London had seen a handful of adaptations of Victor Hugo's "Les Miserables" after the book's first publication, but under the direction of Edward Stirling, Bayle Bernard's adaptation was a theatrical extravaganza of Victorian proportion. Produced at London's prestigious Drury Lane, it opened in March of 1869 and starred the highly acclaimed actor Charles Dillon in the role Jean Valjean. Bayle Bernard was a highly regarded playwright, critic and novelist of the Victorian era having written over a hundred plays including the well known "The Kentuckian" and "The Mummy." The son of English comic actor John Bernard, he was born in Boston and later moved with his family to London where he spent the rest of his life. When he turned twenty he had his first professional production and would go on to have a play produced in London every season for the next 45 years, some years with as many as three different plays.