IT IS the most read French novel outside France and inspired numerous film adaptations and a hit West End musical that ran for more than 20 years. But Victor Hugo's epic novel, Les Misérables, also spawned France's longest-running literary spat of the new century.
The saga of the ex-convict Jean Valjean struggling to redeem his criminal past against the backdrop of Paris's 19th-century social turmoil and revolution might seem impossible to improve on. But when a French journalist and novelist was commissioned by a top Paris publishing house to write two sequels bringing a key character back from the dead, Hugo's great-great grandson, Pierre Hugo, went straight to court. He said the new books violated Hugo's moral and intellectual rights.
Last night, after seven years of legal wrangling, Paris's court of appeal finally ruled in favour of the publishers and the two sequels, saying they did not constitute an attack on Hugo's rights.
The verdict, seen as a landmark decision, was hailed as victory by French publisher Plon and author Francois Ceresa. Several other publishing houses were said to be standing by to develop other sequels, including a continuation of that other great untouchable, Flaubert's Madame Bovary. The row caused intense speculation over what Hugo, an impassioned political campaigner for social justice and against censorship, would have made of the modern takes on his work.
Some theorists wondered why a film adaptation of Les Misérablesthat transposed it to the second World War, an earlier sequel in 1996, or the sale of tacky souvenirs linked to the novel had not caused a fuss. Pierre Hugo's main argument was that his family had not been consulted over the 2001 books, which came out just before the celebrations of Hugo's bicentenary. Crucially, he objected to the resurrection and personality change of the obsessional police officer Javert, whom Hugo had jump into the Seine and drown at the end of his masterpiece. - ( Guardianservice)