Historical Authenticity in Les Mis

It seems a good time to turn my attention to how Hugo conveys a sense of historical authenticity in Les Miserables. Hugo skilfully weaves the lives of his characters around historical events and uses a number of techniques to convey historical authenticity.

Locations are an extremely important part of the book, particularly as many of the locations had subsequently disappeared by the time Hugo was writing. The Bastille Elephant acting as a home for Gavroche and his brothers is a vivid example of the way that location is used. It works to ‘anchor’ the narrative by referencing a real place that would have been instantly recognisable, and also on a symbolic level representing the defeat of Napoleon and the poverty of the city.  

Image taken from Wikipedia

Hugo links events in the lives of the characters around historical dates, for example, the presence of Pontmercy and Thenardier at Waterloo. The narrative steadily progresses up to the events of the Revolution itself. Both the Revolution and the Battle of Waterloo are dealt with in retrospective essays where Hugo deals with the consequences and his theory that there was a kind of destiny to both events. Although it doesn’t seem to make sense that he has gone so far back when first reading the book, the Battle of Waterloo and the defeat of Napoleon are relevant to the events in that they have lead to the amount of poverty and lack of justice there is for the ‘Miserables’ of the story and for the Revolution itself. 

Book 11 begins with Gavroche, who acts as a powerful symbol within the book as he is probably one of the most wretched characters in his youth and homelessness. Yet he never succumbs to being made helpless and despite his poverty and the way that he has been brought up (by the despicable Thernadiers), he is also shown to be a moral character - although he will engage in dubious activities to feed himself he will generously give a purse of money to Mabeuf and take care of two homeless lost boys (without realising that they are his own brothers). Here, he enthusiastically arms himself ready for the Revolution (albeit with a broken cavalry pistol he has ‘borrowed’). He lost his two brothers twelve weeks ago having sent them out one day when he was occupied elsewhere. He is concerned about them, but not over-worried. He joins with the ABC Society, along with Mabeuf, who is a bit confused but supportive of the Revolution. More people join and Courfeyrac encounters Eponine, who has disguised herself as a boy and is trying to find Marius. They all head towards the barricade. 

In Book 12 Hugo describes the Rue de la Chanvrerie barricade using the same style as he has described the events of 5^th June 1832 and the Battle of Waterloo. The book is entitled ‘Corinth’ and the first chapter is entitles ‘The History of Corinth from its Foundation’. This is a pun on the fact that far from being about the Classical Greek world, this is about a tavern which Hugo has cleverly chosen to set the site for both his narrative and for a new barricade. It is clever as this is a real location, both the street and the tavern itself, but has subsequently disappeared in 1847 (by the time the book is published in 1862). The tavern is used as a location for a meeting place for the ABC Society. 

Two members of the Society are at the tavern already. Laigle de Meux and Joly dine there with Grantaire who makes a speech about God’ role in the Revolution, that there is somehow little sense in man’s affairs, which makes revolutions necessary. They also discuss Marius’s love life. Gavroche gives them a message from Enjorlas telling them to join him and the ABC Society at the barricade, but they decide to stay in the tavern drinking instead. Hugo sets the scene: ‘The room was dark, with dense clouds smothering the daylight. There was no one in the tavern or in the street, everyone having gone off to witness the happenings.’ (p925). 

 

The ABC Society turns up brandishing weapons and decides to build a barricade near the tavern with bits of the tavern. Hugo adds authenticity here by talking of newspaper accounts: ‘The newspapers of the day, which reported the “almost unassailable” barricade in the Rue de la Chanvrerie reached the level of the second storey, were in error.’ (p933). There is also an air of nobility and romance created by Hugo reporting that ‘these gallant young me, brothers in this supreme moment in their lives’ (p935) recited love poems while they were waiting. It is evident that Hugo agrees with the aims of the Revolution by the way he depicts it, as well as the imagery of the fairy light on the small barricade and the torch on the larger one, a symbol of hope of fifty men waiting for sixty thousand. 

In the meantime, Gavroche recognises Javert and the revolutionaries tie him up. In his certainty that he is in the right he has no fear that he will be shot afterwards, despite the threat from Enjorlas. Hugo builds tension by talking of a ‘tragic picture’ and ‘epic and savage horror’ at the beginning of the next chapter (p939). It relates how Le Cabuc joins the revolutionaries in the tavern, an unrecognised apparent drunkard who wants to shoot from a house at the Rue Saint-Denis, but is refused entry and shoots one of the occupants. Enjorlas steps in a shoots Le Cabuc, making a speech that as revolutionaries they must be above moral suspicion. Again, to add authenticity, Hugo talks of a police report of 1832 that he has seen in 1848 that reveals that ‘Le Cabuc’ was a police informer called Clasquesous: ‘His life had been lived in shadow, his end was total darkness.’ (p942). The chapter ends with Eponine joining them.  

In conclusion, I think that in writing Les Miserables Hugo aimed not for complete historical accuracy, but to give an overall sense of the period and to make the reader connect to the events depicted. Sometimes this is by invoking an emotional response in the way he depicts characters such as Fantine, Valjean and Gavroche but sometimes it is by using real events, locations and fictional newspaper reports to make the reader feel that what he is writing is authentic.

Part 4, Books 1-10. The Lovers Meet and There is a Riot

Part 4 opens with another of Hugo’s historic discourses, in this case the history of 1831-1832 and the end of the Bourbon Restoration, another sweeping retrospective resembling his description of the Battle of Waterloo. Again, fate is a major part of it, ‘Revolutions are not born of chance but of necessity…It happens because it had to happen.’ (p721). Louis-Philippe of Orleans is made King (in real life Hugo gets made a peer by him in 1841). It’s evidently a time of intrigue what with the secretive revolutionary societies sending out coded messages, people spying on each other, rumours and gossip, secret documents, people amassing weapons and the ABC planning for future events.

Meanwhile, Marius moves in with Courfeyrac, fearing that he will be forced to testify against Thenard, breaking his promise to his father. He anonymously sends money he can’t afford to the family, getting into debt with his friends. He’s heartbroken, confused and unemployed. In fact, he spends most of the subsequent books being generally wet and pathetic. Javert is still looking for some of the criminals after his triumph at Maison Thenardier. The criminals, in particular Brujon are busy planning something which Hugo doesn’t let us know that much about. Eponine is released. Mabeuf encounters her in his garden where she asks where Marius lives. She’s improved in beauty but is still pretty ragged and shabby.

Book 3 returns to a period before Marius fell in love with Cosette, to Valjean and Cos’s new homeand in particular how Valjean feels about her. Although they were both happy at the convent, Val fears that he will lose her if she takes the veil, so moves them both before this can happen. He is still jealous of anything and anyone that he fears will take her away from him, even though this is before she grows into her great beauty. His fears grow as she grows more beautiful and becomes a consummate clothes horse, and despite her hiding her love for Marius, Val is pretty suspicious of him. In the meantime, the former prisoner is invited to join the National Guard and he continues to remain alert against his potential discovery by the police. Following a lovely walk with Cosette, the pair of them witness a chain gang on the way to the galleys. Valjean is disturbed, but doesn’t confess to Cos despite her questions as to what it meant.

Book 4 focuses on Mabeuf and what happened to Gavroche after the incident at Maison Thenard. Gavroche witnesses Valjean saving Mabeuf from being attacked by a criminal called Montparnasse. Gavroche is impressed because it’s obvious that Valjean is much older than the criminal, and he passionately lectures him that his preference for the idle life of stealing from the defenceless rather than finding a job will subsequently lead to the much harder work of being on the treadmill; becoming works’ ‘Negro slave’ (p793). ‘Work is the law of life, and to reject it as boredom is to submit to it as torment.’ (ibid). Valjean describes working men with an almost holy reverence, whereas idleness is compared with hell. Even if the criminal is not caught, his life will still be insufferably difficult. Even just choosing to be idle is wrong and an offense to society: ‘To live in idleness on the body politic is to be useless, that is to say harmful, and it can only end in misery. Woe to those who choose to be parasites, they become vermin!’ (p795). Valjean ends up by giving him his purse, which the criminal has no compunction in accepting, having dismissed his speech. Gavroche sees his chance and pickpockets the thief whilst Montparnasse is mulling over what Valjean has said, however, far from keeping the purse for himself as his despicable parents would have done, he anonymously gives it to Mabeuf who believes that it has fallen from heaven. Gavroche is like some sort of junior Valjean, but more criminal and wily.

Having not seen Marius for a while, Cos develops a brief crush on Theodule. Valjean goes on a brief visit somewhere he doesn’t reveal to Cosette and while he is away she becomes convinced that there is an intruder. When he comes back they decide that it is a chimney stack. She also finds a mysterious stone with a notebook underneath, containing Marius’s obsessive ramblings about her. Rather than freaking out that he’s some sort of creepy stalker she decides that she doesn’t fancy Theodule that much after all, she is totally, utterly and completely in love with Marius. She meets him in the garden and is literally overcome with emotion. Throughout the episode Hugo emphasises the purity and innocence of their love, Cos knows little of love and romance having grown up in the convent and Marius has never had any experience with any other women either, however, the description does end up rather sentimental and sweet. Marius so far has to be the most irritating character in the book, he started out well with his fervent political beliefs and his determination to make it on his own, but quickly degenerated into a big weepy lovesick puppy when he first saw Cos. The description of love is definitely very characteristic of novels of this period where sentimentality can reign supreme and purity is valued above all else, particularly in the case of the women. Yet hopefully both characters will be saved by the strength developed through hardship that they have both endured.

Luckily, Book 6 moves away from the lovers back to the underworld where two of the Thenard children have been hired out to Magnon (the mother of Gillenormand’s illegitimate children) to make money from the old man after Magnon’s two children were carried off by a croup epidemic. Madame Thenard has limited resources of motherly love which is reserved for her two daughters rather than her three sons. As the boys are worth 80 francs each they are well cared for right up until the day that Magnon and her associate are both arrested and the two boys get lost. Luckily for them, Gavroche finds them (although he seems to have no awareness that they are his brothers, it’s just that Gavroche is an instinctively moral character when it comes to dealing with people who are suffering). He buys them bread and it is not just black (or prison) bread and takes them to his ‘home’. On the way he meets Montparnasse who recounts his meeting with Valjean. Gavroche is living in a large elephant statue situated outside the Bastille, which he has furnished with items he has stolen from the zoo. It’s dark, they have to sleep inside a net to prevent the rats from bothering them, but it makes a home for the resourceful Gavorche and his brothers. The items he has stolen from the zoo, for example, his bed and blanket, are all of good quality. It is as if Paris cares more about the animals or about the spectacle of the elephant statue than it cares about its poor, its homeless and its children. Gavroche takes care of the two boys in a paternal way. They are about to go to sleep when he is summoned by Montparnasse – the criminals who are involved with his parents are attempting an escape. Thenard is almost abandoned by the criminals in the process of escaping, but he lets them know that he is there and they get Gavroche to help them to rescue him. Thenard doesn’t recognise his own son, the criminals point him out.

After another one of Hugo’s digressions, this time about the criminal argot, we move on to book 8 and back to the lovers meeting. Marius puts Cos on a pedestal: ‘…physical desire is wholly subdued beneath the omnipotence of spiritual ecstasy,’ (p845). It is very over-the-top, sentimental and romanticised. Poor Eponine is sadly neglected by Marius. Cosette is better at hiding things and so Valjean doesn’t notice. The revolution is looming, Hugo has got up to 3^rd June 1832. The criminals lurk outside Val and Cos’s house, but are warned off by Eponine, who is scared of nothing and nobody, not even her horrible father, “You poor fools, you think you can frighten any woman because you’ve got soft little sluts of mistresses who cower under the bedclothes when you talk rough. But I’m not scared.” (p857).  Valjean is getting ready to leave for England in his constant hunt for security, Cos warns Marius who doesn’t take it well, but unfortunately he can’t join them as he’s been mooning so much he has no money. He seems to see Cos as some sort of possession, I suppose he has this in common with Valjean – neither man feels that they can share the girl with anybody else. He is horrified by the prospect of her leaving, although she doesn’t seem to be that bothered by it, she just invited him along. They make plans to meet a few days later and he goes to Gillenormand to plead for pity. His grandfather is 91 and had been hoping that Marius would relent and visit him, however, he’s left it a bit too late and the old man isn’t that inclined to give his blessing to the couple’s marriage (Marius has to be over 25 to marry without his guardian’s blessing), particularly as neither has any money. He advises Marius to enjoy her without marrying her, Marius storms off and the old man promptly drops dead trying to get him to come back.

Meanwhile, Valjean has been noticing that Thenard is hanging around and he is prompted by that and a mysterious message to leave. Marius sulks, Cos disappears. Somebody who sounds like Eponine directs him to the barricade, where his friends have gone.  Mabeuf hears that there is a riot.

Book 10 is set on 5^th June 1832, the day that the riot begins. Hugo opens with a mini essay about the impact of revolt. The riot begins when General Lamarque’s funeral procession is disrupted by a man with a red flag and Lamarque’s body and Lafayette are carried off by the rioters. The populace begin to arm themselves and some of the Garde Nationale are killed. The Government and the King fail to react promptly and the police start arresting great numbers of people that they have searched. Paris is in chaos and twenty seven barricades are erected.

Anyway, this seemed like a good place to stop and take stock of what had happened in part 4 so far, although I don’t think that I will be reading quite such a big chunk of the book without writing about it as I go again! I have to say, I am surprised that it's taken Hugo this long to get to the barricades, this has been a ridiculous amount of build up. I'm hoping the riot/revolution/whatever we want to call it will spur Marius onto some sort of greatness rather than being the whiny little sausage he's currently being and that we see more of Gavroche. 

Cosette and the Thernadiers

As I did previously with Fantine, I have had a look at the way these characters are portrayed on the stage and in films. This time I have also watched the first part of the 25^th Anniversary production, so there will probably be references to that in here as well, and the character portrayal within the book. 

It seems that the Thernadiers are generally treated as comic characters on the stage, often complete with rotten teeth and pantomime make-up, and in the case of the Anniversary production, played by a famous comedian. The song ‘Master of the House’ is a jolly upbeat number about stiffing unsuspecting guests which contrasts with Cosette’s song. This kind of moment within the musical makes it highly entertaining and accessible to children.

Within the book, however, the characters are more sinister.  It is noticable that there is a sense of some of the characters almost being ‘spied on’; sometimes this is obvious, as in the case of Thernadier and friend spying on the mysterious figure burying something in the wood, or the woman going to see Cosette to ‘reassure’ people that Fantine is an unwed mother, sometimes it is more anonymous, as when somebody apparently witnesses Valjean hesitating before going to book a carriage for the journey to Champmathieau’s trial. It is clear from the beginning of the story that the Thernadiers are out for what they can get; Thernadier is a prime example of the kind of man who would try to observe somebody doing something wrong in order to gain from it in some way. Perhaps this is an element of the society that Hugo is trying to portray after the first part of the revolution – people are still suspicious of one another, the poor are treated abominably and unless the characters are as saintly as the Bishop, they can be as greedy or self-serving as the Thernadiers.

In some way the Thernadiers try to appear better than they really are. Madame Thernadier takes the example of trashy romantic novels to behave in a fawning way to her husband who has literary pretentions and talks of the materialist philosophy and of philosophers he probably knows little about (probably indicating that he is an atheist). Madame Thernadier dresses Cosette in rags, but ensures that her two daughters are well-dressed with plenty of toys and have money in their clogs at Christmas. Although they are in debt, their standard of living is related to their status as business owners who have profited from Waterloo.

Madame Thernadier is described as somewhat grotesque; enormous, almost like a circus performer with a beard, only one tooth and an enormous appetite for drink, swearing and violence.  Thernadier himself is small, skinny and weasely in his attitude to his guests.  ‘...He was thoroughly crooked, a sanctimonious knave.’ (Penguin 1976, translated by Denny. P341). He has no nationality, seems to change his political views and pretends to be a war hero and a man of learning. Yet he is ‘terrible’ (p343) when he becomes angry, and there is a sense that he is not a man to be laughed at or crossed if one can help it. He has complete control over the business and his family.

At this time working children were all too common, so nobody in the inn seems to be that bothered about Cosette working as the Thernadier’s servant, indeed, the couple talk about her as if they did Fantine a great favour taking Cosette in when it is obvious that they have had a great deal of work out of her. 

This was also the period when attitudes about the importance of universal education and about the nature of childhood itself were changing, so it will be interesting to see if any of this will be reflected in the novel. The portrayal of children within novels of the period reflects this in that 19^th century novels feature more children and there are more books written specifically for children. In the United Kingdom and France concepts of cruelty to children did not really exist until the 1880s.

Many children in 19^th Century novels seem to fall into three categories, either the saintly sentimentalised good children like Dickens’s Florence Dombey or Helen Burns in Jane Eyre or the wild, bad children such as Heathcliffe and Cathy or the spoilt children such as Mary Lennox in a Secret Garden.  Cosette herself appears sentimentalised, resembling Oliver Twist (published 1839, Les Mis was published in 1862 but this part is set around 15 years before OT)  in that despite her mistreatment, she is basically a good child who tells lies to escape punishment from the monstrous Madame Thernadier (Thernadier himself doesn’t seem to have that much to do with her until he sees an opportunity to make some money from her) and who has never been taught to pray (p357), or even entered a church (p360). 

 

Hugo emphasises her tininess, her terror and her misery with the incident where she goes out on Christmas Eve to get water. She is plain because she is miserable and behaves as if she is constantly afraid. Hugo contrasts her and her treatment with the Thernadier’s daughters who are pretty, well-dressed spoilt little madams who are fondly indulged by their mother and for whom Cosette knits stockings, also their sleeping arrangements of Cosette sleeping in a junk room, on a straw mattress, fully dressed with the little girls in twin beds with white covers. 

Hugo uses them as ‘an embodiment of society – envy on one side, indifference on the other.’ (362). Both Cosette and Fantine act as emotive figures in the novel in that they have they little control over their own fates. Yet she is also shown to be brave in that she doesn’t cry until Madame Thernadier flies into a monstrous rage after she’s caught playing with a doll (which is apparently an essential human right for girls according to Hugo), in the same way that Fantine attempts to defend herself when she is accused of assaulting a man. Valjean is different in that he seems to always be able to prevent himself from being completely powerless, usually through an act of fate or goodness (such as saving a man which then prevents people from checking his papers to discover that he is a convict).

In this case Valjean draws attention to himself by buying the doll for Cosette and causes the Thernadiers to begin to feel venom and hatred towards him. Thernadier is suspicious enough to stay up most of the night observing him and although Madame Thernadier is anxious to be rid of her, he gets Valjean to pay for her and tries to pursue them to get even more money. Valjean is making enemies as he goes, he has already made an enemy of Javert and here he has made enemies of the Thernadier family. There is also the rental agent of the house he and Cosette is staying at spying on him and suspicious of the money that he has hidden in his coat. It is clear that the pair of them are unlikely to remain safe in their assumed identities. 

Back to the Plot

Valjean has been re-captured and the subject of two newspaper reports, one reporting truthfully about his re-arrest and the missing money, the other a sensationalised completely biased account of a cunning rogue who conned people so that he could become mayor and live with his concubine and it is lucky that due to the ‘indefatigable zeal’ (Penguin 1976, translated by Denny, p325) of the police that he was re-captured, sentenced to death but had his sentenced commuted to hard labour for life.  As far as the tabloid press are concerned, it looks like nothing changes. 

It also gives us a glimpse into the way the press (or at least a certain type of press) view the King. Although it doesn’t really interfere with the plot so far (except the giant Waterloo rant), Hugo frequently reminds the reader about the backdrop that these events are taking place against, so here we have the insinuation that the King is merciful to someone who doesn’t necessarily deserve it.  Later on there is a description of the broken down ship Orion, something that is seemingly unconnected to the story and which Hugo uses to point out the expense of military action particularly when used in the Franco-Spanish War for the French King to restore the Spanish King. Although France won, Hugo sees it as being an affront to liberty and democracy and the origin of the events of 1830 as he reads it as a sign that Louis XVIII believed that if could restore the Spanish monarchy he could also re-establish the divine right of Kings in France. 

"Prince Charles has an outrageous amount of influence. For me, [the future] Charles III, although he will probably rule as George VII, is most like Edward VIII. He believes in his right to interfere. The idea that a constitutional monarchy has interference rights seems to me a scandal." Mark Gatiss in an interview with Mark Lawson, Guardian 21st October 2012.

As the scandal of Prince Charles's letters has shown, this is something that societies with any sort of monarchy, even a constitutional one can be concerned about.

The narrative perspective is these parts of the book is interesting. We are not directly told that any of this is about Valjean or what his feelings are about any of the events. Firstly, Hugo narrates an apparently unconnected superstition linking it to Boulatruelle and Thernadier observing a stranger burying something which they cannot find. At least we know where Valjean’s stash has come from when he shows up at the Thernadier Inn (can’t remember the name, just that it was something to do with Waterloo after Mr. Thernad passed himself off as a brave soldier). Then we have the story of a convict bravely trying to save a seaman but apparently drowning in the process. Only by the end of the chapter do we know that the ‘drowned’ man was Valjean.  

The next chapter opens with the Thernadier’s Tavern and poor Cosette. Most of this chapter is narrated from the perspective of the greedy Thernadier’s and Cosette, who meets a stranger in yellow when she is sent out in the dark on Christmas Eve to fetch a huge bucket of water. Instead of seeing things from Valjean’s perspective here, we see the greed, cruelty and all-round unpleasantness of the Thernadiers, and how they view Valjean and are unable to decide whether to be deferential or unfriendly towards him. I thought about why Hugo chose to narrate the story in this way, I think that adding Valjean’s voice in as well would have made this chapter rather too confusing. It makes the Thernadiers look even worse as we see all their scheming, plotting and abuse of Cosette, without making the chapter too maudlin by adding Valjean’s voice (although admittedly Hugo does his best to tug at our heartstrings). Cosette’s perspective is very important to the chapter as well, how she thinks of herself and how she views this mysterious stranger whom she instinctively trusts yet fears his gift of the beautiful doll. It also gives the next chapter more power by focusing on Valjean’s re-birth outside the Tavern. It is quite an exciting chapter with the reader not knowing if Valjean will escape with Cosette.

The next book focuses on Valjean and Cosette’s new life in the Gorbeau tenement and Valjean’s re-birth as a man who is able to love (after his first re-birth where the Bishop taught him re-birth).  Again Hugo touches on the theme of destiny, in this case Valjean’s belief that it is his destiny to take care of Cosette and teach her to read. Hugo really tugs at the reader's heartstrings here with the portrait of Valjean taking care of Cosette and Cosette calling him father and seeing their meagre lodgings as some sort of palace. Yet, there is an undercurrent of Valjean drawing unwelcome attention to himself despite his best efforts, and I am sure that it is not the last we're going to see of the Thernadiers.