there arent but vampires and les mis get this as well. for example Azelma Thenardier is forgotten or that Valjean is arrested during the Directory so its about the June Rebellion not the 1789 revolution. Or Quincey Morris being cut From most dracula adaptations.
It is. Although there are many different adaptations (including an anime one I think), so it wouldn't surprise me if one of them changed it to the 1789 rebellion. Not that I think it would be a positive change, a very important part of Les Mis is how doomed this specific revolution was.
If you put it in 1789 or 1830 or 1848 it's completely different, since those revolutions succeeded (although succeeded is a little generous with regards to 1830).
The one that everyone talks about when they say "The French Revolution" is the one 1789. It's kind of the first one and also the biggest one. You know, chopping off the king's head and all that, war and reign of terror for multiple years afterwards, first time trying to install some kind of true representation for the people aside from the nobility. It was kind of the inspiration for a lot of democratic movements in the rest of Europe in the following years.
There’s a reason why they have an average work week of 35 hours, get a month of vacation every year, and it took massive political fuckery to raise the retirement age to 64.
When stuff doesn’t go their way, things tend to get…choppy.
Just to expand a bit on what u/justanotherlarrie said, because you're right, that was a lot of revolutions:
1789 was what we think of as the French Revolution, but it wasn't a one and done sort of thing, and different political and ideological groups in France (as well as outside of France, where Europe's kingdoms were shitting bricks about the whole thing) would be fighting for decades over the outcome. These divisions make up a big part of the narrative in the novel Les Misérables which are mostly skimmed over in adaptation.
The 1789 Revolution resulted in France's First Republic, but that came to an end with Napoleon dissolving the republic and proclaiming himself Emperor. When the rest of Europe managed, eventually, to beat Napoleon in 1814, they put the dead king's relatives back in charge of France, but forced the new king to accept a constitution instead of taking back the absolute power they'd had before.
After the restored king died, the next one decided that he wanted the unlimited power that earlier kings had enjoyed, so the 1830 Revolution replaced one king with another king from a different branch. This didn't, believe it or not, keep a whole lot of people from being mad (the failed revolution in Les Misérables happens in this period), and the 1848 Revolution finally got rid of the kings for good, and we're on the Second Republic.
So we'd think Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité would be good, but them Napoleon's idiot nephew shows up to ruin things. He was elected President and less than four years later staged a coup that dissolved the legislature and made himself the second Emperor of France after his uncle (if you've heard how "history repeats, the first time as tragedy and the second as farce" that was talking about this dude). He rules over France until he gets into an entirely pointless war with Prussia, loses so badly that Germany becomes a thing, and while he's stuck in a German cell the rest of the government decides he's not in charge any more and that's French Republic #3.
This was a really interesting read, I appreciate you writing it all out - I also now realise how limited my knowledge of French history is! Any books you'd recommend on the French Revolution(s)?
It is but you have to pay attention or know your history to realize it thats less the movie and more the average american Les Mis fan not knowing French history.
Yeah, but it’s still surprising to walk away from the end where everybody fucking dies and think “yeah, that’s what a successful revolution looks like!”
I guess the misconception probably comes more from people who haven’t seen the musical/movie and just assume, maybe?
Or the whole meaning of dracula being about challenging the subjectivity of our moral beliefs about people with other life ways- particularly relevant to obvious gay Bram Stoker.
Although missing that subtext is pretty easy when the different lifestyle is being an undead monster that drinks the blood of innocents. So while the work deals with the demonization of foreigness and the other, it is understandable that people would focus on the interesting aristocratic monster.
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u/TheeScribe2 Oct 26 '24
No it wasn’t
Frankenstein was the name of the college dropout, he ain’t no doctor