Another Story Must Begin

Rev Jonathan Meyer, author of the bestselling Another Story Must Begin: A Lent Course based on Les Misérables, finds our present times mirrored in the 19^th century novel …

One of the advantages of lockdown has been the opportunity for a little extra reading. Thinking it was some time since I had read Dickens I decided I would re-read Martin Chuzzlewit. Although filled with some entertaining and fascinating portraits of quirky individuals and exaggerated stereotypes as is so typical of Dickens it is not a particularly coherent narrative. However, what did strike me was Dickens's portrayal of the United States. He visited America in the 1840s to try and secure royalties on his publications – without success. He was not impressed and in the novel he paints a withering portrait of American society and aspirations. What struck me especially was the way in which his perception had much in common with present attitudes, in particular the tendency to be prepared to be cavalier with the truth and to overemphasise the potency of individuals, regardless of their shortcomings.

It is now sometime since I wrote the Lent book for DLT, Another Story Must Begin based on the musical film, Les Misérables. So perhaps I should not be surprised to have found our present times mirrored in the 19th century novel, in France and in England.

The backdrop to Hugo’s novel is the little-known insurrection which took place in Paris on 6th June 1832. Since the revolution of 1789, there were several insurrections and periods of civil disturbance, as indeed there have been from time to time throughout Paris’ history. The rising of 1832 was easily put down and did not cause the authorities undue concern. It gave him a powerful setting for his story and a framework in which to make his case for social justice. The novel was published thirty years later, which indicates that the question of poverty was still very much on the political agenda as it is today.

While the pandemic has not led to civil disobedience widely in this country (at least to date), there have been disturbances in Holland and elsewhere. I pray that this will not become more widespread as we begin to assess the cost to people’s livelihoods and the way in which those who were already struggling have been disproportionately affected.

Both the film and Hugo's original novel, Les Misérables are full of theological references both implicit and explicit, which make the story perfect for Lenten reflection. One intriguing example is the way in which he describes those involved in the food riots in Paris as seeking the “Edenisation” of the world. The ideal of returning to paradise, to our prelapsarian state. There has been much reflection on the present pandemic and how we should seek to learn from its effects. How often have we heard people say that this is an opportunity to learn lessons, whether in regard to travel and its impact on the environment or how we care for those who are struggling to feed themselves, brought to the forefront of debate by Marcus Rashford?

Halfway through the novel, there is a chapter entitled ‘The Peep-hole’. It describes Marius contemplating whether to look through a hole in the flimsy plaster of his garret into the room next door. He finally does take a glimpse. In fact, he is looking in at the squalid quarters inhabited by the Thénadiers. What he sees is a picture of poverty both material and spiritual. He had chosen to refuse the riches of his grandfather, but these people had no choice. And worse, these creatures were only separated from him by the flimsiest of partitions and he was unaware and uninterested in their plight. These are the eponymous people of Hugo’s story, Les Misérables.

We get an insight into what Hugo understands by poverty as it is explored in the novel and portrayed in the musical film. Fantine seduced and then cast aside to care for her child Cosette is an innocent victim. Through oppression and the weight of her responsibility for Cosette, she falls. Fantine is overwhelmed by her predicament and falls from grace, so to speak; how many find themselves in that position today in our own society even if for different reasons?

Social justice and the imperative of making people aware of the way it dehumanises people was Hugo’s passion. Les Misérables are those at the bottom of the pile. The dispossessed, those who struggle to earn enough to feed themselves and their families.

That alone is enough to remind us that these examples of social injustice and poverty that inspired Victor Hugo over a hundred years ago are very much alive today and, in many respects, have been exacerbated by the pandemic. The shame that we live in times of similar deprivation should be enough to encourage us to look at these issues through the eyes of a great nineteenth century storyteller. That is what I tried to do in Another Story Must Begin and it is even more pressing today.

Jonathan Meyer is rector of Winchelsea, Icklesham and Winchelsea Beach in East Sussex. He was previously priest-in-charge of St. Mary the Virgin in Ewelme, which was used as the residence of the Bishop of Digne in the pivotal moment in the Les Misérables movie. He ran a successful Lent course in his parish, on which this book is based.

Another Story Must Begin: A Lent Course based on Les Misérables is available now in paperback, priced £5.99.