1. Gossip and Deep Lore

Part I, Book 1, Chapter 1

Monsieur Myriel

Here we go. When I first tried reading Les Mis in high school, I gave up because I blew through the first several chapters and Jean Valjean was nowhere to be found and I thought, what’s the point? I did not appreciate, at the time, the way Victor Hugo launches this mighty tome of a book.

“[I]t may be worth mentioning here the rumours and gossip circulating about [Bishop Myriel].”

We literally begin one of the [alleged] greatest works of Western literature with GOSSIP. Excellent. Victor Hugo knows how to hook an audience. I’m so on board.

He goes over Myriel’s background: high-born, married off young, “good-looking, charming, witty” (I’m interested), life full of “amorous intrigue” (VERY interested). Then comes the Revolution with its many horrors, Myriel goes to Italy, comes back a priest.

Then Napoleon shows up and makes Myriel Bishop of Digne. On page 2. I have been so braced for overly extensive backstory and long digressions that I was kind of unprepared for things to happen so quickly.

Two women in the bishop’s household are introduced: Mademoiselle Baptistine, Myriel’s spinster sister, and Madame Magloire, the housekeeper. I realized when they showed up that these are the two unnamed extras on stage who you always see hovering around the Bishop (setting the table, handing him the silver candlesticks).

Does every random extra in the musical have a whole backstory? Is this book full of deep lore about all the side characters? I am going to be so insufferably nerdy the next time I see the show, if that’s the case.