Apologia

Victor - Marie Hugo was a French poet, playright, novelist, essayist, statesman, human rights activist, visual artist, as well as an exponent of the Romantic movement that took place in France. Hugo is often identified as the greatest French poet, and outside of France he is best known for his works entitled Les Miserables and Notre - Dame de Paris (The Hunchback of Notre Dame.) Even though Victor Hugo died in 1885, his collection of work will live on forever.

So why is Les Miserables considered a classic novel? Probably because it dates back to as early as the 1830's when Hugo was planning to write a novel about social injustice. Victor worked on his novel for many years. It's original title was " Les Miseres" and between November 1845 -1848 his main character went by the name of Jean Trejean as opposed to Jean Valjean. After a twelve year break from writing due to other projects and political turmoil, Hugo was able to have Les Miserables completed by the spring of 1862, with much help from everyone in his household. If the novel was developed that long ago, and is still in wide circulation and popular demand today, there is no question as to why it is considered a classic novel.

According to Dictionary.com, the word classic is an adjective used to describe something that is "of the first or highest quality, class or rank:a classic piece of work ". Les Miserables could be considered one of the first novels of it's time in the romantic era. The book definetly falls under the category of highest quality, due to it's intense plotline and the way it teaches readers about how life was in that time. This novel takes the reader through the journey of it's characters, and emphazises many social injustices that took place during and before that time period. It has the ability to make one realize how lucky they are to live in a time such as now. Les Miserables is without a doubt a classic piece of work written by a very brilliant authour and will probably still be enjoyed for centuries to come.

Here in the twenty first century, it appears that books are directed in to movies almost everyday. However, back in the time of Les Miserables this was not a regular occurence. In 1980 French composer Claude- Michel Schongberg composed the musical version and called it Les Mis. The English adaptation was open to the public at London's Barbican Center on October 8, 1985. Les Mis has since become the world's longest running musicals and is now well into it's 26th year. Being the third longest running show in Broadway history, Les Mis played it's 10 000th performance in London's West End in January 2010.

Obviously when a novel becomes a broadway musical, changes must be made to the story in order for it to flow nicely and not bore the audience to pieces. However, Hugo's priciple story line and themes remained in tact. This shows that it is a very interesting novel as well as play that has been read and watched for many years. Les Miserables will probably continue to circulate for decades to come, and this bring me a slight amount of joy. Alot of garbage gets produced as books and movies, and it's easier to rest knowing that the books written by some of the greatest novelists of all time are still within our grasp.