Re-Reading Les Misérables

Commentary on the Novel

I first read Les Misérables in high school, back in 1992 or 1993, after discovering the musical. The 2012 movie rekindled my interest, and I re-read it (the Norman Denny translation) with an entirely new perspective, writing commentary as I went.

In 2018, I came back to it again, reading the Christine Donougher translation. It was interesting to compare the translations, and to see how my perspective changed again after just five years.

Part One: Fantine

1. The Bishop!
2. Part 2…4601
3. Sunday in the Park with Fantine
4. Righteousness vs “Righteousness”
5. Who IS This Guy, Anyway?
6. Get Me To The Courthouse On Time

Part Two: Cosette

7. Waterloo
8. Off the Deep End
9. Escape from Montfermeil
10. Valjean sure knows how to pick a hiding place
11. Getting Un-Convent-ional
12. Buried Alive!

Part Three: Marius

13. Paris Has the Best Street Urchins
14. Meeting Marius
15. Get to Know Your ABCs
16. Poor, Poor Marius
17. Stealth Courtship
18. The Scumbag Report
19. Ambush in the Slums

Part Four: The Idyll in the Rue Plumet and the Epic of the Rue Saint-Denis

20. You Say You Want A Revolution
21. Just a Lark
22. Meanwhile, Back at the Rue Plumet…
23. Epic Fail at Mugging
24. Creeping Around the Garden
25. Gavroche and the Adventure of the Incognito Family
26. Argot, F-- Yourself
27. Over the Edge
28. A Revolting Development
29. (From) Drinking to Revolution
30. Hey, Barricade, Who’s in Charge Here?

Part Five: Jean Valjean

31. Barricades of Future Past (Plus Cannon Geekery)
32. Passing Peak Ammunition
33. Last Stand
34. What a Wonderful Smell You’ve Discovered
35. Jumper
36. Don’t Worry, Be Happy
37. This is the End

Followup Commentary

• Second Chances
• What’s “Good” for Valjean and Javert
• Recurring Background Characters
• I Am The Night
• The Wretched of the Earth
• Heroic Javert
• The Lark
• Agency: Cosette vs. Éponine vs. Florence
• Tholomyes the…Dad?
• It’s Not Just Javert. It’s the System
• Authority
• It’s 1817 All Over Again

Over the next few years I watched and reviewed various movie adaptations (and parodies).

Five Years Later: Re-Reading Again

I came back to the book again, this time reading the Christine Donougher translation (2013).

Part One: Fantine

• First Impressions of the Donougher Translation
• Valjean and the Bishop
• Fantine Before the Fall
• Fantine: Alternate Possibilities
• Parallels
• The Crimes of Jean Valjean
• The Mysterious M. Madeleine
• No Such Thing as Coincidence
• Convictions
• Javert vs. the One Who Got Away
• When Javert Loses His Cool

Part Two: Cosette

• Return to Waterloo
• Back on the Chain Gang
• How Les Misérables is Like Titanic
• Rescuing Cosette
• Conventionality

Part Three: Marius

• Let’s meet Marius! Haha just kidding, here’s a street urchin first
• Let’s introduce ALL of Marius’ grandfather’s friends (and then ignore them for the rest of the book)
• Marius’ Connections
• Getting Schooled
• Marius’ Timeline and the Missing Revolution
• Two Old Men
• The Underminers
• Undermined
• Wretched in Every Sense of the Word
• Now I Remember…
• Javert and the Citizen
• The Ambush
• Javert in his Element

Part Four: The Rue Plumet Idyll and the Rue St-Denis Epic

• Dominoes
• Aftermath of an Ambush
• Now Arriving at Rue Plumet
• Mugging Fail
• Marius: Stalker
• Gavroche and his family
• Slang, Theme and Digressions: Getting the Point Across
• The Bubble Bursts
• Two Old Men in Decline
• Paris has the Best Riots?
• Let’s Go Build a Barricade!
• Commandeering the Tavern
• Hitting the Fan
• Jealousy
• Valjean’s Hidden Decisions and the End of Resilience

Part Five: Jean Valjean

• On the Barricade
• Into the Dreaded Sewers
• Derailing Javert’s One-Track Mind
• Cosette is Separated from Another Parent
• Valjean’s Depression Pretends to be his Conscience
• Marius Joins the Persecution
• Third Time Through