The article would better be titled, "How Les Misérables changed the world." Its impact is sadly lost in generations since who would rather view the film or musical at the expense of reading the novel.<p>I'm not surprised it's also the most adapted novel of all time as it is, in my opinion, the greatest novel ever written and a monument to what literature can be. But I definitely worry that its impact will be more and more limited by alternatives to simply reading the original.
Hugo is fantastically intelligent but also unabashedly romantic - perhaps even sentimental. I loved Les Miserables, and one of the good things about it was its exoneration of the conscience, of what the main characters unshakingly feel to be be good.<p>He also packs a fair amount of (occasionally apocryphal) history into it. I love the many pages spent describing Waterloo from start to finish, and his judgment of the battle is sobering:<p><a href="http://coldewey.cc/post/19163335604/the-victor-of-waterloo-assembled-from-les" rel="nofollow">http://coldewey.cc/post/19163335604/the-victor-of-waterloo-a...</a>
A contract that paid by the word, perhaps? I got 700 pages in one year over winter break when I was in college. A (mostly, it was many years ago now) complete summary of the events that had happened that would be familiar to those who have seen the musical:<p>1. Jean Valjean acquired some silver from the bishop.
2. It was established that M. Thenardier looted the deceased soldiers at the battle of Waterloo.
3. The existence of Fantine and possibly Cosette had been established?
4. Perhaps Valjean had become the mayor of some town after using what was formerly the bishop's silver to become an honest man?<p>Note that Javert, who is the other major character besides Valjean has yet to put in an appearance, despite showing up in perhaps the first 10 minutes of the musical. M. Thenardier is, at best, a minor player in the musical, and prior to his introduction, we get ~50 pages on the history of the Battle of Waterloo.<p>The Princess Bride gently mocks the genre by advertising itself as "abridged". I can't help but feel it's justified.
It's interesting that this is the second book for the general public this year to be about another book and its influence. I recently read "The Book That Changed America: How Darwin's Theory of Evolution Ignited a Nation" which is about the Origin of Species.