I am a worm and not a man @psalm22-6 - Tumblr Blog

Making this post of my projects and my commonly used tags so that I can pin it; see below the cut for more (although some of these tags might not be currently populated with much content since I have a ton of things in my queue for the next year)

My translations (movie content, 1862 articles, just all of them)

My general research interests (plus this tag for things I’m still looking into)

The Real Misérables

A Study of Les Misérables

Cham’s Les Misérables

#reference

Stockton Independent, 3 October 1867

There are authors of fiction whose works have stood the test of time and others are coming on the field of view, whose writings may be safely read. We may mention Scott and Dickens and Thackeray, and our own Cooper and Irving and Mrs. Sigourney, without seriously endangering our own reputation for soundness and sobriety. But the French novelists in general, including even the author of Les Miserables, with the horde of penny-a-liners, who have supplied the market with their pestilential yellow covered trash, may one and all be consigned to oblivion without a sensible loss to the treasuries of knowledge the refinements of literature or the incentives to virtue. We would heartily unite with the most bitter denouncers of fiction if they would confine their enmity to such classes of writers and not consign the whole tribe of story tellers to perdition together. Fiction like all other engines of power has been most shockingly abused; but the parables of our Savior, and the allegories of Bunyan [as in John Bunyan and Pilgrim's Progress...not as in Paul Bunyan -__- ], illustrate the value of fictitious picture writing in moving the hearts of men to great and good purposes. The true course to pursue in the reading of novels as of newspapers is to choose the good and shun the bad.

#haters through the ages #the new tag i just came up with #um kind of cringe to say this at the opening of a college #lm in america

The California Aggie, 5 April 1916

#i'm sorry to tell you this but people read the newspaper and magazines and other such “lowly” things back in ye olden 1860s too #lm in america

The Sullivan County Record, 15 March 1878

Isaac and Jim Linton, brothers, were living in Dresden, O., quiet and inoffensive men. A certain Captain George Blackburn, soon came into the town and, though not a drinking man, got the two brothers into the habit of using alcoholic stimulants to excess, worked upon them, as a man of superior intellect can, until he had them completely in his power. Under his direction a robbery was committed; all were caught and sentenced to the penitentiary. The brothers Linton, however, escaped, and the authorities offered a reward for their apprehension of, first $500 and afterward reduced to $300, or $150 for the apprehension of either. A short time since the marshal of Dresden appeared at a little mining town, Navarre, and, thinking Ike Linton was at work in the mine, the men were ordered out from the mine and, as they filed by, the marshal recognized his old prisoner. The local paper says of what follows: McLaren tapped him on the shoulder and laughed. "Well, Ike, I'm looking for you." Ike recognized McLaren and turned very pale. "Let me put on my boots, Wess!" he said. He put on his boots and asked the marshal if he could go home and see his wife and child before he was taken away from them. "Of course, Ike; where do you live?" He led the way to a comfortable little dwelling, and as they entered the door his wife saw the changed manner of her husband and knew immediately what had happened. Ike had told her long before that he was liable to be arrested at any time. He kissed his little daughter, Mary, called so after his mother, and shed tears. The little girl is about ten months old, and his wife, whom he married about two years subsequent to his escape from the Perry County Prison, is a tidy, good-looking woman. She seemed very much cast down by her husband's misfortune. The marshal was himself visibly affected. Linton washed his grimy hands clean of the coal dirt and changed his clothes. The marshal then hurried him away. It appears that Ike Linton, known by his neighbors as "Bill Burris," had gained the good will of the Navarre community by honest, upright behavior, sober, industrious habits and was well thought of. Ike Linton, handcuffed and in charge of Marshal McLaren, was conveyed on the morning train, through Dresden to New Lexington, where is situated the Perry County Jail. He was lodged in a cell after being allowed to see Jim Linton, who shook hands with him, but did not deign to recognize Marshal McLaren. Jim Linton was captured about a week previous to Ike's arrest. When found, he had a contract for getting out railroad ties and was at work not far from Indianapolis, Ind. His wife had lived with him only a week when he was arrested, the detectives having trailed her to his hiding place. The men have lived for four years in peace with their neighbors, and Ike in particular is very well spoken of by all. Since all had been accomplished that prison discipline could be expected to do, it remains to be seen whether Ohio will add any more chapters to this actual "Les Miserables" tragedy, which, thus far, cannot fail to impress one as a parallel to Victor Hugo's great work. The Cincinnati Times very justly calls upon Governor Bishop to grant a pardon to these recaptured convicts and not run any risk in turning out at the end of their sentence two men who may in all probability be insensible to all human feeling, judging themselves unjustly dealt with.

#lm irl #governor bishop? great name for a les mis parallel

Le Pays, 25 September 1865

Little Gavroche, so well depicted by the famous author of the novel Les Misérables, is an all-too-true example of the children of Paris who are abandoned to themselves by destitute or depraved parents. According to the the Gazette des Tribunaux, the number of these little wretches--who are sometimes capable of generous deeds but more accustomed to following their evil instincts--has been on the rise for some time. In the evenings, they could be seen crowding the boulevards' theaters, opening doors, peddling re-entry tickets or begging brazenly. During the day, they formed bands of marauders who raided merchants' stalls, and it became necessary to put an end to their exploits. Little Gavroche slept in the elephant in the Place de la Bastille; for their quarters his descendants have chosen, for some time now, the vast pipes intended for the gas mains and now temporarily deposited on the new Boulevard Magenta, on which work is currently underway. Others, who were more sensitive, sought more comfortable shelter in the market shacks, which were open temporarily on this boulevard. The night before yesterday they were fast asleep, when violent banging on their doors - by which we mean on the pipes - woke them up with a start. They came out of hiding and were met by officers who were waiting for them at the opening, and who took them to the station for the night. Fifteen vagrants, some still children, others adults, were thus taken in. The next day, they were placed at the disposal of the local police commissioner, to be questioned about their alleged offenses and their means of subsistence. Yesterday, a gang of twenty-one beggars, which included children around the ages of ten or twelve alongside sixty-year-olds, was apprehended in the morning on Boulevard Bonne-Nouvelle and handed over to the police commissioner.

#lm irl #contemporary reactions #gavorche #my translation

#gotcha #my ephemera collection

elliespectacular

Happy 24-6-01!

Say you lived in the U.S. and wanted to see a live performance of Les Misérables in the 1890s and into the early 1900s, your best bet might have been to go see a performance by Ida Benfey. (Above is an ad for her show in 1902). Per wikipedia:

Ida Benfey Judd (c. 1858 – February 14, 1952) was an American educator, elocutionist and monologist, billed as "The American Storyteller". She founded the Mark Twain Association, and was its first president.

She seems to have performed scenes from Les Mis around the country for years. Here are two articles about her performances which give some insight.

The San Jose Daily Herald, 19 April 1894

Miss lda Benfey’s interpretation of Victor Hugo's “Les Miserables” was masterly. The audience that gathered at the Unitarian church was composed of the intellectual culture of San Jose, expecting a treat and having their expectations richly repaid. The character of Jean Valjean is one of the most sublime in all literature, made so by the conquering of the pure over the impure, the good over the evil. Only an artist of great talent together with a knowledge and sympathy to place herself entirely en rapporte with the character she portrays could charm an audience as did the artist of last evening. The charity of the good Bishop, so like the Master whom he served, the trusting affection of Cossette [sic], the stern, unrelenting pursuit of duty by Javert the inspector, his final acknowledgment that the claims of the moral law were superior to the claims of human law, his acceptance of death as the result of such acknowledgement, all were most vividly portrayed. The confession of Valjean to Marius that he was an escaped galley slave, the story of the stealing of the loaf of bread to keep off starvation, the sublime self sacrifice of the man in his devotion to conscience, gave to the artist a splendid opportunity which was not lost. The evening’s entertainment closed with the death-bed scene, the triumph of Valjean. Many eyes were wet with tears, many people went home to read again the masterpiece of Hugo with an insight into its rare beauties which they perhaps had not appreciated before.

The Savannah Morning News, 20 January 1900

Miss Ida Benfey, in her presentation of “Les Miserables" at the Guards’ Hall last night, furnished the third number of the Y. M. C. A. Star Course of entertainments. The inclement weather prevented a large audience from attending, but those who braved the elements enjoyed the entertainment. The style of entertainment is something of a novelty here, and consist in the impersonation of the characters in a number of the most striking scenes from the book, these scenes being selected in chronological order and with a view of keeping the thread of the story. Miss Benfey impersonated eight characters last night, and in a way that could not but leave a most vivid and realistic conception of them in the minds of her hearers. The scenes selected were Jean Valjean’s interview with the Bishop; the Champmathieu affair— ls it right to allow an ignoble person to suffer your punishment, that you may go free to accomplish a great good? —Jean Valjean’s decision; Cosette; the escape to the convent; the Gamin Gavroche and his fatherly care of the two children: Jean Valjean discovers Cosette’s love for Marius; the barricade and the sewer; Javert commits suicide—is it because it seems to him the only honorable course of action? Jean Valjean’s last humiliation; the end. These selections gave a wide scope to Miss Benfey’s powers, and allowed her to portray all of the emotions from the dramatic soliloquy of Jean Valjean to the humorous sang froid of Gavroche. At the completion of “Les Miserables” Miss Benfey recited two charmingly characteristic stories, “My Son’s Courtship,” and one by Mary Wilkins, “A Village Singer.”

#les miserables #other stage adaptations

#on publishing les miserables

The Niagara Falls Gazette, 27 March 1920

#les miserables #lm 1917

Victor Hugo when writing to Paul Meurice about the Paris edition of Les Miserables: you understand me and are dear to me, i love you supremely, our minds are working in tandem, your spirit touches mine and warms it, we are like two birds in one next, your soul and mine have the same heavens within them

Victor Hugo the next day writing to Albert Lacroix about the Brussels edition of Les Miserables:

#did he deserve it? probably not totally #reading the letters to Lacroix you start to think that maybe Hugo was just a really grumpy guy #but then I read the letters to Meurice and they are love letters.

Le Nouvelliste de La Rochelle, 4 October 1862

A tragedy reminiscent of one of the episodes in the novel Les Misérables (but with all the superiority of reality over fiction) took place over the course of the last few days in an obscure cottage in one of the parishes in the diocese of Moulins. A freed convict, who had spent eighteen years in the bagne of Toulon (for complicity in a robbery by night), has just died in Vicq, in the canton of Ebreuil, at the age of 70, after a long life of modesty, contemplation and atonement. Gentle and humble towards all, for more than thirty years since his release this man had never once deserved to be reminded of his past, which he made others forget because he always remembered.

#les miserables #lm irl #my translation

The Massena Observer, 30 January 1919

Do you think the average movie-goer who saw this ad in 1919 understood the context of why Jean Valjean/William Farnum was posing like this? Can you imagine if when they released the 2012 movie they just made an ad with Hugh Jackman flexing? Actually that's not too far from what actually happened.

#les miserables #lm 1917

Stockton Independent, 17 October 1921

Just as officer Brown was turning from San Joaquin street onto Weber avenue one morning last week he heard "Stop thief." Before he had time to get into action two women tumbled into his arms. When the officer had recovered his wind he raw that each of the women had a loaf of bread under her arm and a choice assortment of pastry in her hands. Both were dressed in hiking togs and one had a lean and hungry look. They told the officer they were hungry and had decided that they would rather steal from Chatterton's bakery than beg, having tried both. Working for living, as the officer suggested, they scorned. "That’s why we left home and took the road," they said, "Too much work. The world owes us a living, we’ve always heard, so we started out to collect.” Officer Brown called the wagon and took them to the police station. On the way their plea that they were hungry was substantiated, for they nibbled eagerly on the pies they had taken. After they were booked at the central station the desk sergeant pressed them with questions. They admitted finally that the taking of the bread was an experiment and that they were Jeanette Dailey and Beatrice Loftus, both of Oakland, members of the California Writers’ Club in search of “material”. They had read Victor Hugo's famous Les Miserables and wanted to see whether a modern Jean would fare any better than Hugo's Jean. The desk sergeant scratched his head at their explanation and said he’d never heard of the other Jean as he erased their names from the register. “A great improvement over the time of Jean Val Jean,” said their smile as they adjusted their haversacks and departed. The pair went from Stockton to Lodi to work in a grape-packing shed. They next will go to Sonora to investigate stories concerning a haunted house in that vicinity. The writers have designated New York as their ultimate destination. They are financing their travels by doing odd jobs and writing.

ATTENTION: a photo of Jeanette Dailey and Beatrice Loftus was published on page 17 of the Oakland Tribune on September 30th 1921 but it seems to ONLY be available on Newspaper Archive dot com which requires a subscription. The month of September is sadly not available on the California Digital Newspaper Archive. If you have subscription PLEASE help me out.

#what #WHAT #what did I just read lol #lm irl #fans through the ages #“it's just a social experiment bro”

If there is a bigger bore in Christendom that George Francis Train, it is Victor Hugo, who has won a large notoriety by a shrewd charlatanism in a sort of pop-eyed literature. Periodically there are paragraphs in all the newspapers about Victor Hugo. Victor Hugo patted a ragged urchin on the head. Victor Hugo has visited an old woman in a fisherman's hut. Victor Hugo has contributed a copy of Les Miserables to a circulating library. Victor Hugo has written an impudent letter to Louis Napoleon, from his safe retreat. Writing letters seems to be his strong point. Let Victor Emmanuel, or Garibaldi, or Blondin, or Patti [perhaps referring to the opera singer?], or the Siamese Twins, or Andrew Johnson or Thom Thumb, or any other of the notorieties, bring himself or herself prominently before the public in his or her own peculiar manner, and presently we have a letter from Victor Hugo, attaching himself to the notoriety of the hour, and securing a share of the gossip. In every rupture of government, in every social revolution, every volcanic eruption or other upheaval in the physical universe, in every discovery of a new planet or a new patent soap, pop flies open the letter-box of Victor Hugo, and we have a hysterical note, half exclamation, one-third interjection, and all flatulence — "Behold me! Victor Hugo ! ! the illustrious exile ! ! ! I attach myself to you, brother ! You are famous ! I am famous! We are famous ! There was a lyre in the tent of Achilles ! a harp in that of Judas Maccabaeus ! Orlando sent a copy of verses to Charlemagne, Frederick II, addressed odes to Voltaire ! Heros are poets ! You, too, prove it ! You, my Blondin, have hung suspended over the cataractic Niagara ! The same breath of justice and liberty which inspires you with great deeds, inspires me with great words. Farewell, illustrious friend! Victor Hugo."

The Columbus Ohio Journal, reprinted in the The free homestead, March 4 1868

#victor hugo #haters of victor hugo

#if you need to ask then you know the answer #my ephemera collection

Wellsville Daily Reporter, 13 December 1909

The Reckoning, which played alongside the 1909 productions of Les Misérables, was a Pathé production (about a man who strangles his wife's lover) which starred Henry Krauss. Krauss would later portray Jean Valjean in the 1912 production of Les Misérables and then Bishop Myriel in the 1934 production.

#les miserables #lm 1909 #I cannot emphasize enough how many versions of les mis there are

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I am a worm and not a man