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TS Eliot is the author of Old Possum’s Guide to Practical Cats.  That’s a book of poems that will get transformed into one of the greatest broadway musicals of all time.  In fact, it might be the Broadway musical – it so shaped what a Broadway musical is that it’s changed the way the world thinks about musicals at all.

But that wasn’t the poetry that put TS Eliot on the map.  In fact, TS Eliot himself would have smash hits on Broadway during his lifetime…but none of them had anything to do with the poems or cats or anything other than his own, distant observations of his own failed marriage and his strange connection to very conservative religious beliefs.

And in the middle of all that, somehow, improbably, this guy has to write a children’s book about Cats.  

How did that happen?  What made TS Eliot tick, why did that result in a frightening move to the ugly right, and why was all that necessary for him to write Old Possum’s Practical Cats?  We’ll curl up on a couch and find a nice, comfortable beam of sunlight as we share this saga in this episode of THM.

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TS Eliot had demons.  He wrote about his demons.  He said that writing poems were like demons escaping from his body, and that when he finished writing them he would experience a “moment of exhaustion, of appeasement, of absolution, and of something very near annihilation, which is in itself indescribable.”

He wrote a poem that would become the archetypical anthem of a newly-emerging modernist movement in literature – it was dark, and brooding and anxious, and grim, and disturbing and unsettling.  That poem would be called, cheerily enough, the wasteland.

And in the middle of all that, he would write a delightful children’s book about cats, that would be picked up by Andrew Lloyd Webber and transformed into one of the biggest Broadway smash hits of all time.

What’s up with TS Eliot?  What shaped this guy and made him tick.  What were his demons…and how does Cats fit into all of that?  

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 A young music producer has just seen a production of Jesus Christ, Superstar and was hit by his muse … he wandered the streets of Manhattan, unable to sleep.  A native of France, Alain Boublil felt he had to keep walking until he found a theme that could match the power and emotional intensity of what he’d just seen, and something uniquely French.  He came to the defining national moment…the French Revolution.  That idea would develop into a rock opera, then a concept album, and finally transform into what has been rightly called the most successful musical of all time, in a show that has been seen by 70 million people in 44 countries and translated into 22 languages.  It has been a hit everywhere it has been except…France.  Why?

That second turn would see Boublil trade the muse for a mentor…the original production was about the French revolution but it was not about it was not based on Victor Hugo’s famous book.  That would take inspiration from Hugo’s cross-channel counterpart, Charles Dickens.  Boublil walked into a production of the quintessentially English show Oliver and walked out inspired to base the production on Les Miserables.  Incredibly enough, that show will be produced by the same man who was running the production of Oliver.

Which is only one of two incredible connections between England and France…the production of Victor Hugo’s masterpiece will, in the end, depend NOT on France’s greatest novelist but England’s greatest author.  How does the production of Les Miserables depend as much on William Shakespear and Victor Hugo?  We will trace all these fascinating paths of lineage on this episode of THM.

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Errata: At about the 12 minute mark I say that Phantom of the Opera is a Victor Hugo story.  It isn't -- it's French, but the author is Gaston LaRoux.

A young music producer has just seen a production of Jesus Christ, Superstar and was hit by his muse … he wandered the streets of Manhattan, unable to sleep.  A native of France, Alain Boublil felt he had to keep walking until he found a theme that could match the power and emotional intensity of what he’d just seen, and something uniquely French.  He came to the defining national moment…the French Revolution.  That idea would develop into a rock opera, then a concept album, and finally transform into what has been rightly called the most successful musical of all time, in a show that has been seen by 70 million people in 44 countries and translated into 22 languages.  It has been a hit everywhere it has been except…France.  Why?

That second turn would see Boublil trade the muse for a mentor…the original production was about the French revolution but it was not about it was not based on Victor Hugo’s famous book.  That would take inspiration from Hugo’s cross-channel counterpart, Charles Dickens.  Boublil walked into a production of the quintessentially English show Oliver and walked out inspired to base the production on Les Miserables.  Incredibly enough, that show will be produced by the same man who was running the production of Oliver.

Which is only one of two incredible connections between England and France…the production of Victor Hugo’s masterpiece will, in the end, depend NOT on France’s greatest novelist but England’s greatest author.  How does the production of Les Miserables depend as much on William Shakespear and Victor Hugo?  We will trace all these fascinating paths of lineage on this episode of THM. 

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Starting in September 1853 Victor Hugo, exiled to an island off the coast of France because the now-Emperor Louis Napoleon has told the army to shoot Hugo on sight, has been holding a series of seances.  There are been hundreds of them.  They have all been transcribes.  Scores of people have participated.  Many have served as amateur mediums.

 he results have been spectacular; they’ve made contact with their tragically deceased daughter, and other ghosts on the island, and some of history’s most important figures, from Plato to Jesus to Shakespeare.

And then, in October of 1855, the seances abruptly stop.  Why?  Who ended them?  The spirits told Victor Hugo to pick up his unfinished manuscript and get it published…was that the reason the novel came into being?  Does the end of the seances say something about whether the seances were real.  WERE the seances real?  Did spirits from beyond the grave come to speak to Victor Hugo?  We might not catch ‘em, but we will chase those ghosts as far as we can in this episode of THM.

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Seance transcript images:

Pages 1187 and 1189 of the seance transcripts contain the words "fille" and "morte," but neither includes the words Leopoldine.  Page 1189 of the seance transcripts.  Page 1187 of the seance transcripts.

Show summary:

It is September 11, 1853, and the already famous author Victor Hugo has been mourning the loss of his daughter for 2 years.  He’s also been exiled from France, and having barely escaped with his life he’s now living on a small island off the French coast named Jersey.  He’s there with his wife, his mistress, his children, and some friends.  He’s sitting on 2/3rds of a manuscript for Les Misérables, and his plans for it’s future and its publication are in limbo, as is the rest of his life.

Days earlier they have received as a guest the distinguished Mademoiselle de Girardin, herself an accomplished author, member of high society, and well-connected member of the continent’s literary class.  She has brought with her a device that is all the rage in the Europe that Hugo can’t visit…a séance table.  It’s not sophisticated, and it’s really just a small table on top of a large table that’s supposed to tap when the spirits arrive.  In a few tries so far it hasn’t really done anything.

But the group has gathered again, with a designated transcriber ready to take the minutes of the event to save an accurate transcript for the historical record.

Tonight IS different.  When called upon, the spirits will move the table.  In fact, they will tap out a message so precise and so clear that nobody could doubt it’s authenticity…and nobody did.  Skeptics were turned into believers instantly.  What did the table say?  Why did it resonate so strongly with the Hugo family?

This table would send Victor Hugo a very specific message about the  Les Misérables manuscript … and introduce the family to William Shakespeare as well.  What did the table say about Les Mis, and how would that affect the eventual production of the novel?  We’ll talk to the ghosts on this episode of THM.

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Thanks almost entirely to his mistress, Victor Hugo escaped France with his life and an early manuscript of Les Miserables.  While living in exile and on an island close to the coast but under British control, he finishes the book 10 years later.  It’s an immediate international smash hit, with an appeal so broad that even soldiers on BOTH sides of the US civil war love it.  

From there it’s a roller coaster…hugely popular between 1860 and 1900 it falls out of favor as France turns conservative between 1900 and 1940.  Its popularity re-energizes starting with the second world war, and then by 1980 it becomes one of the first big musicals in France, then takes over the London stage, and finally explodes on Broadway to become what many would call the most successful musical of all time.

So what has made this story so powerful?  Is it the love story, the redemption of the main character, or the call to a revolution?  Is it the intricate plot or the famous digressions, on topics from raw sewage to criminal slang, that run on for hundreds of pages?  We’ll consider all of these possibilities in this episode of THM.

Report on Homelessness in Orange County; interviews with unhoused people

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This episode covers 5 real historical figures that helped inspire the novel, and a whirlwind plot summary of the original Victor Hugo novel.

Errata:  For some reason I kept referring to the character Marius as "Marcus" -- please just skip that.  

Here's a link to the image of the Bishop's plaque, identifying that character in the novel is based on the actual Bishop of Deign.

Introduction

Against the odds, an early draft of Les Miserables made it out of Paris, with it’s author – Victor Hugo – in hiding for 9 days and with a price on his head.  The hero who saved the book is his mistress, who was also his copyist.  She smuggled a trunk with the manuscript to Brussels and then the island of Jersey, where she maintained a residence a stone’s throw from where Hugo was living with his wife and family.

When the book is finally published almost a decade later, Les Miserables instantly becomes the most commercially successful novel to that point in history.  Embedded within it are at least 3 different numerological references, what gamers today would call easter eggs.  These numbers are so obscure even the most crazed Les Mis fans would miss their significance.  What were they, and what did they mean?

And Les Mis is a work of fiction, but it very much is a commentary on its time. That time is one where who’s in charge of France shifts dramatically, and violently, about every 10 years.  Hugo writes the book in exile and has to recall the city of Paris from memory.  As he’s doing that, were his characters based on actual historical figures?  Was there an actual Cosette, or Fantine, or even Jean Valjean?

And, as always, what was this book about what was it’s message that has resonated with the audience?

We’ll figure this out and walk through the plot of this 1,500 page masterpiece, which takes as many twists, turns, and side trips as a barricaded French alley.  Let’s do it!  In this episode of Theater History and Mysteries.

Footnotes available in Episode 7 

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It's ​1860, ​and ​Victor ​Hugo, ​having ​taken ​to ​the ​barricades ​against ​the ​hated ​Louis ​Napoleon, ​has ​escaped ​Paris ​with ​a ​price ​on ​his ​head. ​And ​his ​mistress, ​not ​his ​wife, ​has ​successfully ​smuggled ​both ​he ​and ​his ​unfinished ​manuscripts ​out ​of ​France. ​But ​now ​he's ​in ​exile, ​living ​in ​an ​island ​off ​the ​French ​coast ​but ​under ​British ​control. ​How ​is ​he ​going ​to ​get ​his ​masterwork ​published? ​And ​as ​the ​text ​comes ​to ​be ​finished, ​it ​will ​be ​rightly ​remembered ​as ​a ​definitive ​statement ​on ​the ​French ​Revolution. ​But ​where ​in ​the ​book ​is ​the ​Revolution? ​The ​text ​is ​​1,500 ​pages ​long, ​and ​one ​of ​the ​five ​volumes ​is ​entirely ​dedicated ​to ​a ​revolt ​that ​happened ​over ​two ​days ​in ​1832. ​But ​in ​that ​skirmish, ​the ​revolutionaries ​lost, ​and ​all ​historians ​agree ​that ​the ​fight ​had ​almost ​no ​military ​or ​political ​significance. ​In ​fact, ​the ​most ​significant ​outcome ​of ​the ​battle ​is ​the ​painting ​Liberty ​Leading ​the ​People ​by ​Eugene ​Delacroix ​was ​banned ​from ​being ​shown ​in ​public ​because ​it ​might ​inspire ​people ​to ​revolt. ​H ​m, ​that's ​interesting. ​A ​piece ​of ​art ​is ​taken ​down ​from ​display ​to ​its ​possible ​political ​consequences. ​But ​back ​to ​our ​question. ​Surely ​that ​skirmish ​is ​not ​what ​Hugo's ​central ​theme ​is. ​Where ​is ​the ​revolution? ​In ​the ​most ​famous ​novel ​about ​the ​French ​Revolution?  We ​will ​go ​down ​those ​winding, ​narrow ​Parisian ​back ​alleys ​trying ​to ​find ​it ​in ​this ​episode ​of ​Theater ​History ​and ​Mysteries. 

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It’s 1848 and there is yet another violent transfer of power going on in France.  One of its greatest citizens – both a member of the legislative body and the Legion of Honor, has been in hiding for 9 days with a price on his head.  If he’s found by the wrong people he will surely be killed.  He is an author and he does have a pile of manuscripts he’s working on, but first he’s got to get out of France.  How did he do it?  Was he the hero who saved the manuscript that would become the most famous French novel, or was it someone else?  How was the manuscript saved?

The story did get out and did get published and is considered the quintessential story of the French revolution.  But the central event on the barricades isn’t about the big French revolution in 1789 or even later events in the mid-1800s where Hugo himself was ON the barricades.  In fact, the 2 days on the barricades that consume almost a fifth of the whole book had almost no military significance at all.  Why did Hugo center on this event for inspiration instead of the much more significant revolution of the 1790s or the much more consequential events that Hugo himself was a part of?  Where is the revolution in this, the most famous fictional account of the French revolution?

REFERENCES in transcript.

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