Word: valjeans
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Jean Hateau, citizen of Metz, is reputed to be Victor Hugo's Jean Valjean come to life. Having escaped from Cayenne, French penal settlement in Guiana, in 1904, returned to France under an assumed name, made a modest fortune, become well-known and respected in Metz, he was found out and sent to prison. Fifty prominent people of Metz petitioned the Minister of Justice in Paris for Jean Hateau's release, stating that they wanted him back as a free...
This theme of the reformed criminal being confronted by his past when he has set his hand to good works is as old as Jean Valjean and as young as Jimmy Valentine. In each case it has been as genuine as the character about whom it revolved, and no more so. Unfortunately, Phil Durgan in "We The People" is not sufficiently tangible as a character to let us judge of this. In action he is at best merely a hero, and in the cross-examination of the third act, a hero somewhat at a loss for smart things...