How historically-correct are the events in Les Miserables? The story is historical fiction because it contains factual and historic events. Jean Maximilien Lamarque (1770–1832) was a French commander during the Napoleonic Wars who later became a member of French Parliament.
The historic events are real (like Waterloo, the revolution,…) The characters, however probably not real. There may be some real people that inspired Hugo to come up with a character in his novel. But in order to express his view, most novelists adapt the characters, idealize them, or evilize them.
Valjean's character is loosely based on the life of the ex-convict Eugène François Vidocq. Vidocq became the head of an undercover police unit and later founded France's first private detective agency. He was also a businessman and was widely noted for his social engagement and philanthropy.
What is the history of the Les Misérables musical?
The Les Misérables musical was originally written and performed in French. It premiered in Paris in 1980 but only for three months. Three years later, Cameron Mackintosh heard a recording of the concept album and decided to make an English-language musical.
If you like your musicals enormous, over the top and bang-on-the-head manipulative, Les Miserables is the movie for you. As the enduring success of this property has shown, there are large, emotionally susceptible segments of the population ready to swallow this sort of thing, but that doesn't mean it's good.
But the 1789 revolution is not the backdrop for Les Misérables. Instead, Hugo's novel and the musical take place during the Bourbon Restoration (1815-1830) and the very beginning of the July Monarchy (1830-1848).
Major conflict Valjean struggles to transform himself from a thief into an honest man; over the years he struggles to stay a step ahead of the zealous police officer Javert and tries to raise his adopted daughter, Cosette.
The primary message of Les Misérables is one of hope. The book describes a lot of misery for a lot of characters, but it also focuses on the possibility that the world will improve.
The films and musicals often play up the revolution portion of Les Misérables, so it's only natural that people associate it with one of France's most widely known historical events. However, Les Misérables is actually set 43 years after the French Revolution took place, during an uprising known as the June Rebellion.
In Les Misérables, Jean Valjean is transformed from a hardened criminal into a paragon of virtue. He ultimately sacrifices himself so that his adopted daughter Cosette might attain happiness with Marius, even as it devastates Valjean to “lose” her to the man she loves.
Valjean's character is loosely based on the life of Eugène François Vidocq, an ex-convict who became a successful businessman widely noted for his social engagement and philanthropy. Vidocq helped Hugo with his research for Claude Gueux and Le Dernier jour d'un condamné (The Last Day of a Condemned Man).
Moral values in the novel “Les Miserables” are love and sincerity, forgiveness, Sacrifice, Justice/Injustice. Fantine earned less and less money from her sewing, and the Thenardiers demanded more and more money to look after Cosette.
At the hospital, Fantine is in a delirium and Valjean promises to adopt Cosette as Fatine takes her final breath ("Fantine's Death"). Javert finds Valjean in the hospital, and again shows no mercy despite Valjean trying to explain he must rescue the child.
While some the events in Les Miserables actually happened, the characters in the novel are fictional. The final conflict at the barricades in Les Miserables is based on the Paris Uprising of 1832, a short-lived rebellion that ended after only two days.
Hugo used Les Misérables to criticize the injustices of 19th century France. However, issues dealt with in the novel are universal and still resonate — the rights of women, intergenerational conflict, cruelty of the justice system, and the failure of society's institutions.
Set in early 19th-century France, Les Misérables is the story of Jean Valjean, a French peasant, and his desire for redemption, released in 1815 after serving nineteen years in jail for stealing a loaf of bread for his sister's starving child.
The students might be Bolsheviks dedicated to a redistributive paradise. But the narrator of Les Misérables was hostile to communism, writing that "equal sharing abolishes competition and, in consequence, labour". And the cruellest oppression in the story isn't economic.
Les Misérables was inspired in part by the true story of Eugène-François Vidocq, who turned a criminal career into an anti-crime industry. He created the Bureau des Renseignements, said to be the world's first detective agency, in 1833, though he himself continued to be pursued by police.
How historically accurate is Les Misérables movie?
Overall Les Miserables is almost exactly accurate to history and the conditions at the time of the attacks. People just need to understand that while Les Mis is about a revolution, it is not the French Revolution.
Answer and Explanation: Fantine represents the downtrodden of France. Her story shows how through no fault of her own, she experiences a series of misfortunes that eventually kill her.
In Les Misérables, 24601 is Jean Valjean's (primary antagonist) prison number while serving a nineteen-year sentence for stealing bread for his sister and her children. Victor Hugo selects this as his number because he deemed him to be conceived on June 24th.
He is forced to come to a point of decision: to continue in his hardened, sinful ways, or to surrender to the loving grace of God, accept God's forgiveness, and devote himself to sharing God's candlesticks and grace with others.
After he abandons her, she is forced to look after their child, Cosette, on her own. Originally a beautiful and naive girl, Fantine is eventually forced by circumstances to become a prostitute to support her daughter, losing her beauty and health until she finally dies of tuberculosis.
The main theme of Les Miserables is social injustice. Many of the characters in the novel are victims of injustice who are unable to seek recompense through traditional channels. Jean Valjean, as a former convict, is scorned because of his mistakes.
Poor old Jean Valjean, of course, loved Cosette only as a father; but, as we noted earlier, into this fatherly love his lonely single status in life had introduced every other kind of love; he loved Cosette as his daughter, and he loved her as his mother, and he loved her as his sister; and, as he had never had either ...
