Visiting Victor Hugo

So you might remember a few months ago I said I was going to Paris for my birthday in May. Well my birthday has now been and gone and yes.....I went to Paris!

Amongst all the usual touristy things i of course had to go pay my respects to the man himself. Victor Hugo, without whom my life would have been so much less interesting.

I actually got a little bit emotional while I was there, it was a very solemn moment for me. I dont know what my life would be like if I hadn't read Les Miserables.

Les Manga!

I meant to post about this sooner but my mind has been occupied with other things recently (mostly women and boobs but that's for another time and another blog!)

Anyway, some friends of mine recently gave me a very late Christmas Present, (Seriously guys, its March!) and i was unbelievably pleased to see that it was a Manga version of Les Miserables! A book version of the Anime Shoujo Cosette that i have previously talked about on this blog.

 

I didn't even know this existed until i unwrapped it!

 

Ooooooooh, black and white Japanese/French goodness!

Manga is so bizarre to me, i don't think I'll ever get used to the fact that you have to read from right to left, I'm constantly forgetting and turning the wrong page. It takes so much unlearning to read from right to left instead of left to right, it's not easy to forget 29 years of education!

Anyway, this is one of the coolest Les Miserables based merchandises i own now, it's pretty unique in it's own way, and quite faithful to the source material. If you like Les Mis i definitely recommend you track down a copy.

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On another topic, i have some quite good news. I'm turning 30 in May and to celebrate me and a friend are going to take a trip to Paris to celebrate! It's been a long time coming, i first wanted to go four years ago when i first read Les Mis and it's taken this long for it to become reality. I will of course do my best to go pay my respects to Victor Hugo's grave whilst I'm there, it feels only right that i should visit him, it was him that made me want to go in the first place, i will have to try really hard not to give him a good kicking while I'm there!

 

BBC Les Miserables

So i noticed a very interesting article floating around the internet this morning.

BBC Adaptation of Les Miserables

Basically it's saying that following the success of the recent adaptation of War & Peace on the BBC (Which i didnt watch because i despise Russians) the screenwriters of that series now want to do the same with Les Miserables, but not in musical form.

This intrigues me, there hasnt been an attempt to do a miniseries of it since the 2000 French series with Gerard Depardieu. Which was very good by the way and you should check it out if you can find it, but i'm always a little put off by it because Depardieu has always creeped me out.

Anyway, it could actually work really well as a series, especially if it's non musical, let's not forget that it's a novel first and foremost, just because the musical has become more popular in the long run shouldnt detract from the fact that the novel is still a masterpiece, i for one would be very interested in seeing another non musical adaptation of it. As long as they dont change too much like a lot of adaptations do, usually a bunch of characters get cut out, or people who die in the novel dont die at all. If it's done right and they stick to the novel properly it might actually be really good.

If this happens at all i'll be very excied to see it, i'll be keeping my eyes and ears open for more news.