q 16How does Javert die?
He drowns himself in the Seine
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.
Q 17Roughly how many words long is the novel in the original French?
About 655,000
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.
Q 18Hugo devotes 19 chapters of Volume II to which battle, finishing the book at its battlefield?
Waterloo
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.
Q 19Hugo supposedly asked his publisher how Les Misérables was selling with a telegram containing only what?
A question mark
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.
Q 20Which two Frenchmen conceived and wrote the original musical?
Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg
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.
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.
Q 24Who wrote the English lyrics, refusing to call them a 'translation'?
Herbert Kretzmer
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.
Q 25The English-language Les Misérables opened in October 1985 at which London venue, then home of the RSC?
The Barbican Centre
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.
Q 26Which two RSC directors shaped and directed the English version?
Trevor Nunn and John Caird
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.
Q 27Who originated the role of Jean Valjean in London and on Broadway?
Colm Wilkinson
He also created the Phantom at Sydmonton in 1985 and cameos as the Bishop of Digne in the 2012 film.
Q 28Which Broadway star played Fantine in the original 1985 London cast?
Patti LuPone
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.
Q 29Which play is the only West End show to have run longer than Les Misérables?
The Mousetrap
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.
Q 30The original Broadway run closed in 2003 after how many performances?
6,680
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.