The Manuscripts' Secret History

20211h 44m

This series retraces the origins and journeys of major European works of international significance, whose original manuscript has survived through the ages. Each film attempts to analyze an original manuscript as if it were a crucial clue, in hopes to reveal the secrets behind each work.

Production

Logo for Little Big Story
Logo for Bibliothèque nationale de France

Seasons

4 Episodes • Premiered 2021

Still image for The Manuscripts' Secret History season 1 episode 1: Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

1. Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

During a summer afternoon of 1862, Lewis Caroll, takes for a ride the three daughters of Liddell, one of her is Alice. For them, he invents a tale, about a big white rabbit, who passes very close to a little girl also named Alice. She discovers a fantastic underground world...

Still image for The Manuscripts' Secret History season 1 episode 2: The Trial by Franz Kafka

2. The Trial by Franz Kafka

Kafkaesque! This is the right word to describe this incredible, even miraculous, journey of the work of the Prague German-speaking writer. When Kafka died at 40 in 1924, he ordered his friend and executor Max Brod to burn everything down, although he had only published short texts …

Still image for The Manuscripts' Secret History season 1 episode 3: Don Giovanni by Mozart

3. Don Giovanni by Mozart

Mozart himself said about his Don Giovanni: this work is divine, it is perhaps even more beautiful than "The Marriage of Figaro". When he was commissioned by the director of the Prague theater in January 1787, he had eight months left to create one of the most powerful operas in the repertoire.

Still image for The Manuscripts' Secret History season 1 episode 4: Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

4. Les Misérables by Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo spent 16 years writing “Les Misérables”, between Paris, Guernsey and Waterloo. It was a long creative process and not only because the manuscript has 828 leaves. The story of the writing of “Les Miserables” was a true serial novel, very 19th century style.

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