ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how the personal connection with the musical might work in practice. For many people memories of Les Miserables help them to tell their own stories. When people re-listen to Les Miserables they do not just re-experience the characters and their stories, but they might also be seeing little windows into who they were at a different point in their lives. It is fair to say that the women of Les Miserables are to the side of the main plot, and largely only get the stage to themselves when they are dying. But the profound and sincere connection with Eponine is perhaps a little surprising, since she is a tragic character who has no happy ending – she is in love with Marius who is busy being in love with Cosette. The official UK Les Miserables Twitter stream has re-posted #Enjoltaire fan art; and the lines between 'canon' and 'headcanon' start to get very blurry indeed.
