Les Miserables -- Episode 7 (1 of 8). Victor Hugo and the French Revolution.

It’s 1848 and there is yet another violent transfer of power going on in France.  One of its greatest citizens – both a member of the legislative body and the Legion of Honor, has been in hiding for 9 days with a price on his head.  If he’s found by the wrong people he will surely be killed.  He is an author and he does have a pile of manuscripts he’s working on, but first he’s got to get out of France.  How did he do it?  Was he the hero who saved the manuscript that would become the most famous French novel, or was it someone else?  How was the manuscript saved?

The story did get out and did get published and is considered the quintessential story of the French revolution.  But the central event on the barricades isn’t about the big French revolution in 1789 or even later events in the mid-1800s where Hugo himself was ON the barricades.  In fact, the 2 days on the barricades that consume almost a fifth of the whole book had almost no military significance at all.  Why did Hugo center on this event for inspiration instead of the much more significant revolution of the 1790s or the much more consequential events that Hugo himself was a part of?  Where is the revolution in this, the most famous fictional account of the French revolution?

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• 8:55 (Cont.) Les Miserables -- Episode 7 (1 of 6). Victor Hugo and the French Revolution.

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Its 1848, and theres yet another violent transfer of power going on in France. One of its greatest citizens, both a member of the legislative body and the Legion of Honor, has been in hiding for nine days with a price on his head. If he's found by the wrong people, he will surely be killed. He's an author and he does have a pile of manuscripts that he's working on. But first he's got to get out of France. How did he do it? Was he the hero who saved the manuscript that would become the most famous French novel of all time, or was it somebody else? How was the manuscript saved? Well, the story did get out and it did get published, and its considered the quintessential story of the French Revolution. But the central event on the barricades isnt about the big French Revolution in 1789 or even the later events in the mid-1800s where Hugo himself was on the barricades. In fact, the two days on the barricades that consume almost a fifth of the whole book have almost no military significance at all. Why did Hugo center on this event for inspiration instead of the much more significant revolution of the 1790s or the much more consequential events that Hugo himself was a part of? Where is the revolution? And this the most famous fictional account of the French Revolution? We'll try to find it in this episode of Theatere History & Mysteries. 

I'm Jon Bruschke and you are listening to Theater History and Mysteries, where I take on musical theater production. Go into a deep dive on the questions it raises and the answers it provides. I hope that this approach will give a deeper understanding about the lessons that the musical has for theater and for life. And I will never miss an opportunity to pursue any mystery, bizarre coincidence, improbable event or supernatural suggestion a along the way, because in the words of Dirk Gently, it is all connected. 

Okay, first, a little bookkeeping. Here's the plan. we're going toa talk about Hugo's life and how it relates to the book, working up into the musical. In future episodes, we'll talk about the text and the timeline. We will talk about seances, which were a critical part of the completion of this book. And finally, we'll talk about the musical, which many have called the most successful musical of all time. So that's what we'll be doing over the next couple episodes. Friends, this podcast is getting some traction. Our audience is growing. I feel like we are at a critical moment. I have not yet really been begging for help, but if, you are enjoying this. We are theater people. We understand each other. This is a podcast about theater and deep dives into the big backstories that drive those productions. If you could do me a solid, I want your, support way more than I want your money. So if you could just spread the word and help this podcast grow, I would be forever grateful. I think there's something good going on here, and you could be a big part of making that happen. I appreciate you being part of the community. Third announcement. The horrifying specter of Chat GPT is taking over almost all creative activities. It is now possible to make an entire podcast without any human intervention. All chat CBT will literally write the podcast and then read the whole podcast without a single human thought. It is my mission to make sure that this podcast is AI proof, because I'm going to go down all the weird side stories we do, scattershot approaches to the history of some of the great musicals. We're not just taking a straight line to follow them. If you're enjoying that, I can just promise you this podcast is not going to sound like the AI tripe that is infesting the Internet. All right. Fourth announcement. Pardon my French. It sucks. I will consider it a success if you know who it is that I'm talking about. Now, I IM m not going to pronounce the name of the policeman as Javert, but, I'll probably make some other mistakes like that. Anyway, Google translation will get me only so far, so my apologies to those of you who can actually speak French. And for the rest of us, I appreciate that you're going to put up with my Americanizations. 

Okay, so the plan for today, we're going to go over the basics of the book, the basics of the French Revolution, and trace this through at least how that book got out of France in the first place. Here are, the basics of the book and the presence of the revolution in it. This book has a lot going on. It's got 1,500 pages. It's divided into five main parts or volumes. And when the book originally came out, they were released one at a time, like deathly yellows 1 and 2, except there were five of them. The text famously has a bunch of digressions. There are entire sections on the Battle of Waterloo, on criminal slang, on the sewage system of France, and by. By digressions, I mean, like, 50 to 100 pages of things that don't really drive the plot much. They are just kind of backstory or complete side quests. Go Victor Hugo. I feel you, man. The critics who hate the book talk about those digressions and they don't like it. And the huggohiles who love Victor Hugo think they'a terrific idea. They definitely go far, afield from the plot, but it's definitely integral to the text. And we're going to cover all of that in, an upcoming episode. We'll go over the whole plot, the real life events that inspired it, the Easter eggs that Victor Hugo planted in the book. But in the main, this book can is definitely about two things. A, it is about the poor of the earth. In B, it's about the revolution. Probably at least there is a bunch of barricades going on and it is understood that way. That is the popular interpretation of the text. Everyone who's looked into it knows it's not quite right. But we're going to try to figure out what exactly the relationship is between this book and the French Revolution. 

All right, so let's start with theme number one. This is a book about the poor of the earth. according to Suzanne Allen, who's a novelist but does a bunch of good historical research to inspire her writing, the title of the book actually translates to the dispossessed or the outsider. So it is definitely talking about poor people. But the basic equation is that if you are dispossessed and marginalized from society, your economic condition is an outgrowth of that. You're not just or you are considered outside. You are the untouchables. If you were in the Indian caste system. This section from the preview of the book tells you about everything you need to know. This comes from a book by Grossman, who I'll introduce in a sec, but here's her translation of the quote that Victor Hugo uses to start his book. As long as there shall exist, by reason of law and custom, a social condemnation which in the midst of civilization, artificially creates a hell on earth. So long as three problems of the century, the degradation of man by his exploitation of his labor, the ruin of women by starvation, and the atrophy of childhood by physical and spiritual night are not solved. In other words, so long as ignorance and misery remain on the earth, there should be a need for books like this. So Victor Hugo's concern in this book, and in fact a concern of his throughout his life, are the exploitation of the workers, the exploitation of women, especially in a highly sexist society that denies them opportunities economically, and children who are exploited for their labor, which was definitely something going on in 1800s France. As long as those problems exist, he thinks there needs to be books like this, and let's focus on that. He's saying there are these problems, and those problems create a need not for political solutions, although definitely he wants those. But there's a need for literature. Those. Those are some important things. Now. Okay, so that is theme number one of the book. 

Theme number B are revolutions.  Okay, if you like revolutions, here's an unsolicited and unpaid plug for some of the great revolution podcasts out there. There's one by Mike Duncan. You can tell it's about revolutions because the name of the podcast is Revolutions. Now, he is a Seattle Mariners baseball fan, and as a Mets fan, I guess I can look past that. But he does seem to know an awful lot about history, and especially the history of revolutions. Also, there's a Gray history podcast by a guy named Will Clark. He is, from what I can tell from England, definitely has an English accent. He has no known baseball affiliations, but based on his accent, he's probably into cricket. Those are two great sources of information. If you just want to know more about revolutions, and in particular, more about the French Revolution, I'm going to give the broad strokes. Those guys have some deep dives out there. Here's the thing to know about the French Revolution. What I want to focus on is that it is different. There is a lot to know about revolutions, but one question that I find really interesting is the main thing that defines the success is not what causes the revolution or why it succeeds, but what you do after the revolution has happened. For example, in Russia, they overthrew genuinely tyrannical Csars. That was a great thing. It needed to happen, but it got replaced with the Stalinist dictatorship in China. They overthrew a genuinely tyrannical series of emperors and a genuinely tyrannical Western power. If you get a chance, read what Malcolm X has to say about the Opium Wars. But basically they were wars that were fought by Western powers to allow illegal drug sales in China. All that had to go. The revolution was a great thing, but it just got replaced with the Maoist dictatorship, which ended in things like the Cultural Revolution and the deaths of millions of people for political reasons. 

The American Revolution, it seems like that was a huge success, and it was. But it took a decade or so to get their act together after the revolution to get, a working constitution. Within 100 years, there was a civil war. Our tiny little 13 colonies expanded westward, but at the cost of a genocide against the natives. So it seems pretty seamless, but there's a lot of conflict there. We have had a fairly stable federal government that has evolved rather than revolted, give or take the occasional civil war and a few elections that have ended in attempts at violent insurrection. Not just 2020, but also 2020. And we have this crazy electoral college that gives a minority party a way to keep losing the popular vote but staying in power. And we've definitely had moments where it all could have fallen apart. So the United States seems like a stable democracy, and it generally is. But it's a bit of an illusion just to say we had the revolution and then everything was great. So if you take a casual glance at history, you might think that the overall pattern is that there's a revolution and then there's a stable regime. In Russia and China, that stable regime became a dictatorship. In the United States, it became, a fairly stable central government. But there was a revolution that happened. And the stuff after that was the stable government. 

That is not what happened in France. The French Revolution was a series of coups and revolts and civil wars that went on for at least 90 years. This is the revolution, by the way, that I think Les Miserable is, boy did I, butcher that Les Miserable is talking about. I'm not even sure I'm getting it right there, but that's the gist of the way I'm going to pronounce it. The book is about that entire 90 year period. It's not about one event or the French Revolution. So here is that entire 90 years with some very broad struges. There's a lot of sources out there I've drawn on those podcasts. I've readitt some books. But here I'm going to heavily crib the novelist Suzanne Allen. Her website is in the notes. And Here we go. 1789 through 1794 is the big revolution. In May and June of, 1789, the Bastille is captured. King Louis XVI is forced to accept a constitutional monarchy. So he's not the supreme king anymore. By 1793 he's executed. So now we definitely have a first republic. They went from a king in 1789 to a dead king in 1793. And it's now being ruled by a legislative process. This is called a republic, the first republic. But that is not a seamless, route to freedom. In 1793, there's this thing called the Committee of Public Safety with Robespierre as its most memorable member. They start the terror, which is trying to purge everybody who's not totally down with the revolution. along the way, there's both a foreign war and a civil war. The main opposition party is the Juirondens, who took power with the Jacobins, but then got purged. And by purged, I mean expelled from the legislature. And then a lot of them guillotined or had to flee for their lives. But in 1794, Robespierre and his faction now overthrown and the terror ends. Okay, so that's five pretty tumultuous years where various factions are fighting for power and killing each other along the way. In 1795, the National Convention and the Committee for Public Safety are dissolved for a less radical body that's called the Directory. They kind of rule. Okay. But in 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte runs a coup and he ends up as the first Consul. That is basically the litt of France. But that's not enough. By 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte declares himself the emperor and he'now ruling much of Europe. That goes okay until his demise in 1812 when he tries to invade Moscow. Now, if you watch the Princess Bride, you already know that's a mistake because Viazini famously says a classic blunder is to never get involved in a land war in Asia. And okay, Russia is partly in Europe and partly in Asia. But among the classic blunders we can now add dont invade Russia in the winter. But Napoleon does. His army is destroyed and hes basically out. So by 1814, Napoleon is exiled to Elba and Louis X XII is now put in power. Yes, it went from Louis XVth to Louis XI. Louis XVI got skipped. But in 1815, Napoleon leaves Elba, retakes power and loses at Waterloo. In June, theres a brief reign of his son, who is Napoleon ii. And Louis X is back in power. So Napoleon follows the French Revolution. He's got about, I don't know, 17, 20 year run there where it's all about Napoleon. In 1824, Louis X Xi dies and the crown goes to Charles the X. But he sucks. He is a clueless reactionary. And his response to everything that had happened between Napoleon and the Revolution is we should just go back to having a supreme monarch. So in 1830, there's the July Revolution. Those are three days of riots in Paris and Charles abdicates for Louis Philippe. And everybody hopes that he will be a better king. So the, July Revolution of 1830 is not about getting rid of the king in favor of either Napoleon or a legislator. Its just getting rid of a sucky king for a slightly better king. But the new king is not Any better. And heres a sidebar note. In 1832, in June, theres a general named Lamarck whos popular. He dies and his funeral procession turns into a riot that happens on June 5th and 6th. And those are actually the barricades in the novel Les Mis. Victor Hugo was there and he did see that event. It is otherwise not militarily significant. We'll talk about that a lot later. So for now I'm just highlighting that that happens right after the July Revolution. Okay, so that's 1830. And there's a king, Louis Philippe, he's ruling. In 1848, Louis Napoleon Bonaparte's nephew takes over. He becomes Napoleon III and this is declared the Second Republic. They get rid of the king and they put Louis Napoleon in power. And the government is actually announced from Hugo's balcony. So Victor Hugo is all in on Louis Napoleon, Napoleon III taking over France in 1848. And as a quick interlude, Hugo is going to be forced out of France by 1851. So three years later, and he will be exiled for 19 more years. In 1852, Napoleon suspends the constitution. He names himself the second emperor. Hes now Napoleon II. And he stays in power from 1852 to 1870, when he loses the Prussian War and is deposed. The Third Republic then shows up in 1870 and stays there until World War I. And that is the quick history of France and the French Revolution, the major changes between 1790 and 1870. So in that 80 years, there have been two empires with emperors, both named Napoleon, but different Napoleons, three different republics, a few stray monarchies and kings, but a, never ending series of plots and coups. Part of what Hugo is getting at in Les Mis is that while there is this high government turnover that's happening all the time, things never really change for the poor. And the rest of what I just had to say, there is kind of background that would help us understand Hugo's life and ultimately the text of the book and through that route, the musical. But it is, I think, worth reflecting on. What is the French Revolution? Well, there's the big one that went for about five years from 1789 to 1794, but it didn't really stop there. And there were constant changes of power. Okay, those are the two things. The book is about the French Revolution and the plight of the poor. Let us now shift topics. We're now going to walk through the life of Victor Hugo as it relates to Les Mis. I've got two main sources here, John Porter Houston of Yale University and Katherine Grossman of Penn State have each written books they have written for the Twain Author series. And just to provide some structure for this discussion, I'm going to break his life into four different parts. First, we'll talk about his youth, then his time getting established as an author, and third, that part of his life where he actually wrote Lims Mis. And then finally, a, little bit about the aftermath. This is where we'll discover how the Les Mise manuscript got created, how it almost got lost forever, and then how it eventually got saved. So let's start with his young life. We begin with the date of his conception on the 24th of June, 1801. Wait, that's weird, right? Don't you usually start with the date of your birth? Date of conception? Why would we even know that? But it is a reasonably important date to Victor Hugo, beyond the obvious reasons. And we'll explore why in the next episode and how that shows up in the book. Side note. My mother actually shared with me the date of my conception, and, boy, I wish I didn't know it. But Victor Hugo did know his, and it was important to him. His, dad was an officer in Napoleon's army, and eventually he became the general. He is anti royalist, so he's opposed to the king. And he's not Catholic. And according to John Porter Houston, his mother was a Voltarian, maybe a Catholic, probably a Catholic. But Victor was not baptized, according to Megan Barrent, who is writing for the International Socialist Review. That'll be important later. His mom is both a Catholic and royalist. Those are slightly different characterizations of what his mom was like. But anyway, in a time where you were either a royalist or a Bonapartist, that is either in favor of the king or in favor of Napoleon. His mom was more of a royalist in favor of the king, and his dad could not be more of a Bonapartist. He would actually serve in Napoleon army. On February 26, 1802, he's born. Wait one, lady. All right, that does sort of line up with the time of his conception. He has two older siblings, including a brother, George. And in 1807 and 1808, he tours Naples with his dad. And again, a couple Years later, in 1811-1812, he tours Madrid, also with his dad. Both times, the local population kind of hates him, and especially he'his dad, because they are basically an occupying force. You know, classically you would say missionaries with rifles are not usually well received. But the young Victor Hugo is staying with his dad. His dad is reviled, and the Security is totally ramped up because they could get killed, including Victor, at any time, if the locals can overthrow their occupiers. He returns to France in 1812, so he's now about 10, and his godfather is living in his house, is also his mother's lover, and is also accused of being part of a royalist plot, presumably against Napoleon, and is dragged out of the house and executed. Royalist plot means he's in favor of a king replacing Napoleon. Whether or not that's true, he is dragged out of the house and executed. So Victor Hugo is living in a house where he has watched his own godfather and his mother's lover get killed. So the take home point is he's had this young life where he's traveled around the world, his family is connected, he's seen war and wartime, he's seen plots in his own house and there are affairs going on around him. And just by quick contrast, Miguel Cervantes, the guy who wrot Don Quixote, was kind of a lower middle class kid who tried being a soldier long before he had any success as an author. Gaston Leux, who wrote the novel Phantom of the Opera, was basically a rich kid who blew it all. He spent like a million francs in a year on alcohol, booze and partying. And then he became a journalist before writing what he considered to be a Sherlock Holmesstyle mystery. But Victor Hugo started his life as part of an important military family and he had some wealth and it was right in the center of the major political events of his time. He witnessed what was going on with Napoleon firsthand because his dad was, general in Napoleon's army, which by the way, is a pretty good job to have in France between 1800 and 1815. It's one of the most successful armies of all time. And you, General, you have a bunch of military victories. All right, so that ends his young childhood. We now move on to his early literary career. He's a student when his parents divorce in 1818. He's born in 1802. He's like 16, 17. That's 1818. They're divorced and his mom will actually die by the year 1821. He's of course living in France and a very prominent part of French society, which might not be obvious outside of Franceis that they are serious about their culture. They have actually a group of people that is designated to write the official French language dictionary. There's an official version of French and a group of people who write that dictionary. Of course, in the United States, we just kind of Let it evolve naturally. And then scholars try to keep up and they write dictionaries. But in France, there's a group who tells you what the language should be. They have these national salons, which is where artists need to get into to have their artwork displayed. And they've got the French Academy. It's a big deal. So the thing to know about France and Fren culture is more so than in other places. There's kind of a central state endorsement of who the great artists are. That French Academy recognizes the merit of a poem that Victor Hugo wrote in 1817. And by 1819, he now has received a pension and founded his own literary journal with his brother George. So he's young guy, he's not yet 20 years old, but he's getting money from the state to pursue a career in literature. He's focusing on poetry, and he's founded a journal with his brother. That takes us through 1819. In 1821, he's now, slightly older. He is secretly engaged to a woman named Adelaide Faucher. F O U C H E R maybe that's Fauci a. And he gets married to her in 1822. Now that's cool. But George is also in love with Adelaid and he goes insane at the wedding. This does not slow down Victor Hugo's writing. And he actually gets a second pension in that same year. And that's a big two years for Victor Hugo. So his mom dies, he gets married. His brother, who'in love with his wife goes insane at the wedding, and his own literary stock rises. Married in 1822, his daughter Leopoldine is born. No historical record on the date of her conception. But he is really prolific. He does enough before Les Mis that he's going to be an important author without it. And that's not like Gaston Lu or Miguel Svontes. Here's a quick rundown of some of the highlights. I'm not going to go over his entire literary career, just some of the stuff that was prominent enough that it deserves note or that you might actually have heard of. In 1827, he writes a play called Cromwell, which, interestingly, it is about the English revolution. It is too long. It's got like five acts and it never gets produced. But it has aord that has literary significance and that forward becomes part of the romantic movement in literature that Hugo will become the most prominent member of. When you talk about the Romantic era of Freancech literature, you're talking about Victor Hugo. And kind of the first time he outlined some of those Ideas is the beginning of that play. In 1830, he publishes Irnani, which is a play that starts with an H. The composer Verdi will eventually turn this into an opera named Enani Starts with an E. Now, it's kind of a stretch to connect this to the 1980 musical, but it does show that his work is being put to music fairly early on. In 1831, he publishes the Hunchback of Notre Dame. And prior to that, the medieval churches weren't really thought of anything important or worth saving. But he writes that book. It's a huge success. Side note, the Hunchback of Notre Dame is actually going to be the film that comes before the Phantom of the Opera that Lon Cheney Sr. Appeared in. So Lon Chey Sr. Does the Hunchback, and then he does the Phantom of the Opera. And that silent movie in 1925 is actually a big part of the reason that Phantom of the Opera the musicals around so there could be put to the stage much later in history. But the author of Hunchback of Notre Dame is Victor Hugo. He publishes it in 1831. It's a huge success. In that same year, his wife also started having an affair. Surely Hugo had already had some by that point. In 1832, he writes, I'm going to butcher this French Le roy amuse Roy is belled o I s s apostrophe and then the word demuse. But it's a play. And Verdi, the composer will turn this into the Opera Rigoletto in 1851. This is considered Verdi's masterpiece. And if you could only name three operas, like if you were just walk up and say, hey, name an opera, I probably couldn't do it. But if you said, have you heard of Regolatto? Was like, oh, yeah, that's an opera. But it's a big enough deal that was written in 1832. And here in 2024, it's one of the few operas that I could actually name. And interestingly, this is also the year of that June insurrection, the one that Hugo personally sees and will become a key part of La Mraba. We'll get much, much more on this later, but I'll just drop it into the timeline for now. So that's 1832. In 1833, he meets Juliet Drewitt. D R O U E T maybe pronounced Drew A. I'm going to say Drewitt in my, American way. While his own wife is having an affair with a theater critic, he starts an affair with Julet Drette, who's actually appearing as the lead actress in a play that Hugo has written. Juliet rtte had been a mistress since 1829, so for about four years. And she had a prior history as the mistress of a sculptor with whom she had a daughter. That has all come and gone by the time she meets Victor Hugo. They have a torrid romance, and Juliet ab banance or acting career, and spends the rest of her life devoted to Hugo. Some people think that he keeps her under wraps so much that she's a prisoner. He's definitely a little possessive. But they also have what seems to be a genuine affection for each other, like they are devoted. She also transcribes most of Les Miserable. In fact, she transcribes most of his stuff. So he scribbles out his original draft, and it actually goes to her, his mistress, and she copies it into handwriting that can be handed to a printer. She writes to him almost daily and leaves about 20,000 love letters over the course of their life. They're together for 50 more years, and they celebrate the date of their first night together every year for those five decades. File that one away. That will become important later on. And here's just a side trip on the sexual mores. So Victor Hugo's mom had an affair with a man who was living in the house that Hugo was growing up with. His wife was having an affair when he started having an affair with a woman who had already had an affair and a daughter by a sculptor prior to meeting Victor Hugo. They would then start having affair, Drewette and Hugo. And while this is happening, and over the course of five decades, Hugo would have a huge number of affairs that naturally aggravated both his wife and his mistress. I think his wife had more affairs. And I actually don't know about Juliet Drette, but I honestly haven't dug deep enough to figure out whether or not any of this is considered normal or salacious or whatever. But his life is like a South beach reality show where Snooki is the celibate one. There do seem to be some connections along the way that are deeper than others. And for sure, Juliet Dret is one of those. He also wrote another play called Lucretia Borgia, which was also made into an opera, this time by a composer named Dzetti that's also famous. I could, again, probably not have picked Lucretia Borgia out of my brain as a cold call, but I definitely have heard of it. And, maybe you have, too. In 1837, he is named to the French Legion of Honor. That's the highest awardd that France has. It was established by Napoleon, and it honors both military and civilian service to the country. And then finally, in 1840, after he is denied access to the French Academy, he is appointed to the French Academy in 1841. So at this point, he's got a, career that's like 25 years old, and he's just hit the peak. He's one of France's most important literary figures. In 1843, two years later, he gives up theater. He doesn't like dealing with production issues like actors and stage managers. And theater managers. He also had a stage production named the Robber Lords of the Rhine, which flopped. And maybe that helps speed up the end of his time in the theater. But he is no longer going to focus on do anything with the theater again. He's going to focus the rest of his time on poetry and novels. In that same year, 1843, his daughter Leopoldine gets married. And in that same year, both she and her husband will die in a boating accident while on a trip to Spain. So his daughter gets married. That's a high point. She's on a trip with her husband, the boat sinks and they die. And to make it worse, she's pregnant at the time. This is just as tragic as it sounds, and it is totally devastating to, Victor Gya. That's a key moment of his life. So let's pause before we transition into the writing of Les Mis. Let's summarize what has happened so far. He's written a bunch of plays. At least three of them get turned into major operas. They are, in fact, still being performed. He wrote Hunchback, which is a huge hit. He is named the Legion of Honor and then to the Academy. So he's definitely not done yet, but is clearly established as a leading figure in France. He's not yet, I believe, taken on a political position, but he's one of the most prominent literary figures in the nation. And this is when Les Mise starts to come about. He stopped doing theater, and he's going to do novels and poetry and focus on politics. And right at that juncture of his life is when Les Mis comes about. Okay, so we are now up to the origins of the completion of the miserable in 1845. So his literary career started just before 1820, and it's now 1845. So he's about 25, 30ish years into life as an important literary figure, and he is named a peer of France. That's kind of like a senator. I'm not sure their exact political duties. But if you're a US senator, you're one of the 100 most important political figures. That isn't the president. And that's kind of what being a peier France is. And according to Grossman, this is when he starts writingly M. Now, the original title of that book is Jean Treajo. Notice that it's not Valjohn Treajo, and it's more of an action adventure with the heavy critique of the French legal system. So it's got the Les Mis themes in, but it's not done yet. The title is changed to Les Miseres. Notice that it's not Miserables yet. That's just a change in the title. I don't actually know the significance, of the difference between those two words, but that just is sort of a sign that it's not finished yet. And he keeps this title and gets the book roughly 2/3 dunish when he stops writing it in 1848. And according to Grossman, he's now at part four. That's the fourth of five books. And chapter 15 of that book, it will end with five books in 365 chapters. So he's a fair way through it, but it's not complete and he doesn't have the final themes worked out. Okay, so that concludes 1845. So in 1845, he starts the novel. In 1847, in the house of Peers, he gives a speech in favor of Louis Napoleon's return. Louis Napoleon will eventually become Napoleon iii. But as a quick recap, the Revolution happened. The king was dethroned and killed. Napoleon I. Napoleon Bonaparte rose to power and then fell. The monarchy has been restored and Louis Philippe is now the king. But he sucks. A bunch of people want change, and Hugo is now backing Napoleon Bonaparte's nephew, Louis Napoleon to take over. In 1848, there was a recession that led to misery, and political action of more than 20 people is banned. So instead, people start having banquets. So the police would rush in and say, are you having a political meeting? They'd say, oh, no, no, no, no, we're having a banquet. Some people are talking about politics, but what are you going to do? So the government decides they're going to ban a banquet that is occurring in Paris because they think it's too political that causes an uprising. The National Guard sidees with the protesters, and Louis Philippe has to flee the country. A second republic is declared and the government is announced from Victor Hugo's balcony. Victor Hugo is all in on Louis Napoleon becoming the Next ruler of France. Then the June days arrived. This is called the Second Revolution of 1848. Barricades go up. They are opposed to Louis Napoleon and this new government that was announced from Victor Hugo's balcony. And this time Hugo sides with the government. There are 60 representatives that are sent by the government to try to go out and talk down the revolutionaries. Generally they fail. There is opposition. But finally in December, there's an election. Hugo heavily campaigns for Louis Napoleon and Louis Napoleon wins. So things are going well, right? Victor Hugo is thinking great, we're in power, let's start making some progressive changes. And he starts giving speeches about his core issues like opposition to the death penalty, improvements to the poor, helping the workers, helping the women. Louis Napoleon is thinking, hey, I like all this power. How about I stay in power for a long time. By the end of 1848, Hugo is not working on Les Mis anymore and hes entirely focused on the political situation, which soon gets worse. In 1848 he is campaigning for Louis Napoleon. And in 1849, a year later, Hugo's newspaper is shut down and both his son have been arrested. The bromances over. Hugo and Louis Napoleon are not friends anymore. They are bitter enemies. Finally, on December 2nd of 1851, Louis Napoleon launches a coup. Suspense the Constitution shuts down the National Assembly. Not cool. He’s becoming a tyrant. There is opposition to this and Hugo himself joins the Resistance Committee un takes to the streets and joins the barricades himself. So now theres another crazy violent political upheaval moment. The various revolutions have happened. Hugo is part of a successful revolution. He's now backing a government which now people hate. So he flips on the government. He's in trouble. He has to flee France with his family. But you can't just leave. And his membership and the Resistance Committee pretty much marks you for summary execution. If Louis Napoleon finds members of this Resistance Committee, he's going to kill him. So Victor Hugo goes into hiding for nine days and there's a price on his head. He is marked for death. How does he get out? Well, the key to his release is actually his mistress. This comes from Carol Seidl who has translated a bunch of the lovers letters. That is the Julie Drret and Victor Hugo left behind the love letters. And Carol Seidel is one of the people who'translated them. And here's what happened. According to her quote, Juliet Tourette at that point, Victor Hugo's lover of nearly 20 years risked her life to organize his perilous escape. As Violent clashes broke out in the streets of Paris and in other towns and cities across France. Juliet arranged for false identity papers and set up a series of safe houses where Hugo could remain hidden as he waited cross into Belgium. Using a fake passport, Hugo arrived in Brussels on December 12th. Juliet joined him two days later, and with her she had brought a trunk carrying all of Hugo's past works and some yet to come. Among the latter was two thirds of the still uncompleted Les Miserable. So Hugo has made it to Belgian, but not all of his stuff did, including, crucially, a trunk containing his Les Mis transcripts. And those are also in the possession of his mistress, Juliet Drueet. This is Druet's own account. Once they got to Brussels in 1852. This is one of those letters that got translated. Quote, I secured your manuscript, under lock and key this morning. These days I don't want it strewn across my table. You should, on your end, my Victor, not leave a single line unguarded. Doing so is becoming more and more sensible. As for me, I promise to be vigilant. No one better than you can foresee all the traps and betrayals. Yet I beg you to spare nothing in thwarting all of them to do so. A little care and attention on your part will suffice. End quote. So they wind up in Brussels. They lover the family Victor Hugo, and their stuff is all there. But that's not going to be safe enough. They're going toa have to go someplace else. So they're going to go off to an island. It's off the coast of France. It's kind of between England and France. It's part of the China Islands and it's called Jersey. On that trip to Jersey, the manuscripts are once again almost lost. Sea travel is pretty rough unless you have smooth weather and a really big boat. Neither of those things are always true. And this treacherous passage will play, part in the later completion of the book because it's a big deal to get from Brussels to this isle of Jersey anyway. On their very first trip there, the Les Mis manuscript is almost lost. So three things have had to happen for the manuscript to survive, and I'm probably counting along. First, Hugo just had to survive. And it's not clear that he would have made it out without Drueet interceding on his behalf. He could have been killed in France. That was a real possibility. Second, the manuscripts had to get to Brussels. And it is again not clear that this would have happened without Drette had she just decided, look, man, I'm not taking your manuscripts to Brussels so I can hang out with you and your wife. But she does, and at her own personal risk, and I'm not even sure of the details, she was able to get that trunk to Brussels. Third, they had to not get stolen in Brussels, and it's clear that Drouet thinks it might happen and it's her personal mission to protect them. And fourth, on that boat ride to Jersey, they had to make it with the trunk, and the weather was bad. And there's a real chance that Les Mis and those manuscripts could easily have been wased into the sea and lost forever in 1851. So in 1851, he arrives in Jersey. As a side note, in 1852, while he is in exile, Louis Napoleon then declares himself the emperor and calls himself Emperor Napoleon iii. So as soon as Hugo successfully escapes France, Louis Knapp, Louis Napoleon, Louis Knapp in my notes here, has not only had a coup, but he has declared himself the emperor of France. And then on September 6th, the entire Hugo household takes up seances in the form of table turning. This will play a role in the completion of Les Mis. This is the supernatural angle I've been looking for for the past six episodes on our entire discussion of the Phantom of the Opera and, Don Quixote, the man from La Mana. But now I've got it. The book Les Miserable was completed at least in part because of the seances that were happened on the island of Jersey with the Hugo family. While dedicate an entire episode of that coming up. It is 1853 now, and Louis Napoleon hires a guy named Baron, Georgia's houseman, to clean up Paris. And by cleanup, I mean completely tear down and rebuild all of the streets and alleyways. The old Paris had a whole bunch of back alleyways. It wasn't really well planned. There were dead ends. And it was pretty easy to barricade and make it a big pain in the butt for the authorities to come in and break up riot. And so Houseman's job was to make big, wide streets and put lights everywhere so that everything was open and it was airy and it was hard to barricade and it was hard to blockade. Hugo thought all this was hypocrisy. The cleanup was super expensive. It was just to preserve the, tyrants who were in power and instead spending the money to actually help the poork people and address their problems. They were instead spending huge piles of money to renovate the city. I think Hugo's point was if you took the amount of Money you spent to renovate the city and instead spend it on the poor people. There wouldn't be a reason to riot in the first place anyway when you hear that phrase, the city of lights. Paris is the city of lights. That's the reason that it'be is designed the way that it is. Those cities of lights are due to what Houseman did to clean up Paris. That's what gave the city its nickname. Hugo is going to write his book in 1860. So it's 1853 that the city of Paris is getting renovated to take away the possibility of barricades. Hugo will eventually write his book in 1860, and he'll do it while he's in exile. And so he's got to recreate the entire city of Paris from memory. Okay, speaking of our friend m Mr. Hugo, while, Louis Napoleon is reconstructing Paris, Hugo is on the island making himself a big pain to both France and England. And in 1855, he has to leave the island of Jersey to go to its neighbor Guernsey, where, he will be in his chief base of operations for the remainder of his time in exile. He's been on Jersey for what, two, three years there in his entire exile? Well, last 19 years. That's where he spends the rest of his time. And that is where he's going to finish Les Miserables. And that. Or Les Miserable, I guess. And that is where I'm going to end right now. But we have coming attractions. How will this guy in exile get his book published? Is he going to do it alone? Or does he need a swashbuckling partner who can take on the task? When the book comes out, what will the critics think? How will the public react? And its released in 1862. Hey, hey. Isnt that right in the middle of the US Civil War? How will those enemy combatants react to the book? Just keep streaming and youll know the answer to all those questions which are in the next episode of Theater History and Mysteries.

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