Misery Loves Company

A Les Misérables mini-series, premiering this month, is the latest adaptation of Victor Hugo's epic that's inspired musicals, telenovelas, and more

Hillary Busis

1862 Victor Hugo publishes Les Miserables. Jean Valjean steals a nation's hearts, bread.

1999 Thomas Edison's company produces a multi-part film adaptation of the novel; the reels, like Eponine's dignity, are believed to be lost.

1935 An adaptation starring Fredric March is nominated for best picture by an Academy that appreciates its zippy, 108-minute runtime.

1943 Decades before Teenage Mutant NinjaTurtles, Valjean becomes a sewerlurkingcomic-book hero.

1973 Mexican TV adapts the story as— what else?-Los Miserables.

1989 Claude-Michel Schonberg's blockbuster musical convinces theater kids it's kosher to rhyme "virgin in the light" with "urgin' in the night."

1998 Uma Thurman dies of shame as scorned Fantine in another movie adaptation; five years later, she'll rethink that strategy in Kill Bill.

2019 PBS and the BBC mount a handsome new production, starring Dominic West, David Oyelowo, and Lily Collins's magnificent eyebrows.

2012 Sacrebleu!

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