What is “Les Miserables?”

How many characters from “Les Miserables” do you know besides Jean Valjean? On the July 16, 2014 episode of Jeopardy!, one of the clues in “A Chapter in the Novel” was “Marius Enters the Darkness” and nobody buzzed in. Marius Pontmercy is one of the major characters in Les Miserables and someone going on Jeopardy should recognize the name. You don’t have to know who he is, but in case you’re interested, he’s a young student who falls in love with Cosette. When he thinks he has lost her, he joins the Friends of the ABC as they take part in the 1832 June Rebellion. He comes very close to dying but is saved by Jean Valjean, and later marries Cosette. Eddie Redmayne played the character in the 2012 movie musical with Hugh Jackman. Nick Jonas played Marius on Broadway.

What are the chances of getting a clue on this particular novel or the musical based on it? Not bad at all. We can’t count how many times we have heard Alex Trebek say “Les Miserables” on Jeopardy!

 
The cluewriters are certainly not trying to stump anyone with that clue either. If they wanted to stump the players, well, Les Miserables literally has more chapter titles than you can shake a stick at. You’re never going to see “Details concerning the Cheese-Dairies of Pontarlier” or “Tholomyes is so Merry that he sings a Spanish Ditty” on Jeopardy! The cluewriters are not going to expect you to know a minor character as in “Madame Victurnien expends Thirty Francs on Morality.” We don’t even think they would use this chapter title “The Sewer and Its Surprises,” even though it is not unreasonable. In 2010, they did have a $200 clue in “Places in Literature”: Jean Valjean’s flight through Paris’ sewers is one of the most famous scenes in this novel.

Here are some clues with main characters from “Les Miserables” excluding Jean Valjean. There are far more than these but we eliminated duplicates.

ROMANCE IN LITERATURE $1600: The love between Marius & Cosette cannot be stilled in this Hugo novel
THEATER $400: It’s the musical in which Fantine sings “I Dreamed a Dream”
HISTORICAL NOVELS $800: “Cosette”, part 2 of this classic novel, begins with a chapter titled “Waterloo”
MUSICAL BY CHARACTERS $200: Fantine & her daughter Cosette
THROWING THE BOOK AT YOU $800: “Javert in Disarray” is a chapter in this 1862 tale
GOOD TOMES $600: Book Four of this French novel is called “Javert Off the Track”
FOREWORDS $1600: Its foreword says the “singularly lackluster” Marius is “supposedly a portrait of the youthful Victor Hugo himself
GOOD TOMES $200: Characters in this Victor Hugo classic include the Bishop of Digne, Inspector Javert & Cosette
KILLER MUSICALS $200: A stray bullet ends the life of Eponine in this epic musical (don’t “Mis” it!)

There are only four other major characters we didn’t see any clues on: the evil Thénardiers, who mistreated Cosette when she was entrusted to their care; Enjolras, leader of the Friends of the ABC; and Gavroche, the Thénardiers’s son. Conceivably, the Bishop of Digne could show up as Bishop Myriel — that was his last name.

Finally, here is our favorite Les Miserables clue from 2007:
DISCARDED LITERARY ENDINGS $800: What the heck, thought Javert. It was only a loaf of freakin’ bread! “Take off, Jean,” he said. “Don’t waste my time”

UPDATE: Here are some of the Les Miserables clues that have come up since this post first appeared in July 2014:

2017:
10/17 – A NOVEL IDEA $4,000 (DD): Chapters in this classic include “5 June 1832” & “Marius Enters the Darkness”
06/26 – FRENCH LITERATURE $1200: In this 1862 work, Victor Hugo wrote, “No one ever keeps a secret so well as a child”
06/20 – IT’S ALRIGHT, MA (I’M ONLY BLEEDING) $800: In the show “Les Miserables”, Fantine coughs up blood because she has this bacterial lung disease
05/18 – WRITTEN IN 18-SOMETHING $400: This 1862 novel whose title translates to “The Wretched” made its author a lot of bread
05/05 – LITERATURE $400: In “Les Miserables” he’s imprisoned for 19 years after stealing a loaf of bread
02/15 – WHAT A CHARACTER! $1200: Marius & Fantine are characters in this 2012 movie musical
01/04 – 19th CENTURY NOVEL CHARACTERS $1,700 (DD): Marius Pontemercy, Gavroche

2016:
07-19 – THESE AREN’T BIBLE BOOKS $200: Part of this 1862 French novel tells of how prisoner 24601 became prisoner 9430
04-07 – THE FINAL CHAPTER $800: 1851: “The Chase–Third Day”
03-29 – LITERARY DEMISES $2000: This inspector who pursues Jean Valjean in “Les Miserables” commits suicide by jumping into the Seine

2015:
11-18 – SHOW TUNES $1200: “Do You Hear The People Sing?” & “Bring Him Home” are songs from this musical
09-24 – BOOKS BY CHAPTER TITLES $400: “Javert Off the Track”
07-01 – THE WRITE STUFF $200: He wrote, “While ignorance and poverty persist… books such as” “Les Miserables” “cannot fail to be of value”
06-22 – PLAY INTO FILM $400: Songs in this 2012 film that came from the Broadway musical include “At The End Of The Day” & “Javert’s Suicide”
04-09 – HELENA BONHAM CARTER ROLES $400: As Madame Thenardier in this big-screen musical, Helena was partnered with Sacha Baron Cohen
03-10 – CELEBRITY NAME RECOGNITION $400: Amanda Seyfried’s last name rhymes with “my bread”, which is a factor in this 2012 pic with Amanda as Cosette
02-04 – BROADWAY MUSICALS BY SONG $400: “The People’s Song” & “Paris”