Meeting Jean Valjean

So, the detailed description of Bienvenu's saintliness didn't exactly add fireworks to the opening, however, I am starting to get into the book. It started with the description of the Bish attending the deathbed of a former revolutionary and having a bit of an epiphany about the political situation of the time. I enjoyed reading the descriptive language and the Bishop's reactions, although I could see G was acting as Hugo's mouthpiece here. 

This was followed by the townspeople's suspicions about the mysterious man visiting. Here, the character is introduced gradually, allowing the reader to speculate why he's being treated like that instead of being given a whole history upfront as we get with the Bishop. Perhaps H wants us to see the man through the Bishop's eyes instead of judging him on the basis of his background. So far, Valjean's ambiguity (is he a hero or a villain?) provides a wonderful contrast to the moral certainty of the Bishop. I suppose all that stuff about the silver candlesticks and cutlery must've been a French custom I don't really get - I know the Bish was trying to show Val some respect, but it seemed rather a cruel thing to do to the poor convict, like he was trying to deliberately tempt him or something. 

Anyway, it was good that Val wasn't completely reformed straight away by the promise he made the Bishop; that we saw one more act of cruelty that Jean does almost automatically, having been imprisoned for such a long time with no idea of reform, before he realises properly that he has to choose between a life of crime or a life of trying to keep his promise to the Bishop. In the metaphorical chapter Sea and Shadow the ocean is compared to "...the pitiless social darkness into which the penal system casts those it has condemned, an unfathomable waste of misery." (Penguin, 1982, p103) and the convict is the drowning man, thrown overboard. Hugo highlights the systems both in France and England where prisons existed to harshly punish rather than to reform. The only benefit that Jean has gained from his experience is the ability to read - he has earned some money from working in prison for nineteen years but has left feeling cheated with little chance of redemption or assistance to gain employment or to begin a new life. Wherever he goes he is accompanied by a yellow slip telling people that he is dangerous, so naturally, people are suspicious of him. It is only by chance that he meets someone who is willing to give him his dignity and the benefit of the doubt; as we are told, he has left prison nursing a bitter rage against society for his imprisonment for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his sister's starving family and subsequent repeat punishments for his escape attempts, this is a choice of becoming "the best of men...or a monster of depravity". (Ibid, p116). 

Just a little word about the structure. I'm not sure if this is an 18th Century French novel thing or a Victor thing, but the book is divided up very thoroughly in a way that helps the reader - the book is divided up into parts, then books, then chapters. Each chapter is only a few pages long and there are not that many chapters in each book, which is great for spurring you on to finish a book . Even if you are reading a chapter that seems to have no bearing on the story, you know that it will soon be over. It is much easier to read than the two books I read that preceded it! 

So, onto Book 3.