Swann’s Way Part 4 – The Kiss

So, I left off at the point where Swann had found Odette after desperately searching for her. Now he invites her into his carriage to take her home.  

She is covered in cattleyas, holding a bunch, fastened to her swansdown plume and attached to the front of her dress. She is in a state of shock at seeing Swann, whom she probably assumed couldn’t be bothered to come to the Verdurin’s latest party. The carriage knocks them around a little, which makes her feel breathless; he is solicitous but will not allow her to speak, offering to adjust the flowers on her bodice which were loosened by the carriage bumping, to brush off some pollen that has fallen on her dress and to smell her flowers to see if they have lost their scent. She scarcely seems to know how to react to him, and he doesn’t’ seem to want her to speak or react that much. 

I wanted to do a close reading of the next part. 

He slipped his other hand upwards along Odette’s cheek; she fixed her eyes on him, with that languishing and solemn air which marks the women of the old Florentine’s paintings, in whose faces he had found the type of hers; swimming at the brink of her fringed lids, her brilliant eyes, large and finely drawn as theirs, seemed on the verge of breaking from her face and rolling down her cheeks like two great tears. She bent her neck, as all their necks may be seen to bend, in the pagan scenes as well as in the scriptural. And although her attitude was, doubtless, habitual and instinctive, one which she knew to be appropriate to such moments, and was careful not to forget to assume, she seemed to need all her strength to hold her face back, as though some invisible force were drawing it down towards Swann’s. And Swann it was who, before she allowed her face, as though despite her efforts, to fall upon his lips , held it back for a moment longer, at a little distance between her hands. He had intended to leave time for her mind to overtake her body’s movements, to recognise the dream which she had so long cherished and to assist at its realisation, like a mother invited as a spectator when a prize is given to the child whom she had reared and loves. Perhaps, moreover, Swann himself was fixing upon these features of an Odette not yet possessed, not even kissed by him, on whom he was looking now for the last time, that comprehensive gaze with which, on the day of his departure, a traveller strives to bear away with him in memory the view of a country to which he may never return. 

The first time I read this passage I thought it was beautiful, but on re-reading it I found that there are things about it that indicate that all is not as romantic as it first seems. Firstly there is the imagery of her seeming to be on the verge of tears. She ‘knew her attitude to be appropriate to such moments’ – although Swann may forget that Odette is really just a courtesan, the narrator doesn’t let the reader forget. He tries to resist her kiss; the narrator suggests that it is through wanting to prolong her perceived purity, but use of ‘intended’ seems to suggest that Swann has been planning it. The language Proust uses is not that of two lovers, he uses a simile related to a mother and child and to the kiss being like a child’s prize, and there is something a bit peculiar about it. Perhaps it is down to the sense that Swann feel protective towards her, although it is not sure whether Odette actually does need protecting or if her seeming innocence, deferral to Swann’s intelligence and behaving in a wifely way towards him is merely an act to seduce him which has evidently worked. Finally, the narrator returns to the theme of the traveller from the overture, although in this case it is not coupled with the imagery of the invalid, instead it is more to do with memory.

Odette is mostly seen through Swann’s obsession, but Swann himself is mostly seen through the narrator’s gaze and they are both complex characters who can be subject to multiple interpretations. There is a sense that in some ways the narrator romanticises both of them. Odette is an enigma, why does Swann seem to force himself to love her? It’s almost as if he is behaving like an aging roué who has to find some woman, any woman to settle down with, even a former courtesan. I suppose he has probably burnt his boats as far as respectable women are concerned as he has applied to all his acquaintances to meet different women. He is curiously shy and timid towards her, hiding behind the pretence of rearranging her flowers to make sexual advances towards her. 

The relationship completely changes him in that he gives up other women: ‘Swan was no longer the same man’ (p232). He goes to see Odette every night, getting her to play Vinteuil’s sonata which heightens and intensifies his love: ‘one would have said that he was inhaling an anaesthetic which allowed him to breathe more deeply’ (p234). I think the use of ‘anaesthetic’ here is telling – it is as if he has become ‘drugged’ by her. Love affects the senses, intoxicates. 

He knows very little about what she does during the day and little of her past, only that she was a ‘tart’ and a ‘kept woman’ previously. He believes that she is ‘incapable of not telling the truth’ (p237), demonstrated by her apparent embarrassment at being caught out in a white lie. He is disturbed by the thought of her life away from him. He recognises and accepts her lack of taste and intelligence and she hides away from society, fearing gossip from a former friend she fell out with, whereas he is instinctively at ease moving in all circles. The narrator suggests that he is ‘slumming it’ and stooping to her level (p243), changing his tastes and opinions to suit hers.

He deceives himself about the Verdurins, spending more and more time with them. Odette gets them to invite the Comte de Forcheville (brother-in-law to Saniette) to a terrible party. Forchville is extra vulgar and tries to seduce Odette, the doctor makes awful puns and Brichot (a visiting professor) is a big fraud. Swann is defensive towards Forcheville and Brichot because he fears that Odette may go off with one of them, so he offends everyone instead and the Verdurin’s lose respect for him. 

He is continually buying presents for Odette and bailing her out of financial problems, not considering that she may be a gold-digger but fearing that she will go off him if he doesn’t financially reward her. It is almost as if he is ill: ‘But that state of excitement into which Odette’s presence never failed to throw him, added to a feverish ailment which, for some time now, had scarcely left him’. (p265). One night, when she is feeling unwell and denies him sexual favours, he convinces himself that there is a man visiting and spies on her, but looks in the wrong window. 

Gold Digger! (link)

 He is tortured by his love for her and cannot take any pleasure in it. The reader knows what will happen, after all, Odette is highly likely to be the ‘unfortunate wife’ of the first part that he feel no love for and who seems to be an embarrassment. What isn’t known is how or why he gets to that stage, although the narrative clearly points to this love affair becoming a complete disaster for him.

Swann’s Way: Part 2 (up to p170)

Wow, I see it’s some time since I updated and I do feel it. I hope I can remember this far back, but I was concentrating on the reading and haven’t really had a chance to write about it. It seems quite a long time since the narrator left Combrey (I’m on page 270 in the Wordsworth edition at the moment).

When I left off the narrator was describing the snobbery of M. Legrandin. As the novel carries on Legradin is still behaving suspiciously. The narrator describes the two walks from the house, ‘Swann’s way’ (the Meseglise way) and the ‘Guermantes way’. Both represent different aspects. Guermantes are a family of aristocrats in the area, to the narrator ‘Guermantes...meant no more than the ultimate goal, ideal rather than real,’ (p142). ‘Marcel’ does not aspire to be like Legradin, associating with aristocrats and snubbing acquaintances; rather he associates himself with Swann, particularly when he encounters Gilberte, Swann’s daughter at Swann’s estate. 

In a continuous theme throughout the novel, sense is associated with memory and emotion, in this case the scent and sight of flowers, particularly pink hawthorn blossom is associated with the obsessional love he feels for her. In particular, the pink colour of the flowers which is in turn associated in his mind with expensive pink sugared biscuits, cream cheese with strawberries and other delicious edible things.  Gilberte is fair with pink freckles and black eyes.  He is so struck with her beauty that his instinct is to try to insult her in the hope that she will remember him.  Although the narrator feels that he loves her, both he and the reader are only given a brief glimpse of her, we don’t know how old she is or anything much about her apart from the narrator’s feelings and her appearance. 

Along the Meselglise way there is also the house of M. Vinteuil , whom was previously encountered behaving snobbishly towards Swann. His daughter has a friend with ‘an evil reputation’, who is evidently having a lesbian affair with Mademoiselle Vinteuil. M. Vinteuil is heart-broken and retires from society in shame, fearing judgement. However, Swann is perfectly friendly towards him despite his previous treatment and the way that M. Vinteuil talks hypocritically about Swann’s ‘unfortunate’ marriage. 

The narrator’s sexual awakening begun with Swann’s daughter continues with his longing for a peasant girl, mirrored in the projection of Swann’s desires in the succeeding chapter. It is significant that the narrator wishes for a peasant girl, it’s almost as if he is not really ready for a relationship with a woman of his own class.

The narrative moves on several years and the narrator introduces the topic of ‘sadism’, using it as a foreshadowing device. ‘Marcel’ voyeuristically observes Mlle Vinteuil and her girlfriend at the house where the recently deceased M. Vinteuil lived, apparently having died for her (according to ‘Marcel’s’ mother). Although Mlle Vinteuil is grieving, the ‘friend’ encourages her to desecrate the photograph of her father, much to the narrator’s shock. 

So far the narrator’s view of women has been rather narrow in that he seems to canonise them (in the case of his mother and Gilberte), see them as beneath him (in the case of Francoise), objectify them (longing for peasant women)  or demonise them. He takes a particularly dim view of homosexual women in the way that Mlle Vinteuil is described through the effect her behaviour has had on her father and the sacrilegious act of spitting on her father’s photograph. Yet ‘Marcel’ is a product of his family’s suspicion and judgmental attitude towards some of the people in the village such as Swann’s wife and Mlle Vinteuil. There is also his innate priggishness and snobbery, I don’t think that the reader is supposed to like or admire him and in this way he is an unreliable narrator, not that he is deliberately untrustworthy, just that he tends to ignore or misinterpret certain facts. This may be due to the sense that we get that this is ‘young Marcel’ narrating rather than the older version, and it is not clear how old he is in this part of the novel. 

Anyway, this seems a good time to stop, although I see that it would probably be a good idea to update more frequently as I have about a hundred pages or so to get through writing about!

Hugo Takes us on a Trip Down the Sewers and Javert has a Change of Heart

So, Valjean has ‘captured’ Marius, but Book 2 opens with Hugo’s familiar book-opening essay, this time on the exciting subject of sewers and sewerage. It’s not hard to guess where Valjean and Marius have gone. The sewers are associated with ‘the tomb’ and Marius is seriously injured. Either there is going to be a death or another re-birth. Hugo talks of the tomb of Marat, linking the story to the first revolution. Valjean is blinded by the dark, deaf and thinks he is in a different sewer so ends up lost. On his way, his is almost caught by the police who are pursuing a man. He steps on some soft, sinky stuff that gives way and almost drowns, but manages to rescue himself and Marius. He is almost about to leave the sewers in a break for freedom when he is stopped by a metal grille. He believes everything is lost and thinks only of Cossette.

Fortunately, before he can despair, our old friend Thenardier turns up, having been the many whom the police were chasing. Being in the dark he doesn’t recognise his old nemesis and being the rouge he is he assumes that Valjean is attempting to dispose of the body of a man he has robbed and murdered. He offers to’ go halves’, that is, he will unlock the grille with the handy key in his possession if Valjean will share half the booty. Thenard is not exactly in his element here. Hugo describes him as not seeming ‘quite at his ease’ (p1093) and Valjean is suspicious that he fears he’ll have to share with some other criminals. Anyway, he steals both all the money that is in Marius’s pockets and part of Marius’s coat (as evidence so he can later identify the body), but does uphold his side of the bargain by unlocking the grille and allowing Val to escape.

Into the path of Javert, who was waiting to capture Thenard. Val does not try to hide who he is, just gives himself up immediately but asks Jav to help him to take Marius home to his grandfather. They take him home and Val asks for one last favour, to be able to go home to see Cos. Hugo emphasises that his encounter with the bishop has caused him to abhor violence to the extent that he has no thought of committing suicide and is quite prepared to go back to prison. However, Javert disappears once Valjean has arrived home.

Meanwhile, Marius is lucky to be barely alive, having been saved from certain death by the combination of his own wallet and a man who hates him. Gillenormand (who I assume was previously rendered insensible rather than stunned into sudden death) is both distressed and outraged that he should die, believing that Marius has done it all for the sake of hating him when he has been ready and waiting to welcome him home. Thankfully, Marius wakes pretty shortly after Gillenormand has made plans to die as soon as possible.

The re-birth of Book 3 is mainly related to Marius I think. All that mooning over Cos was replaced by his taking change of the action at the barricade and he has ‘earned’ the love and respect of his grandfather and Cossette. He is re-born as a man who can take an active rather than passive role. Valjean is not significantly changed by his experience in the sewer, but this does seem to mark a kind of ‘waning’ of his story.

The other re-birth here is that of Javert, who has acted peculiarly since escaping from the barricade, and Hugo turns our attention to his fate in Book 4. It is a short, yet moving book.

It opens with a lovely description of how his posture has changed from having his arms folded in a posture of ‘expressive determination’ (p1104) to one where he walks with his hands folded behind his back and his head bowed, a thoughtful yet penitent pose. So far Hugo hasn’t really described how he feels towards what has happened, but here he describes how he felt when he saw Valjean: ‘When he had so unexpectedly encountered Jean Valjean on the edge of the river his feelings had been partly those of a wolf catching its prey and partly those of a dog finding its master.’ (p1104). Valjean has pretty mach always confused him as he doesn’t behave in a way that Javert expects and his mind can’t handle that there is more than one path in life. He knows that although Valjean is a criminal, he is also the greater man: ‘Something dreadful was forcing its way into Javert’s consciousness – admiration for a convicted felon.’ (p1106).  Javert responds to the mercy that Valjean has given by giving mercy in return. The old certainty he felt has gone and it has profoundly changed his personality. As Hugo says, he has failed to be above reproach. In the process, he has opened up his heart to God and realised that society and lawgivers are not perfect and infallible.

He returns to the police-post, leaving some tips that he believes will improve the police service (also to show a little mercy and prevent some of the corruption going on in the prison). He is a methodical as always. Then he goes down to the river, takes off his hat and drowns himself.

Javert, I salute you. You were a fine character, but alas, there wasn’t really anywhere else you could’ve gone other than to the big police station in the sky. You could’ve hardly had some sort of happy ending with a lovely Mrs. Javert somewhere or gone on catching only the bad criminals whilst letting Valjean off, particularly with the short length of the book left. No, you were punished for your previous inflexibility and lack of mercy (although I wish you could’ve somehow subsequently arrested Thenard, maybe there is room here for a ‘Javert haunts Thenardier’ kind of a sequel).  You were a formidable police chief who rose from humble beginnings as the son of criminals, and whilst condemning you for being a bit of a git, we did sleep better in our beds knowing you were out there catching criminals.

Next up, the end of the book, the tying up of the many loose ends left and some sticky sickly stuff.

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. 

Exploring the Seedy Underworld

Leaving the salons of Parisian students and revolutionaries, Hugo follows Marius through desperate poverty and out into reasonable prosperity. Throughout this part of his life he behaves with dignity and charity, resembling Valjean after he has met the Bishop; accepting no charity and avoiding getting into any sort of debt. He does not seek company but stays friendly with some of the ABC Society and with Mabeuf, who is suffering from a similar level of poverty. In the course of the narrative he encounters Valjean (nicknamed ‘Monsieur Leblanc’ for his white hair) and Cosette (‘Mademoiselle Lanoire’ for her black clothes). At first, he has no interest in Cosette, she is thirteen or fourteen and not all that pretty, but six months changes everything.

Cosette grows into a beautiful young woman and Marius falls in love with her, his feelings for her replacing some of the agony he felt over his father. He becomes obsessed with her and tries to meet with her at every opportunity, which makes Valjean suspicious. Knowing very little about her, Marius finds a handkerchief embroidered with the initials U. F., and presuming it belongs to her, believes that her name is Ursula. After he finds out their address, Valjean moves them on, fearing arrest. 

It is at this point that we move into the realm of the underworld, beginning with an extended metaphor comparing the lower classes of society as a series of underground tunnels.  Hugo moves from the people suffering from the direst poverty right down into what he calls ‘the abyss’ where there is only evil.  Hugo calls them ‘half-animal, half ghost’ and tells us ‘They have two mothers, two foster-mothers, ignorance and poverty,’ (compare this to the Children of Men the Ghost of Christmas Present shows Scrooge, who are called ‘Ignorance’ and ‘Want’ in Dickens’s story A Christmas Carol). Les Mis is as much about social justice as any other Victorian novel.  Hugo describes the habits appearance and criminal activities of the Patron-Minette, a criminal gang who are supposed to be the worst in Paris. 

Again, just when it seems that Hugo is describing them in unnecessary detail, their significance to the story becomes apparent.  He uses his usual narrative technique of moving away from them then returning later on, here he returns to Marius’s viewpoint and how he discovers who the family who live next door are. After at least six months searching for Cosette he sees Valjean, re-ignites his romantic passion and picks up a package dropped by two ‘shabbily-dressed’ girls who are fleeing from the police. The package contains a number of badly written begging letters apparently written by different people yet all in the same handwriting. He dismisses it, but then one of the girls turns up at his apartment bearing another begging letter addressed to him. At first Marius is horrified that he hasn’t helped them more, but he observes the family through a spy hole and realises what they are. 

The girl is prematurely aged, missing teeth, dressed in rags. She has been used by ‘Jondrette’ to deliver begging letters, and may have worked as a prostitute as well (she is described as having the eyes of a grown woman; and her and her sister have been ‘...turned by extreme poverty into monsters at once depraved and innocent.’

Marius observes the dirty squalid house that they live in, how ‘Jondrette’ writes begging letters whilst simultaneously reviling the people he is writing to. There is no evidence that anyone does or has ever done any work, if Marius and Valjean represent respectable poverty; the ‘Jondrette’ family represent unrespectable poverty, a life of believing they deserve far more than they are getting and turning to criminal activities in order to gain money from people. It is clear that they have found someone they consider to be rich and naive enough to be conned out of plenty of money and as they are waiting ‘Jondrette’ prepares the house by wrecking some furniture and getting one of the girls to break a window, happy that she injures herself as it will make them look even more pathetic.

Valjean is the unlucky benefactor, and Marius is surprised and uneasy when he turns up with Cosette.  It is lucky for their sakes that Marius is as obsessed with Cosette, particularly as the story unfolds and he is left in the great moral quandary of causing the death of either Valjean, or the man he has sworn to his father that he will protect. It is only by a series of circumstances and a great deal of bravery on Valjean’s part that led to Valjean and Cosette escaping unharmed. 

Marius follows Cosette after they leave the Gorbeau tenement to get money for Jondrette, witnessing the villain talking to Panchard, whom Marius recognises as belonging to the underworld. Jondrette begins to recognise Valjean and Cosette, realising that he is able to blackmail the man he blames for all his subsequent misfortune. Marius naturally goes to the police to stop them, encountering Javert. Marius finds out about the plot and spies on Jondrette trying to bleed Valjean, then springing a trap to imprison him, accompanied by a number of criminals. Jondrette reveals himself to be Thenardier, almost causing Marius to faint with shock (Valjean, on the other hand, either doesn’t remember him or pretends not to). 

Throughout Valjean’s imprisonment he acts with the utmost dignity and a complete lack of fear. Hugo described how Thenardier’s eyes ‘…shone with the ignoble triumph of a weak, cruel, and cowardly nature which at last has the power to humble what it fears…’ (p682). Thenardier is at the point where he has completely convinced himself of his own lies – that he has a tavern sign that has been painted by a famous artist (David) in honour of his bravery at the Battle of Waterloo, depicting his rescue of Pontmercy. This evidence of Thenarider’s relationship to his father profoundly affects Marius. He recognises that Thenarider is a con artist and a liar, yet it is as if his father has been resurrected, and he is paralysed by the feelings that this produces. 

Because Valjean doesn’t call out for the police, Thenardier realises that he has something to hide, and to this end he demands 200,000 francs and for Valjean to write a letter summoning Cosette (not that Thenard can remember her name). He doesn’t realise that Valjean gives him a false name and a false address. Valjean is a very dangerous man to Thenardier, a man with no fear who acts like he has nothing to lose. He frightens Thernad and his fellow villains by deliberately burning himself with a red hot chisel they had prepared for the sake of scaring him into accepting their blackmail. This is an act of supreme defiance – when they are trying to remove Valjean’s power and choice he shows them that this is impossible. ‘There was no hatred in the impassive gaze he directed at Thenardier, no trace of physical agony in its serene nobility.’ With Cosette safe, nothing can touch him. 

Meanwhile, Marius is in a quandary that is only solved by the moon shining on the piece of paper Eponine wrote a message on. This is evidently another place in the novel where an element of destiny or divine intervention is at work. Marius pushes the message through the spy hole causing Thenardier and the criminals to attempt to escape, however, by now Javert has arrived on the scene.  These hardened criminals fear him. The Thenardiers attempt to defend themselves to no avail, but Valjean manages to escape, earning Javert’s respect. He is, as Javert puts it, the best of the lot. The book closes with a brief glimpse of the Thenardier’s unfortunate son. This was a really exciting, gripping part of the novel, with the reader having no idea if Valjean was going to be able to escape, if Cosette was going to be held hostage or what Marius would do with his moral quandary.