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The Bishop of D----.

Chaos Lord Krion

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Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 12:47 pm


	In many classic books, such as Victor Hugo's Les Miserables (which I have just begun to read), in reference to names or places there will be a single letter followed by a prolonged dash. I never gave them mind in the past, but now that I am reading Les Mis. my curiosity has finally been aroused. Is there any back story to these dashes or any special meaning? I would greatly appreciate any explanation.

Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2008 9:01 pm


	I don't know why. I think it had something to do with the translations. I had to read it in 7th grade and my teacher said that the cities' names were hard to pronounce anyways. Coincidently, I was thinking about this topic yesterday...

Niccea Majeare

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Patron with a Mission

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Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2008 10:05 am


	I was told the reason for those dashes was to leave out names of cities and people, but I am not sure about that, now that I read the explanation above me. Personally, I always thought the reason for the dashes was simply because everyone already knew what the word was supposed to be. -shrugs-

Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2008 4:32 pm


	Well. I'm posting on this again. I'm a big fan of the musical and I was googling it to see if I could find if it would ever come to my area again. I found the Wikipedia article on it. Now I know Wikipedia is rarely credible, but I found the names of D and M sur M. Digne and Montreuil-sur-Mer So why they are left out of the translations. I have no idea. Here is the article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_MisÃ©rables_(musical)

Niccea Majeare

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MyOwnBestCritic

Dapper Dabbler

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Posted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 7:10 pm


	In modern times, it's a way to distinguish people yet still grant anonymity. For example, a blogger could post: "And today I went out with K---... he's so much hotter than J---, but he isn't too bright." Now, if either John or Kevin happen to read this, they wouldn't be too pleased. Thus, their names are omitted. In Les Mis? I couldn't tell you for sure. It could be any of the reasons someone else already said, or it could be that the translator was drunk or something. >.> (Does the musical count as a version of it? sweatdrop )

Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2008 3:36 pm


	It is one of my favorite novels, but I have no idea of the meaning of those dashes. Interesting.

snicky82

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