Figures
Jason Kuznicki on Apr 14th 2006 07:51 pm |
What character from Les Miserables are you? I knew the answer to this one long before I took the quiz, unfortunately.
| I’m Enjolras! |
|---|
| A person with a cause, I charm everyone around me with my revolutionary ideas (not to mention my natural charisma). Unfortunately, I don’t have very good social skills, and my impulsiveness is liable to get me in over my head. |
Via Cliopatria.
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I’ve never seen Les Mis and have no desire to do so. Do I lose my “gay” card?
I’ve never seen it either, and I have no desire to. I, um, read the book.
LOL. I forgot it was book. I obviously never read it.
My results:
You’re Eponine! Spunky, resourceful, and fearless, you don’t take a lot of guff from the world, and sometimes you’re kind of freaky. Secretly, though, you just want to be loved in spite of your attitude and your goofy hat.
Jason, actually I’ve been meaning for a while now to ask you: do you have any recommendations concerning the best translations of Hugo’s work available? Specifically, I want to find a good translation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, but I’d of course also like to get a good translation of Les Miserables as well. Browsing Amazon can be a minefield of uncertainty, and since you know translations I was wondering if you had any recommendations off the top of your head.
Also, I’m not gay, I tend to dislike musicals (although I love opera) and I have seen the play (at the National in D.C. a few years back). I really liked it, and I still like the music. I’ve also heard the entire old Orsen Wells radio series. I have also seen a performance of Martin Guerre by the same writers of the musical Les Miserables. It was a big failure, and never went anywhere. But I liked it as well.
I’m Jean Valjean!
(No, really.) Some people may see me as a little sanctimonious, but though I care deeply about doing right, I’m not above a little skulduggery in a good cause. Being in touch with my spiritual side doesn’t make me an easy target… on the contrary, in fact.
Which Les Miserables Character Are You?
Now I only have to figure out who He is ……….
Jon and Jason–
Since you aren’t communists, the gay cards have already been revoked. Soon, the lavender mafia is going to break into your homes and redecorate.
I’m Enjolras.
Just like Jason.
Of course.
Scott — Of course.
Chris — The Norman MacAfee translation is readily available and considered definitive to my knowledge. If you’re going to tackle _Les Mis_, be careful about abridged versus full editions, and choose the one that you want. I highly recommend the full text.
I also know that some very, very bad translations of Victor Hugo do exist: I found one translation of his novel _93_ that I believe was done during the early twentieth century, and it was was simply atrocious, translating literally (!) all of the weird idiomatic French of Revolutionary Paris.
My favorite mistranslated line: “Stop! Stop in the name of the little black boy!” But the “petit bonhomme noir” was meant to be a blasphemous reference to the Christ child, one that only makes sense when uttered by a dechristianizing sans-culotte.
Well, I’m Jean Valjean, and thus will defend the wonderful sentimentality and theatricality of Les Mis even if other more critical minds poo-poo it. Fantine’s death-bed plea for Cosette compares favorably to Madame Butterfly’s death plea in my mind.
I remember spending all of one summer, I think ‘91 reading Les Mis with a dictionary because of all the words I didn’t know, mostly having to do with French apparel. And, blush, I used to know every single word of the entire musical, as I think Scott did too!