The other day I was pondering just how big and timeless a book can become? Take for instance Les Mis, written by Victor Hugo in 1862, who is one of the most important of French Romantic writers, being the first to write about all aspects of contemporary life. His best-known works are The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1831) and, of course, his epic tale of social injustice, Les Misérables.
The Author
Though a royalist in his youth, Hugo’s views changed as time passed; becoming a passionate supporter of republicanism and his work touches upon most of the political and social issues and artistic trends of his time. When he died over 2 million attended his funeral at the Pantheon.
The Book
Les Misérables is widely considered one of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century. The appearance of the novel was highly anticipated and advertized; however critical reactions were mainly negative. However commercially, the book was a great success, not just in France, but across the world.
The Musical
It didn’t stop there, the story became a stage musical, which was originally conceived and produced in France, before its English-language adaptation, produced by Cameron Mackintosh, opened in London on 8 October 1985, launching what has turned out to be a global phenomenon.
At the opening of the London production, reviews were bad and the literarati condemned it for converting classic literature into a musical. However public opinion differed: the box office got record receipts. The three-month engagement sold out, and lo and behold the critics reviews improved. The London production has run continuously since: the second longest-running West End show after The Mousetrap, The Broadway version opened in March 1987 and ran until May 2003, only closing after 6,680 performances. Becoming the 4th longest-running Broadway show and nominated for 12 Tony Awards, of which it won eight.
Also there have been numerous tours, productions have been staged across the globe, plus any number of recordings, as well as concerts and broadcasts. In 2005, it was first in a BBC Radio 2 listener poll of Britain’s “Number One Essential Musicals”, receiving over 40% of the votes.
The Movie
Now we have a film version directed by Tom Hooper (of The King’s Speech fame), which was released in the US at the end of 2012, the 150th anniversary of the book being published, and is being released globally this coming weekend. The movie has already amassed huge box-office takings and been nominated for many, many of the movie awards.
So we at iUniverse says the moral of the story is never give up, keep writing and, who knows, you could end up with your own ‘Les Mis’.
0 comments:
Post a Comment