I concur. Victor Hugo does have living descendants, and one of them tried to stop a "sequel" from being written:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/jan/31/books.france

He lost the case, and rightfully so. He's several generations removed from the author, and whatever rightful royalties Hugo and his immediate family deserved has long expired, as well as the right to control the IP. The sequel might suck, but there is no denying the right to write one.

Everything by great authors like Hugo, Dumas, Dickens, Twain, etc. is in public domain and I'm always for modernized translations to encourage a modern audience to read them. No need to beg anyone, or pay off some estate or long-removed descendant to do this!

Les Miz is best known for the 1862 Charles Wilbour translation, and that one is free on the Internet. The more modern translations started with Norman Denny (1976) , and others, such as Fahnestock, Donougher and Rose had stepped in with alternate new translations, with the language varying from "slightly modernized but still based on Wilbour" to "ultra-modern using contemporary slang and terminology".

https://welovetranslations.com/2021/07/29/whats-the-best-translation-of-les-miserables/