Beyond the Barricade: the missing adventure of the Les Misérables musical

Last year, I read Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables. I then watched the 2012 film version of the musical, and recently went to a West End performance of the same musical.

I really enjoyed the musicals — the stage musical especially.

I wish I had seen them before I’d read the book.

The musicals are an epic, but the book goes deeper; is more intimate.

The book builds connection and meaning that the musical can only gloss over - the significance of the candlesticks to Bishop Muriel, how Éponine falls in love with Marius, for example.

One of my favourite sequences from the book is Valjean’s journey to intervene at the Champmathieu trial, and his battle with divine intervention.

Another is how Valjean escapes Javert in Paris and hides in a convent.

Yes, the book is long and Hugo has a tendency to dive into minutiae and history to an extreme. Yet it is easy to skim through those passages and enjoy a full and thrilling story.

A film or musical must necessarily be an abridgement when the source material is as substantial as Les Mis.

Had I seen the musical first, I would have been greeted by old friends and new when reading the book.

Instead, I felt sadness that so much beautiful story was compressed or skipped.

I say all this only to encourage those that like the musical to give the book a go.

And, perhaps, that when faced with choosing reading the book before seeing the film, sometimes it might be worth seeing the film first.