ABSTRACT
The underlying argument of this book has driven forward two key assertions: first, that Les Misérables was consciously and finely crafted by Victor Hugo to be a work of universal appeal and cultural adaptability; and second, that his creation guaranteed itself a far-reaching and widespread afterlife by calling upon those who encountered it to see themselves reflected in its pages and to personalize its meanings. These contentions develop a critical grasp of the history of Les Misérables and, by implication, of the processes of artistic adaptation. In attending to a noticeable blind spot in research within both fields, this volume of essays has sought to initiate discussion that will further our understanding of each as being multimedia in form and transcultural in nature. For scholarship on Les Misérables, the aim has been to unpack some of the novel’s complex workings as sources of its lasting appeal and to trace its afterlives across and beyond the usually dominant medium of sound cinema. While no one study could track all of the novel’s different media trajectories, we have nevertheless flagged those paths and explored some of their directions with an eye to further investigation, not least for radio, animation, and digital media.
