Le Monde’s “Les Misérables” comic book review
The two volumes are part of “Les Grands Classiques de la Littérature en Bande Dessineé” (The Greatest Classics of Literature in Comic Book format) by French newspaper “Le Monde”.
Adaptation by Daniel Bardet.
Drawings by Bernard Capo.
The adaptation is very good!
Considering the entire comic book is 92 pages long, the plot points are there and are well detailed. Some lines are even word-to-word inserts from the book, such as the beginning.
The backgrounds are extremely faithful to the novel! There are scenes where you can see they paid attention to Hugo’s long descriptions of streets and rooms.
The panels are full of minute things to look out for if you are a book fan.
I enjoyed the way they kept some traits, both physical and psychological, of the main characters, such as Jean Valjean’s hatred for Marius or Bossuet’s appearance!
I can’t say all aesthetic choices are to be considered a success, though…
Paolo Martinello created two beautiful comic book covers, choosing to depict pivotal scenes from the volumes.
This point too has a downside, as you’ll soon discover.
Some pages were added in both volumes with insights on Victor Hugo, his works (including more information on “Les Misérables”). They put some extracts from the Brick, too!
Being a product for a French newspaper, it's obviously written in French.
So, if you are not well versed in the language, it will become rather tricky if not impossible to get everything.
I could only find an Italian version of this comic, I can’t find other translations.
The style of the drawings
Of course, this point is subjective, but I’m not a big fan of the style used for the panels. It’s a bit old-school, in my opinion.
It wouldn’t be that big a problem, if it weren’t for a small detail…
Don’t judge a book by its cover!
As I said before, the covers were made by a different artist, and the difference is striking!
And there’s more: other variants of the same volumes have different covers! Even in those cases, they were not made in the main artist’s style.
(I’m not entirely sure, but it seems to be the case in the Italian version as well).
This creates a problem, as you can’t always make sure the style is the same, especially in comic books that are sold with a newspaper.
If you have a good level of French (or Italian) and you like the artstyle, I say you should give it a try.
It’s an abridged version, but still a good adaptation.
The barricade is, as always, significantly cut
With only 92 pages, it was bound to happen.
I was surprised to find a character like Mabeuf included in the story, with more than a couple panels showing his death and the aftermath.
But, aside from that moment, the other scenes at the barricade are more or less what you see in the musical version.
Speaking of characters at the barricade…
Some members of ‘Les Amis de l’ABC’ have been cut, thus not appearing at the barricade.
The most notable one being Jean Prouvaire.
Moreover, the aesthetic choices for Les Amis & Marius are also… Well, a choice.
They all look way older than their age!
I mean, people used to look older in the past, but a quick search through portraits of that time period in the Louvre website helps with getting a better idea on how a man in their 20s used to look.
And, as much as I love 19th Century sideburns, the way they’re drawn here…
(You know, the guy who is supposed to look younger than his age. And quite androgynous. And resemble a Greek statue. That guy.)
And so we arrive at the end of this review. I can say I quite enjoyed preparing it, and I hope you enjoyed it as well!
