Editing Les Miserables

original site

So I signed up for an account. It turns out you do not have to provide an email address. I could be anybody I wanted to-but I wonder, can the site still track your IP address and find out who you are.

Anyway, the musical site does not say anything about the differences between the book and the musical, which are quite substantial. So I am going to add the section on the differences.

2:08 Saturday morning: I added the following information:

Character differences

Several discrepancies between the book and musical exist, probably due to time issues. The Bishop had a much bigger role in the novel, taking up several hundred pages of discussion in the beginning. He only appears in one scene at the start of the show. There is also more time granted in the novel describing Valjean's time in Toulon and what it did to his spirit.

Javert's background is described quite a bit as well-the only hint to his back story in the show is during "Confrontation" where he sings "I was born inside a jail, I was born with scum like you, I am from the gutter too." Javert's mother was a gypsy prostitute, and his father a thief. Javert faced discrimination as a child, and saw a life's devotion to justice and the law as the only means by which to redeem himself in God's eyes.

In addition, Thenardier and his wife were not the humorous, curmudgeony husband-and-wife they appear to be in "Master of the House." In the book, they are portrayed as vile, scum of the earth, selfish people-Madame Thenardier is referred to as the "Thenardiess", a term more suitable for a hideous giant. In addition, Eponine has a sister named Azelma, who is not mentioned in the show. Gavroche is Eponine and Azelma's much ignored brother, though this storyline is omitted in the musical. In the epilogue, Azelma travels with Thenardier to the new world where he becomes a slave owner/trader.

Thenardier did fight in the battle of Waterloo. He was picking gold and bullets off bodies when a still barely conscious man believed Thenardier had saved his life-this man was General Pontmercy, Marius' father. He always spoke of the great man Thenardier who saved his life.

Marius lived with his grandfather, Mr. Gillenormand, who has a small role in the French concept version but was later removed. Gillenormand, in the novel, was Marius' surrogate father.

The Les Amis were an intellectual society, as in the musical. However, some of the boys had love, admiration, and attraction for each other as well as Socratic feelings for their leader Enjolras, most notably Grantaire. Grantaire really only attended their meetings because of Enjolras, and ends up surrendering himself at the end of the novel alongside his hero.

Let's see if anyone corrects what I wrote. I don't have the book in front of me, so that was all from memory, I am 99.9% sure my information is accurate.