50 free Les Misérables trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 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 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who wrote the novel Les Misérables?
Victor Hugo
Flaubert hated the book, finding 'neither truth nor greatness' in it.
Q 02In which year was the novel first published?
1862
The first two volumes appeared in Brussels at the end of March and in Paris on 3 April; the rest followed on 15 May.
Q 03What did Jean Valjean steal, earning him five years in prison that grew to nineteen?
A loaf of bread
It was to feed his sister's seven starving children; four failed escape attempts added the extra years.
Q 04What is Valjean's prisoner number in the musical?
24601
The prologue with the number and Javert's parole speech was added for the English version; the French original had no prologue.
Q 05Which cleric shelters Valjean and then lies to the police, saying the stolen silver was a gift?
The Bishop of Digne
Hugo modelled him on Bienvenu de Miollis, the real bishop of that town at the time.
Q 06What does the Bishop press on Valjean in addition to the silverware he had stolen?
Two silver candlesticks
He tells Valjean his soul has been bought for God and that the silver should make an honest man of him.
Q 07Under what alias does Valjean become a factory owner and mayor of Montreuil-sur-Mer?
Monsieur Madeleine
The other names on the list are also 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
In 1828 Vidocq really did lift a heavy cart off a worker in his paper factory, just as Valjean does.
Q 09Fantine, desperate to pay the Thénardiers, sells her hair and what else?
Her two front teeth
The Thénardiers' demands were extortionate and largely fictitious; she then turns to prostitution.
Q 10The Thénardiers, who abuse young Cosette, run an inn in which village?
Montfermeil
The musical's emblem of Cosette sweeping the inn is based on an 1879 illustration by Émile Bayard.
Q 11In the musical, how much does Valjean pay the Thénardiers to release Cosette?
1,500 francs
The scene is titled 'The Bargain' and leads into 'The Waltz of Treachery'.
Q 12Where do Valjean and Cosette hide from Javert for several years in Paris?
A convent
The gardener there is Fauchelevent, the man Valjean once rescued from under a cart, and Valjean becomes a gardener too.
Q 13Street urchin Gavroche is secretly the eldest son of which couple?
The Thénardier innkeepers
His parents show him no affection and send him to live on the streets, where Hugo says he is better off.
Q 21Watching which musical in London gave Alain Boublil the idea for Les Misérables?
Oliver!
The show was first released as a French concept album in 1980 that sold 260,000 copies.
Q 22Where was the original French stage version presented in 1980?
The Palais des Sports in Paris
The 100 performances were seen by over 500,000 people, and Enjolras was played by singer Michel Sardou on the album.
Q 23Which producer, fresh from opening Cats on Broadway, took on the English-language version?
Cameron Mackintosh
He was initially reluctant when director Peter Farago sent him the French concept album in 1983.
Q 14The story culminates in which real Paris uprising?
The June Rebellion of 1832
It was sparked by riots at the funeral of General Lamarque, who had died of cholera.
Q 15How does Valjean escape from the fallen barricade carrying the wounded Marius?
Through the sewers
At the locked exit gate he runs into Thénardier, who lets him out for a price; hundreds of pages of the novel are devoted to the sewer system itself.
Q 16How does Javert die?
He drowns himself in the Seine
He first writes a letter to the prefect about the squalid conditions in prisons, unable to reconcile the law with what he now knows to be right.
Q 17Roughly how many words long is the novel in the original French?
About 655,000
It runs to five volumes, 48 books and 365 chapters, more than a quarter of it digressions on subjects like convents and the sewers.
Q 18Hugo devotes 19 chapters of Volume II to which battle, finishing the book at its battlefield?
Waterloo
The digression's chance meeting between Thénardier and Colonel Pontmercy sets up much of what follows.
Q 19Hugo supposedly asked his publisher how Les Misérables was selling with a telegram containing only what?
A question mark
The publisher supposedly replied with a single exclamation mark.
Q 20Which two Frenchmen conceived and wrote the original musical?
Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg
The idea struck the librettist while watching Oliver! in London, when the Artful Dodger walked on and he saw Gavroche.
Q 24Who wrote the English lyrics, refusing to call them a 'translation'?
Herbert Kretzmer
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
It transferred to the Palace Theatre that December and to the smaller Queen's, now the Sondheim, in 2004.
Q 26Which two RSC directors shaped and directed the English version?
Trevor Nunn and John Caird
The programme billed it as 'The Royal Shakespeare Company presentation of the RSC/Cameron Mackintosh production'.
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
Michael Ball was the original Marius and Frances Ruffelle the original Éponine.
Q 29Which non-musical play is the only West End show to have run longer than its longest-running musical?
The Mousetrap
Worldwide, only the original off-Broadway run of The Fantasticks has outlasted it among musicals.
Q 30The original Broadway run closed in 2003 after how many performances?
6,680
The closing was postponed from March to May 2003 after the announcement itself caused ticket sales to surge.