Preface

Les Miserables is about history; it's also about now. This fanmix sets the date in which the events of the story took place the same distance from the year 2025, as they were from Hugo when he published the text in 1862. Each song on the mix came out in that year (or one either side) of the equivalent distance from now that events took place in Hugo's readers memories, and has been chosen in part to sound extremely evocative of that time and place.

This fanmix invites you to consider: when the book was first published in 1862, how far away did the story feel? Were the events within living memory? Did the people feel 'modern' or 'old-fashioned'? Do you imagine the characters as people like yourself, or people like your grandparents? Does what happened then feel like a part of the ongoing now? I started wondering this while participating in the 2025 Les Mis Letters community, which reads the book at a pace of one chapter per day, and I chose music because it's such a powerful trigger for memory.

In terms of the songs reflecting the characters and story, this won't be the most insightful reading of the text you've ever encountered. I have barely read Les Miserables, I just like the kind of people who believe what this book is saying is important enough they want to think about it every day for the rest of their lives. Some songs are a couple of years out if they better suit the plot, but only if they sound plausibly of that time and of an artist active in that time.

The priority was great songs, key genres and artists, but most importantly, to reflect on distance and time. Our protagonist is history. Our theme is the century.

Downloads

1. Valjean (1958 - 1978) [43:26]
2. Fantine (1980 - 1981) [27:06]
3. Fantine (1983 - 1986) [30:45]
4. Marius (1991 - 1995) [35:19]
5. Paris (1995 - 1996) [43:03]
6. [Total runtime: 3 hours]