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Welcome to the website for "The Les Misérables Reading Companion," where you'll find all the episodes of this podcast about Victor Hugo's Les Misérables, plus extras relating to what I've discussed there. 

This page is a work in progress. Come back early and often for updates!

The comment function on this page was giving us trouble--comments disappearing, that sort of thing--so I've shut it off...

BUT DON'T BE DISCOURAGED! You can share your thoughts about the book on Facebook or Twitter at the links below.

I still very much look forward to reading your comments! (Unless you're a troll; I will exercise ruthless editorial authority when it comes to trolls!)

 

  1. All Episodes
  2. Episode 24 extras

Episode 24 extras

Jun 19, 2018

Here's a pen and ink drawing of Gavroche, drawn by Victor Hugo himself. The writing at the bottom says "Gavroche, at 11 years old."

 

I've added Gavroche's stomping grounds, per the first paragraph of chapter 13 (III,1,xiii), to our Google map, the first marker in the layer for Part III.

 

Here is an early representation of the gamin de Paris, in Eugène Delacroix's 1831 La Liberté guidant le peuple / Liberty Leading the People:

 

Here are a few images of Marianne, the most common allegorical representation of the French Republic:

  

Artist anonymous, on display in the French Senate building

 

   

French Government Logo

 

 

At the start of the Third Republic (1871)

 

Brigitte Bardot as Marianne in 1969

 

And a couple of images of Joseph Bara, the drummer in the Revolutionary army who became a gamin-like symbol of the nation:

La Mort de Bara (The Death of Bara), Jean-Joseph Weerts, 1880

 

Marble Sculpture by David d'Angers, 1838 (source)

 

For those who may be interested here is a book with a lot more information about child abandonment in 19th century France.

And here is more info about the film I mentioned, Les Enfants du Paradis / Children of Paradise (1945)