Les Misérables.

choi

Literary biography l By the book. Economist, Feb 25, 2017
http://www.economist.com/news/bo ... hugo-came-write-les
(book review on David Bellos, The Novel of the Century; The extraordinary adventure of Les Misérables. Various publishers, 2017)

Note:
(1) "Around 65 film versions (the first in 1909) make 'Les Misérables' the most frequently adapted novel of all time. * * * Yet, from the outset, adapters and translators cherry-picked elements from their supersized source. British admirers had to wait until 2008 for a complete English text of the novel in the order in which the author had planned it to be read."

Julie Rose (translator), Les Misérables. Penguin Random House, 2008 (hardcover).
http://www.penguinrandomhouse.co ... les-by-victor-hugo/
(a) This publisher published paperback in 2009.
(b) The URL above has the cover of hardcover. Click "paperback" or "Ebook," and the respective cover appears. (Amazon's Kindle ebook of this translation has its own cover.)  

(2) "Hugo, already the author of 'Notre-Dame de Paris' and a literary superstar as a poet, playwright and novelist, began in 1845 to write his story of a former convict seeking a new life in a society rigged against the poor and outcast. Around the questing figure of Jean Valjean, freed from the prison-hulks in 1815 to make his way * * *"
(a) Les Misérables
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Misérables
(1862; section 4 Characters; section 4.1 Major: Cosette + Monsieur Thénardier and Madame Thénardier)

Quote: "The novel is divided into five volumes, each volume divided into several books, and subdivided into chapters, for a total of 48 books and 365 chapters. Each chapter is relatively short, commonly no longer than a few pages.

(b) Cosette (given name)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosette_(given_name)
("Victor Hugo said he created Cosette from 'chosette,' meaning 'little thing' in French")

French-English dictionary:
* chosette (noun masculine): "familier  petite chose"
http://dictionary.reverso.net/french-definition/chosette
   ^ (french dictionary; no English translation): "nom masculin singulier (familièrement) petite chose"
   http://dictionnaire.cordial-enligne.fr/definition/chosette
   ^ familier (adjective masculine):
   "1 : familiar (known to one)
     2 : (linguistics) familiar, informal, colloquial (lexicon)"
   https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/familier
* chose (noun feminine; from Latin [noun feminine] causa [cause; (Medieval Latin) thing): "thing"
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/chose
(c) Les Misérables (musical)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Misérables_(musical)
(section 1 Background: 1980 in Paris, 1985 in London and 1987 in Broadway; section 3 Emblem: Thénardiers' inn)
(d) What Does Jean Valjean's Name Literally Mean in English?  Reddit, 2014
https://www.reddit.com/r/French/ ... _literally_mean_in/
(the second answer, from a writer named Ragleur)

choi

) "Hugo, already the author of 'Notre-Dame de Paris' [1831; English: The Hunchback of Notre-Dame] * * * began in 1845 to write his story of a former convict seeking a new life in a society rigged against the poor and outcast. Around the questing figure of Jean Valjean, freed from the prison-hulks in 1815 to make his way against the steepest odds, Hugo stitched a vast but 'very tightly knit' tapestry of social strife and personal rebirth."

prison ship
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison_ship
(often more precisely described as a prison hulk)


(4) "The revolution of 1848, in which the radical firebrand [Victor Hugo] discovered that 'his head was with order' [order as opposed to chaos the Revolution brought about; Victor Hugo at the time was a Royalist] although his heart 'was with the poor,' interrupted Hugo's mammoth project. It resumed after the exiled writer, banished by the upstart emperor, Napoleon III, settled [1851-1970on the Channel Island of Guernsey: no longer a 'brilliant careerist' but a 'stand-alone protester.' "
(a) Revolution of 1848, started on Feb 22, 1848 (that overthrew King Louis Philippe -- a cousin of King Louis XVI of France -- and established Second Republic), and rippled across Europe. The only president (Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, a nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte) of the Second Republic crowned himself in 1852 as emperor Napoleon III of the Second French Empire. The second Empire fell (replaced by Third Republic) when Napoleon III was captured at the Battle of Sedan during the Franco–Prussian War.
(b) The pair of quotations ("his head was with order" / his heart "was with the poor" appears in the second paragraph of page 51 of the book under review.
https://books.google.com/books?i ... rder%22&f=false
(c)
(i) Guernsey
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guernsey
(section 1.1 Etymology)
(ii) Guernsey
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Guernsey
(pronunciation)
(d) The pair of quotations ("brilliant careerist" / "stand-alone protester") are from the second last paragraph in page 4 of the book.
https://books.google.com/books?i ... ster%22&f=false

choi

(5) "Curiously, this 'tiny feudal outpost of the British crown' [Guernsey] hosted the gestation and birth of a book * * * The editing and printing of the precious manuscript depended on the schedules of Queen Victoria's Royal Mail and the Guernsey steamer timetables. * * * By late 1862, the year of publication, Charles Wilbour's English translation was reported to be 'the largest order ever placed for a book in America.' "
(a) Royal Mail
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Mail
(1516 (Henry VIII) - )
(b) Charles Edwin Wilbour
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Edwin_Wilbour
(1833 – 1896; American; He produced the first English translation of Les Misérables)

(6) "From the humane treatment of ex-offenders to the care of street children, 'Les Misérables' spearheaded calls for reform and contributed to 'the future improvement of society.' * * * In the musical Hugo's hero intones—in a song loved by television talent-show contestants—'Bring Him Home.' "
(a) Songs from Les Misérables
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songs_from_Les_Misérables
(section 4.10 Bring Him Home)
(b) Marius Pontmercy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marius_Pontmercy
(section 1.8 Rescue)

Marius recovered and married Cosette.