[paint_your_wagon]

Christian parable? Hogwash. I read the book years ago, and the one of the things that stuck in my mind was Victor Hugo’s repeated insistance that the problems of the poor would be wiped out once universal education was established. He mentioned several times that all of the ills that befell Jean Valjean were a direct result of his lack of the ability to read. Victor Hugo, as the narrator, used his story to push a “social justice” agenda.

[longfellowsmuse]

I tend to agree with you. My MIL saw this on Christmas and wants hubby and I to go see it. I saw the musical myself in Boston many years ago, I was a teenager at the time so while enjoying an outstanding performance I am not sure how much I actually got out of the message.

That being said I have no intention of seeing this in the theatre. I really loathe the hollywood set and their liberal/communist pablum that the sheeple populace eagerly laps up. Truthfully they wouldn’t know a christian message if Christ himself in the flesh was explaining it to them. They do however long for a communist revolution that would create the desired “utopia.”

[Mercat]

You’re correct. Hugo was a committed socialist. He also however, valued capitalism and Christianity. He was a complex person. His great uncle was a doctor of the church which no doubt influenced him.

[Fiji Hill]

I read the book years ago, and the one of the things that stuck in my mind was Victor Hugo’s repeated insistance that the problems of the poor would be wiped out once universal education was established. He mentioned several times that all of the ills that befell Jean Valjean were a direct result of his lack of the ability to read. Victor Hugo, as the narrator, used his story to push a “social justice” agenda.

Whittaker Chambers noted the flaws of Les Misérables--"its melodrama, its windy philosophizing, its clots of useless knowledge, its overblown rhetoric and repellent posturings"--but despite these shortcomings, he considered it "a great act of the human spirit."