Les Misérables

Les Misérables is a novel by the French Human writer Victor Hugo, published in 1862.

It was one of Michael Eddington's favorite books and when in 2373, Captain Sisko was obsessively pursuing him for having betrayed Starfleet and the Federation in order to join the Maquis, Eddington recommended that Sisko read the book and pay close attention to the character of Inspector Javert who pursed a man, Jean Valjean, for twenty years for having stolen a loaf of bread. Eddington saw himself as Valjean, the victim of a monstrous injustice who spends his entire life helping people, making noble sacrifices for others; a romantic dashing figure fighting the good fight against insurmountable odds.

Sisko, who had read the book, did not care for Edington's comparison but during his pursuit of Eddington, he decided to read it again coming to the realization that he was seen as the villain, as Javert, in this scenario and had to behave accordingly. (DS9: "For the Uniform")

The use of Les Misérables in "For the Uniform" had its origins in input from Ira Steven Behr, Hans Beimler, and Ronald D. Moore. After Behr thought up the idea of Eddington sending a book to Sisko, Beimler and Moore selected Les Misérables to be the specific book. (AOL chat, 1997)

It should be noted that throughout the episode, both Captain Sisko and Michael Eddington erroneously attribute Javert's pursuit of Valjean to Valjean stealing a loaf of bread when instead Valjean's crime was breaking parole.

External links

• Les Misérables at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• Les Misérables at Wikipedia
• Complete text of Les Misérables at The Literature Network