The Broadway musical Les Misérables is based on a novel by which author?

The Broadway musical Les Misérables is based on a novel by Victor Hugo.

Hugo’s French novel Les Misérables was published in 1862 and follows characters whose lives intersect during a period of political and social upheaval in nineteenth-century France. The musical condenses the enormous novel into a dramatic story centered on Jean Valjean, Javert, Fantine, Cosette, and Marius.

The musical’s score was composed by Claude-Michel Schönberg, with French lyrics by Alain Boublil and Jean-Marc Natel and English lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer. It opened on Broadway in 1987 after its London production. The title is often translated as “The Miserable Ones,” although English-language productions retain the original French title. Hugo was also the author of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.