"John the Jack" is a children's adaptation of Les Mis by Australian clergyman and schoolmaster Stacy Waddy, published in 1915, soon after the outbreak of WWI and the book's proceeds benefited the Red Cross. The book is 104 pages and was printed as Macquarie Streets, Parramatta, New South Wales. It begins by introducing the cast of characters:
People who come into this story:
John: A man just out from gaol, after nineteen tears. He is hunted by the police all his life.
Javert: The police-inspector who took the lead in hunting John
The Good Bishop: Who was so kind to John that he changed John's heart
Father Madeleine: This was what John called himself at one time in his life.
Petit Gervais: A little Italian organ-grinder.
Cosette (or "The Lark"): The little girl whom John saved and made happy.
Marius: The man Cosette married in the end.
Thenardier and His Wife: The only really bad people in this story.
Gavroche: A plucky, witty little gutter-boy
Fauchelevent: An enemy of Father Madeleine; but Father Madeleine saved his life.
Here is the book's intro to give you a feeling for the book's tone and messaging:
WHAT IT IS ALL ABOUT
I am going to tell you the story of a man who found life very hard. His name was John. Everything seemed to be against him, from the time he was born till the time he died; life pressed very hard upon him, and he nearly became a very, very bad man. Only you will hear how, just at the right time, he met a very, very good man; and that changed John; and always afterwards John tried to be very good himself. And he had some wonderful adventures, but he always behaved like a hero; and he was tremendously strong, and could lift great weights, and could climb any wall, and hit the mark with a bullet every time.
And while we are telling his story we will hear about other people too who found life press very hard upon them. There is little Cosette, who had no father or mother, and was very cruelly treated by the savage Thenardier and Thenardiess (they are the only really bad people in these stories). And there is Javert, who hunted Old John for years and years—but John saved Javert’s life. And there's sharp, plucky little Gavroche, and Fauchelevent, and the two little stray children, and Marius, and the dear good old Bishop who changed John’s heart. And we shall see what happened at the Bishop's house, and at the Convent of the Petit Piepus, and inside Gavroche’s elephant, and when Marius watched through the peephole into Thenardier’s room.
And these things happened—not long, long ago, but only about a hundred years back from to-day. The great Napoleon was Emperor during part of the time; the dear old Bishop knew him; then Louis was king; then Charles the Tenth. And we will hear about the terrible battle of Waterloo, and about the people fighting against the soldiers behind a barricade in the streets of Paris; and about the cruel way the French people treated men in gaol (but our English people were nearly as bad).
I cannot say that the things in this story really and actually happened. But at any rate they are just like things that really happened to real people. The man who wrote this story was a great Frenchman named Victor Hugo; and his heart was sorry for the hard life that men like Old John had and Gavroche, and poor helpless little Cosette (but Old John saved her, and at last she married and lived happily with Marius). And Victor Hugo wished to make us sorry for such things too. It is true that things are much better now. But there is much still for us to grieve over; and when we grieve over a thing, then we should try to make it better.
Up through the part with Petit-Gervais, it is a fine adaptation for something aimed at children and includes many details. There is even one whole chapter on Myriel, how he went to Italy because of the "terrible French Revolution," how Napoleon made him a bishop, and the episode with the stolen goods from the Cathedral, which probably would be interesting to children? But no Conventionnel of course haha. Myriel is described like this:
He loved all men; and especially he loved to help people who were in misfortue, even if it was their own fault and they had been wicked.
The book is about as Christian as you would expect. Then we get introduced to Javert and are told:
We must not blame Javert too much [for being suspicious of Mayor Madeleine; he was just what the laws made him. They wanted policemen to be like hounds, who only care to follow a scent and hunt down the man they are chasing like a wild beast. This man had to catch men and put them to prison. 0, Father Madeleine, it will be terrible for you if Javert gets an idea you have been in gaol! You must be very, very careful not to give him any sign that you are John. [. . .]
We will see that, in the rest of [John's] life, he could have lived happy and rich if only he would have stopped helping people sometimes, when it showed who he was. For Javert was watching and watching. And Javert was like a tiger to people who had been in gaol. He would have hunted his own father or mother if they had escaped from gaol. He said, ‘If a man has been in gaol, he is absolutely bad. No mercy to such men.’’
There is very little Fantine, predictably. (She is never even named.) This is what we get:
There was a poor woman who had become bad just because she could not get any work. [. . .] One night Javert caught this poor woman; he said she had been making a noise on the street. It was not really her, but a cruel man; but Javert said she must go to gaol for six months. [. . .] Javert said, "Policemen, take her away to gaol."
Just then Father Madeleine came in, and he made Javert let her go. Javert was terribly angry and that very night he wrote to the head policeman at Paris and said, "Madeleine is really John, and must go back to gaol."
Then we get the trial at Arras which also has some good book details and also "John's" rescue of the sailor and subsequent escape. Surprisingly there is no Sister Simplice though. I guess they didn't want to teach kids that lying is permissible. Now we get to Cosette:
Cosette was terribly afraid of the dark. No one had ever taught her about the good God and the holy Angels who watch.
John takes Cosette to Paris:
I must say that when John saw that he was sent to gaol again, even though he had been so honest and kind while he was called Good Father Madeleine, he had begun to forget about the Bishop a little, and to have bitter thoughts about men like Javert [. . .] but then God sent him Cosette. And that made him loving again [. . .] So we see that the strong man saved the little child, and also the little child saved the strong man.
John and Cosette escape from Javert into the convent and we even get the coffin escape. Now it is time for Marius's backstory.
Later on we will see that John and Cosette went out of the Convent, and met other people. So now I must tell you about those other people, who were going to become part of John’s life and Cosette’s.
If you had looked into that old house where Cosette had left Catherine, you would have found that in one room lived a young man called Marius, who wore very shabby clothes, but seemed to be a gentleman; [. . .] His father had been an officer in the army of the Emperor Napoleon, who was always having wars. After each battle, Napoleon would write down the names of those who fought bravely, and often he wrote, “George Pontmercy has been very brave.” That was Marius’s father.
We do get Mabeuf telling Marius about his father although he is not named. We also get Theodule (unnamed) spying on Marius.
The old man [Gillenormand] screamed out bad words about Napoleon and Marius's father. Marius felt as if he had a whirlwind in his head. Then he shouted bad words about the King. [Marius leaves, refusing to accept his grandfather's money] He thought of his heroic father; and he thought about the King, who did not govern well, and he felt, "If ever I get the chance, I will fight for the people, and drive this King away." This is why Marius was poor.
The book briefly mentions that Marius was in love with Cosette and that the Thenardiers were his neighbors (Eponine is not named). The attempted robbery at the Gorbeau house is recounted, complete with John burning his own arm and Javert offering his hat. Next, we meet the momes.
"Haven't you a father of mother?" [Gavroche] said.
"Yes, but we don't know who or where they are."
(Now I know who they were. And who do you think were the father and mother of those two little boys? Why, those brutes of Thenardiers! [. . .] But God sent Gavroche to them! And, wasn't it wonderful?
No sir it is not wonderful. Also that wasn't God. That was Victor Hugo. Next. This is a children's book of course so there's lots of repetition and not so subtle foreshadowing, like this comment about Gavroche when he gives the momes bread:
"Surely, if he had grown up, Gavroche would have been a loving many like old John!"
Montparnasse isn't named but of course, we do get the story of his attempt to rob John and the subsequent sermon (since this is quite a Jesus-y adaptation that should come as no surprise. Actually the sermon is surprisingly abridged) and he asks Gavroche to help break his father out of prison. Then it takes a quick turn.
[Gavroche] never saw the little ones after that morning, though he told them to come back to the elephant and he would look after them. And now I must tell you the last adventure of little Gavroche.
There was fighting in the streets of Paris. The people hated their King, and got guns, and built up barricades with stones and carts, and fought the soldiers. And Gavroche thought, ‘I must have a share in this. How grand!" [. . .]
The fighting was terrible. There was a cannon firing at the barricade; the men inside would not surrender, but determined to die. That poor old man to whom Gavroche had flung the purse, was there, and a bullet went through his head and killed him. He would never want food any more.
Then Gavroche gets killed too. Then it flashes back to John and Cosette. It even mentions the scene with the chain gang. It is very out of order at this point and tells us that John wanted to leave France because he saw Marius and Thenardier and Javert all sneaking around his house. Marius finds out Cosette is leaving.
He thought, "I have lost her; I do not care if I die."
At that very moment he got a message from some of his friends, saying, "We have built a barricade; we are going to fight against this King and his soldiers; come and join us." Marius rushed off. It would be a relief to him to fight savagely and die, he felt. It was that very barricade to which Gavroche went. The Captain and the other men there welcomed him gladly.
For some reason this is quite out of order and we are back in time to Gavroche being alive so that he can deliver Marius's letter and identify Javert. We keep getting told that Javert is very brave, such as for facing down Thenardier's gun or not crying when captured. Also Marius kills a soldier and saves Gavroche. Things happen as you would expect, John arrives with the fifth uniform, he secretly frees Javert, now it is time for the end of the battle:
All the men were killed at last but the Captain. He threw away his weapon and said, ‘‘Fire—shoot me!” He folded his arms. He was grand; any man is grand who dies for what he believes to be right.
The soldiers made a line opposite him. The sergeant said, “Would you like to have your eyes bandaged?’
“No,” said the Captain.
“Take aim,” said the Sergeant.
Suddenly a man rose up; it was a friend of the Captain’s; he had actually been asleep in spite of all the noise and danger. He said, “Stop.”
The soldiers lowered their guns. He said to the Captain, ‘May I die with you?”’ He stood up by his side. The soldiers aimed and fired. They both fell dead.
Then comes the escape through the sewers, about which the narrator/abridger says "of all the things that Old John did, I think the bravest and most wonderful was the way he carried Marius miles and miles through those drains and got him out safe." Thenardier lets John and Marius out of course.
Suddenly, right in front of him [John] saw—Javert!
John did not know it, but this was really a trick of that brute Thenardier. For Javert had been chasing Thenardier, and had seen him go into the grating: and he sat and waited. Thenardier thought, “If I let this fellow go out, Javert did not see it was me who came in, and will not, look for me any more.”’ So he let John out.
Javert and John take Marius home. The narrator continues to encourage John, saying "Oh well done John, well done indeed!"
Next is the chapter called "How John Conquered Javert At Last," which is this book's version of Javert Derailed. We are told:
"[Javert] walked on and on, thinking more deeply than he had ever thought in his life. At last he came to the river; and he leant on the railing, thinking. His thoughts were tossing in his mind like waves of the sea, just as John's had been when he had met the old Bishop. And it was the same kind of reason."
Javert is torn between the voices of two people in his head, the head of police and a mysterious person: God.
Javert seemed to see John wearing the ugly dress they wore in gaol, but with a halo round his dead. Javert hated to think it. He wished that John has killed him in the barricade, after all.
Throw in some antisemitism for good measure:
[Javert] could not help feeling that [to turn in John] would be like Pontius Pilate handing over Jesus to the Jews, and washing his hands and saying, "I have nothing to do with his fate."
Javert writes his letter containing "some things that he wanted to tell the head of the police" and goes back to the river.
"Well then, I must not live; I must die" [thought Javert.] And next minute, if you had been there, you would have seen Javert fall into the water. Old John had beaten him at last, not by being clever, but by being good.
That's not good!
So Marius and Cosette get married but John leaves the party.
His brave heart seemed to break. He hid his face in Cosette's old clothes. If you had been there, you would have heard terrible sobs.
John had defeated Javert, and harder still-- he had defeated every thought of self in his own heart.
Then Thenardier shows up with "one of his daughters." ("The other daughter was dead; poor girl, she was not so bad as the rest.") He tells Marius he wants to go to America to find a gold mine. He tells Marius about John's supposed crime ("Truly the ways of God are wonderful," comments the narrator) and Marius says he already knew about it (even though he never saw John tell Marius about his past.)
Marius gives Thenardier the money to go to America "but [Thenardier] did not become a better man. He became one of those cruel men who buy and sell slaves. He is the only really wicked man in all these stories." Then the narrator says hey remember that daughter that I said was not as bad as all the rest? What happened to her? Then he jumps back in time and tells us how Eponine stopped the robbery at the Rue Plumet and died to save Marius. Then the narrator says btw let me tell you what happened to the momes :
I don't know what happened to the little fellows after [the episode with the bread in the garden.] They had to look after themselves, just like Gavroche. Perhaps they grew like him-- knowing a lot of bad things and bad people, but brave and willing and kind. Perhaps they got into prison like Old John; and if they did, perhaps like him they did not become bad, but met kind friends and turned out good true men. Poor little fellows!
Now time skips back and John decides to tell Marius about his past.
I am afraid that Marius was so horrified to know that John was from gaol that he wished him never to come near Cosette again.
Without Cosette, John becomes very sick. The doctor gives him a crucifix which keeps him alive for a while but he is about to die when Cosette and Marius come to ask his forgiveness.
John was gazing at Cosette. He was quite calm. Suddenly he arose, and seemed to be strong. He walked firmly to the wall, took down the little figure of the Saviour on the Cross, laid it on the table and said, "Behold the great Master." Then he sank back in the chair.
To the book's credit I guess they do include that John declined to see a priest.
With his last words he told them where he would like to be buried, and talked about Cosette when she was little, and told them to give money to help poor people. [. . .] He said that from the Invisible World he would watch them. Then as they knelt by him, each holding one of his hands, and choking with tears, he fell back dead, with the light from the old Bishop's candlesticks on the white old face turned up to heaven.
