Le miserables

[Doobydoobydooyeh]

Anyone watching? Not quite the same without the songs!

I know it doesn't matter, that's what I said to the people who asked me. Just asking as Davies was adamant about sticking to all the book details.

Thank you btw

perhaps the writers didn't want us to assume that they were just unlucky to be the offspring of a particularly neglectful family, when in truth Paris was full of poor, hungry children.

I think you're right, it would've put a different spin on it and the meaning might've been lost.

I also think the coincidence of Eponine and Gavroche being siblings and the two little boys Gavroche helped (and are then begging at the end) also being Thenardier's might be a coincidence too far for modern sensibilities, Davis wouldn't want them to appear like the only poverty stricken family 'in the village'!

Fans of the musical may be interested in the upcoming concert performances with Michael Ball as Javert.

Why was Marius such a git when JVJ saved his life plus Marius lived amongst the poor so surely he got it.

woodhill, having just finished the book, Marius is supposed to be in shock that JVJ is a convicted felon (they were ostracised from society at that point) and believes that he killed Javert and stole money from Pere Madelaine, not realising they are the same person. Only when Thenardier visits him, does he find out that JVJ is Pere Madelaine, let Javert go and saved his life. But I agree, he behaved like a git.

Just read the full thread hoping for an explanation as to why Javert pursued JVJ so relentlessly. What an angry man, I was fully expecting it to come out that JVJ had somehow killed the family of Javert.

I loved the story though, hard going at times but I'm glad I stuck with it

Just read the full thread hoping for an explanation as to why Javert pursued JVJ so relentlessly.

Yes that didn't make sense to me. Why did Javert obsessively pursue JVJ, particularly when there were bigger issues going on to police.

I didn't see JVJ do anything to provoke this obsession.

Javert just had psychological issues!

They touched on Javert’s motivation at the start of the series, he was born in prison and the shame of his start in life motivated him to try to be as “good” as possible. To him, that meant obeying the law, and enforcing it ruthlessly. He was very black and white in his thinking, JVJ broke the law and that made him a criminal, so he deserved to be behind bars. He was unable to see beyond that. At the end, when JVJ shows himself to be kind and “good”, Javert is unable to reconcile this with his belief that to be “good” you must act lawfully, and commits suicide.

Thanks for the explanation, was JVJ Pere Madeleine when he was the mayor?

Yes, that was the name he took.

I just finished the book and I am in floods of tears, it's so, so sad. Poor Jean Valjean, he never at a chance for a full, happy life.