Stacy King

Les Misérables

Sam Pulliam

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this manga in exchange for an honest review!

Les Miserables is a story that has always fascinated me. I was first introduced to it via the musical and really wanted to read the book by Victor Hugo but was deterred by the size. It’s still on my list; one day I’ll tackle it but this manga adaptation held me over in the meantime and might have even given me an extra push to prioritize it this year. Since I haven’t read the source material, I can’t compare it to that but I can compare it to the musical and judge it as its own story.

Since this is a manga, I want to start with the artwork. The characters are so beautiful, particularly Cosette and Eponine and the scenery felt really fleshed out so I had a great feel for the atmosphere. There were a couple of times where the action was confusing to me, though. I wasn’t quite sure what happened in a scene with Fantine but it was explained on a later page. There was also a moment in a battle scene where I wasn’t quite sure what happened but overall, it didn’t hinder my understanding of the story.

The storytelling was also great for me. There were things I didn’t remember from the musical either because I forgot or because they are from the book only and that gave me something new to add to my understanding of Hugo’s work.She I’m also just inspired by the themes of religion, oppressive poverty, and revolution. It feels even more important that it did the first time I encountered the story given the current social and political climate.

(view spoiler)[Lastly, I want to talk about the treatment of Fantine in this story. I will go ahead and say MINOR SPOILERS ahead because that’s the only way to talk about this. I was curious how the manga would approach the fact that Fantine has to resort to prostitution for money. The art doesn’t show anything more than a man leaving Fantine under a blanket and leaving money but it is enough so that readers know what happened without it being too jarring for readers. I thought it was handled well. One thing I want to bring up, though is later when Fantine is in court for prostitution. She describes herself as a “bad girl” which is probably a sentiment expressed in the novel given the religious overtones. From a modern lens this becomes an issue regarding the stigma around sex work so that is something to think about. (hide spoiler)]