5 Les Mis Easter Eggs in Crack the Stone

You don’t have to have read Les Misérables to enjoy Crack the Stone. But if you have—or even if you’ve just seen the musical—you might pick up on some of the Les Mis Easter Eggs hidden inside the pages.

Below are just a few:

1.     Valshara’s prisoner number is One-Eight-Six-Two. If you write the numbers out you get 1862 – which is the year Les Misérables was first published.

2.     Valshara’s nickname for Makozi is “Kozi” which sounds similar to “Cosette” – the Hugo character he stands in for. In addition, his fairy captors call him “Little Thing,” which is the literal French translation of “Cosette.”

3.     Makozi’s address in the City of B’jeme is “7 Soldier Street, in the West Feather District.” This plays on Jean Valjean and Cosette’s three different addresses in Paris:

a.     7 Rue de l’Homme-Armé (“the Armed Man” Street)

b.     A house on Rue de l’Ouest (West Street)

c.     55 Rue Plumet (“Plume” or “Feather” Street)

4.     In Les Mis, Jean Valjean rescues an old man named Fauchelevent (FOE-shuh-ley-vau). The nuns at the convent where he works cannot pronounce his name, so they shorten it when speaking to him. In Crack the Stone, Valshara rescues Folorunso (foh-loh-roon-SHO) which is an actual Yoruba (Nigerian) name that sounds remarkably similar. Valshara cannot pronounce his name, either.

5.     This one’s just for the Les Mis musical fans: The character of Etsuko stands in for Éponine, who in the musical sings the beloved song “On My Own” while walking in the rain. In Crack the Stone, when Valshara sees Etsuko wandering the marketplace at night, it is raining and she is singing—but Valshara cannot make out any of the words.   

Did you notice any of these? Were there any other Les Mis Easter Eggs that you picked up on?

And if you haven’t read the book yet, you can find it on Amazon in paperback and ebook, or you can read it for FREE as part of Kindle Unlimited.