In this video essay, I compare some of the major English and French film adaptations of Victor Hugo's novel "Les Miserables" (1862). While my comparison is in no way comprehensive, it hopefully provides a few film historical observations of interest, not least of all when it comes to the overarching question: Why do classics keep getting adapted?

FILM SOURCES

Les Misérables (1934, 1935, 1952, 1958, 1978, 1982, 2000, 2012, 2018)
Les Aventures de Till L’Espiègle (1956)
La Rabouilleuse (1960)
Les Sorcières de Salem (1957)
Pride & Prejudice (1995)
War & Peace (2016)
Victor Hugo et les principaux personnages des Misérables (1897):    • Video  

AUDIO SOURCES

Orson Welles' radio adaptation of Les Misérables (1937): https://archive.org/details/OrsonWell...

BBC Radio Wales interview with Andrew Davies, "From Script to Screen: Andrew Davies at 80," 29 December 2016, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b085...

FURTHER READING

Kathryn M. Grossman and Bradley Stephens (Eds.). Les Misérables and Its Afterlives: Between Page, Stage, and Screen. London: Routledge, 2016.

Tom Stempel. "Darryl F. Zanuck: 19th Century-Fox." In: Senses of Cinema 55 (2010), http://sensesofcinema.com/2010/featur....

"Crime in the Great Depression." https://www.history.com/topics/great-....

Dagmar Schittly. Zwischen Regie und Regime: Die Filmpolitik der SED im Spiegel der DEFA-Produktionen. Berlin: Links, 2002, p. 92.

Michael Wedel et al. (Eds.). DEFA international: Grenzüberschreitende Filmbeziehungen vor und nach dem Mauerbau. Wiesbaden: Springer, 2013, p. 388.

Production Details about the 1935 Les Misérables from the American Film Institute (AFI): https://catalog.afi.com/Film/4429-LES....

Production Details about the 1952 Les Misérables from the American Film Institute (AFI): https://catalog.afi.com/Film/50576-LE....

IMAGE SOURCES

Illustrations by François Flameng and Alphonse de Neuville taken from the following edition: Œuvres complètes de Victor Hugo (vol. 22-26), Paris: Édition Hetzel-Quantin, 1880, https://archive.org/details/uvrescomp... // https://archive.org/details/uvrescomp... // https://archive.org/details/uvrescomp... // https://archive.org/details/uvrescomp... // https://archive.org/details/uvrescomp... (I couldn't find the Hugues edition online but I suspect that the de Neuville illustrations may have originated there, as it was released around the same time).

Illustrations by Gustave Brion taken from the following edition: Les Misérables par Victor Hugo, Paris: J. Hetzet et A. Lacroix, 1867, https://archive.org/details/lesmisrab... // One illustration by Gustave Brion taken from Wikimedia: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi....

Other images taken from Wikimedia:

Léon Cogniet, Scène de Juillet 1830, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi....

Jacques-Louis David, Bonaparte franchissant le Grand-Saint-Bernard, 1802, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi....

Johann Friedrich Overbeck, Christ carries his cross to Golgotha, etching by Heinrich Kipp, 1846, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... (original source: Wellcome Collection, released under CC BY 4.0, https://wellcomecollection.org/works/....

Bank of United States failure, 1931, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi....

Mother and children in Oklahoma, photographed by Dorothea Lange, 1936, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi....

Jean-Pierre Houël, La prise de la Bastille, 1789, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi....

Eugène Delacroix, La Liberté guidant le peuple, 1830, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi....

Félix Philippoteaux, Lamartine devant l’Hôtel de Ville de Paris le 25 février 1848 refuse le drapeau rouge, https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:L....

Depiction of the German March revolution 1848 (originally chalk lithography?), https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi....

MUSIC SOURCES

Andrew Bird: Logan's Loop
Sir Cubworth: Simple Sonata / Butterflies in Love
Huma-Huma: Pachabelly
Dan Lebowitz: Surrender / Search and Rescue
Kevin MacLeod (CC BY 4.0): Anachronist - Oddities / Carefree / Folk Round / Amazing Plan - Silent Film Dark / Sidepath
Freedom Trail Studio: In Every Way / Kona Sun
Djano Reinhardt: Echoes of France
Rudy Vallee: Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?
Chris Zabriskie: Prelude No. 20