Les Miserables
Valjean's redemption story
Les Misérables is an 1862 novel by Victor Hugo following ex-convict Jean Valjean through post-revolutionary France—a sprawling work about poverty, justice, and redemption.
The title translates roughly as "the wretched" or "the miserable ones." A 1980 musical adaptation became one of the longest-running shows in theater history, known for songs like "I Dreamed a Dream" and "One Day More." Often shortened to Les Mis.
- chain gangShackled convict work crew
- povertySevere lack of resources
- French RevolutionLate-1700s republican upheaval
- candlesticksBases for tapers
- redemptionRecovery or moral restoration
Cosette · Javert · Fantine · forgiveness · barricades · empty chairs · morality · sacrifice · Napoleonic Wars · Victor Hugo · justice · Jean Valjean · stolen bread · Paris · oppression · personal transformation · galley · social inequality
- French originsThree Musketeers, Cyrano de Bergerac, Nikita, The Little Prince, Moulin Rouge
- Literary AdaptationsOliver Twist, Doctor Zhivago, Count of Monte Cristo, Treasure Island, Phantom of the Opera
- musicalsWicked, Cats, Chicago, Grease, Annie
- Classic NovelsAnna Karenina, Madame Bovary, War and Peace, Middlemarch, Crime and Punishment
- Long NovelsWar and Peace, Don Quixote, Clarissa, Atlas Shrugged, The Stand
- Stage musicalsWest Side Story, Phantom of the Opera, Cats, Sweeney Todd, Jesus Christ Superstar
Les MiserablesThe Producers
Those financing entertainment projects
farce · comedy · Spamalot · Legally Blonde · The Importance of Being Earnest
Les MiserablesDownton Abbey
British period drama series
The Great Gatsby · Crazy Rich Asians · Gossip Girl · Sex and the City · drawing room comedy
misery, miserable, miserly, miserably, miser, miseries, miserliness