Xander ,'Empty Places'
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Now I find myself wondering if it's usually abridged in English like Count of Monte Cristo.
Abridged version of Les Miz (the novel) can be okay -- there's a lot of extraneous stuff there. But read the unabridged Count of Monte Cristo -- the abridged version is basically a "cleaned up" version for squeamish American audiences and leaves out a lot of the plot. Including a barely-veiled lesbian relationship.
But read the unabridged Count of Monte Cristo
Yes! Yes! The discussions on gardening, the political nuances. I'm going to have to re-read, I can't remember if the old man is M. Nortier or not.
I have both of those on the Kindle, free version. but I'm thinking maybe a version with footnotes would be a good idea.
Wow 'Suela, that was probably the clearest most pithy description of Les Miz I have ever read. Mad props.
This was me as well. Though the lyric changes bothered me more than the different singing (though the later irked as well.) Really, American production, you seriously need Javert to sing about putting Valjean "safe behind bars"? Ugh.
This cracks me up since the whole thing was translated, but I understand since it still bugs me that they translated the English in Harry Potter.
The only song I distinctly prefer in the French version is "Mon prince est en chemin" ("Castle in a Cloud") just because the lyrics are so much better and are integrated later on in songs with the older Cosette. Plus, the whole thing calls back to "Someday My Prince Will Come." Gavroche's song "La faute à Voltaire" is pretty witty too.
Otherwise, I think they did a pretty good job and they made some excellent structural choices such as fleshing out Javert's role and moving the "Air de la misère" originally sung by Fantine to be Eponine's "On My Own" (although this means Fantine disappears pretty quickly).
Replace "And a bad haircut?" with "And someone steals bread?" and you have me
If there is bread, they're not as poor as I was thinking.
From Huffington post article, which talks about Oscar chances for various films including Les Miz: [link]
Which is too bad for "Zero Dark Thirty." We can review that one, and I have no trouble in saying it is, by far, the best movie I've seen in 2012. Kathryn Bigelow's "Hurt Locker" follow-up is superior in almost every way to that Best Picture winner, and it makes Jessica Chastain and Jason Clarke legitimate movie stars. (Jason Clarke's Oscar campaign starts here, by the way. He's like Jeremy Renner, if Jeremy Renner was interesting.)
The dig at Renner cracked me up, and I am talking from a pro-Renner camp. And I forgot Jennifer Ehle was in the film as well! Can't wait.
Technically there isn't any bread when the show begins, since it was stolen 20 years earlier.
But read the unabridged Count of Monte Cristo
There's a new biography out now, The Black Count which indicates that Dumas was writing about his father in some ways when he wrote Monte Cristo, and also The Man in the Iron Mask.
Pretty fascinating stuff - the only black general in the French army, a legendary warrior who was waylaid and disappeared to a castle cell where he was poisoned.
If there is bread, they're not as poor as I was thinking.
I don't know. At the time, bread cost half a day's wages and pretty much caused the French Revolution.
There's a new biography out now, The Black Count which indicates that Dumas was writing about his father in some ways when he wrote Monte Cristo, and also The Man in the Iron Mask.
I highly recommend this book. I had to return it before finishing, but look forward to getting it back shortly.