Outtakes, notes and variants, deleted scenes, draft material, snippets, fragments, call them what you will. These have been compiled from the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade edition of the book, which includes a great number of them in the footnotes. I’ve tried to translate them wherever possible, but a great deal of my French is self-taught and there are bound to be inaccuracies. Feel free to send me angry emails pointing them out if you find them.
The Abandoned Quarry
On the day of the émeute, the Amis rendezvous in an old stone quarry and run into Patron-Minette. [French | English | Side-by-side]
Further Adventures of M. Tholomyès
Involving a wealthy heiress, a touchy family, a scheming widow, and a baby Cosette. [French | English | Side-by-side]
On Prostitution
A lengthy digression–on prostitution and general misery–that would originally have appeared in Volume Three: Marius, Book Seven: Patron-Minette, chapters IV-XI.
How Jean May Become Champ
A substantially longer version of the scene where Javert attempts to get Madeleine to fire him. [French]
Rantings of M. Gillenormand
Grandpapa’s rant when Marius’ “dead” body is returned to his house, extended. Or moved to the section on Théodule? You decide. [French]
The songs of Gavroche
Alternate versions and inspirations for Gavroche’s songs. [French]
Street names
The present-day versions of many of the Paris streets mentioned in the book. [English]
Character names
Some of the characters had different names in the rough drafts. [English]
Fragments
Miscellaneous bits and bobs relating to particular characters.
- Fragments on Cosette [French | English | Side-by-side]
- Fragments on Javert [French | English | Side-by-side]
- Fragments on Gillenormand [French | English | Side-by-side]
- Fragments on the Friends of the ABC [French | English | Side-by-side]
Full text of Les Miséres
Hugo’s original 1848 draft of Les Misérables. Available in PDF format via Groupe Hugo.
I am afraid you do not know me as I am neither on twitter or tumblr. Indeed I am not much of a social media person. But I love Les Miserables in all its forms.Thus your website has proved to be an invaluable source for me, esp now that I had two days in Paris and used the information provided to tour the city. I thought you might like to know that the site of the fictional barricades (Corinthe) on rue chanvrerrie/rue Rambuteau is completely covered by “barricades”. The whole area of Les Halles to St Eustache are one big building site, partially covered, partially a huge hole in the ground. It will likely stay like that for a long time. I took a photo of the poster explaining all that, just as I took a photo of Quay de la Corse 21 (a door in the wall of the quay down several steps towards the Seine where the boats may have been moored under which Javert’s body had been caught). Let me know if you are interested, and how I may get them to you.
Once more thank you for providing this wealth of information.
Kind regards,
esteven
Btw, you might be interested to know that opposite the sort-of-location of the Gorbeau House is what looks like a newly built commissariat de police. I liked the irony of it. :)