February 2013 Archives

About: Dak reads Les Misérables and recaps it here, so that she may better retain the information. Things not to expect: deep literary analysis. Things to expect: Spoilers. All the spoilers.

BOOK 1: A Little History

We are now on Part 2 of the story, called "Cosette". I thought we were starting out with Jean Valjean coming across Hougoumont, because I just assume any unknown person wandering around is Jean Valjean at this point, but no, it's the author of this story, who is now going to tell us all about a certain battle.

Hougoumont, If you are unfamiliar, is a farm in Waterloo. You've probably heard of it. If you don't know how that all went down, aside from the fact that Napoleon lost a battle there once in such spectacular fashion that it is still, nearly 200 years later, synonymous with crushing defeat... I am now going to suggest you go either: A. Read up on the battle in your History books or B. Read Hugo's prose yourself or C. Do Both, because this battle is exactly what the first part of this chapter is about, and I think me filtering that information is probably as useless as me making a laundry list of all the Bishop's good works that were mentioned in the opening of the book. Just for a little perspective though, Waterloo took place around the time Fantine first hooked up with Felix if he was dumping her in 1817.

A couple of random notes:

Every time Blücher's name makes an appearance my brain's Pavlovian response is to hear horses whinnying.

I did not think I was going to have to use the dead horse tag this many times.

Anyway, the author finally gets back to details of the actual story he's telling in the very last part of this chapter.

There are men who follow along behind these armies for the purpose of looting the corpses after the battles have taken their tolls. This particular night Wellington (the English General) has ordered these thieves executed.

One if them is skulking around near the sunken road when something in the moonlight catches his eye. It is a gold ring. He lifts the ring from the corpse and turns away, but finds he is held in place by a hand grabbing onto his cape.

He ends up clearing everything away from the hand and there is an unconscious man underneath, he has a gash from a sabre across his face and the way he had fallen happened to keep him from getting trampled as many others had.

The thief proceeds to rob him of all his money and his Legion of Honour medal while he is passed out. All this rifling around on his person does eventually wake him up though.

He thanks this man who has stolen all his stuff, and asks who won the battle. He gets the news that it was the English, and then proceeds to attempt to offer the thief all the money that was just stolen.  The wounded man assumes he has already been robbed by somebody else and is not in the process of being robbed at this very moment.

Meanwhile, there are men on watch, looking out for these crooks and one is approaching, so the thief lies to the wounded man and tells him, although he is a fellow soldier, he must go lest he be shot.

The fallen soldier asks after his rank and his name. He gives the rank sergeant, and as for his name?

It's Thénardier!

Now you know why the Thénardier's inn is named what it is named. That was an awful lot of words to get to that payoff.

And the wounded Soldier? Well, he's going to remember Thénardier as the man who saved his life. This soldier's name is Pontmercy.

You should probably hang onto that piece of information too. Just sayin'.

About: Dak reads Les Misérables and recaps it here, so that she may better retain the information. Things not to expect: deep literary analysis. Things to expect: Spoilers. All the spoilers.

BOOK 8: Javert Gets His Man...for a second

Somehow I forgot to mention that this whole ordeal in the last chapter has turned Valjean's hair completely white. Yep, that is a thing that has happened. He hitches a ride on the mail cart after he evades authorities by...continuing on about his business as planned, because they're too busy trying to figure out what the hell just happened to arrest him. (They Mayor has gone mad is still a popular opinion) They're still attempting to finish the trial anyway, and we're going to recap that even though we learned what happened to Champmathieu in the last chapter already.

The prosecution still tries to go get Champmathieu convicted, but the defense has been handed a massive gift horse that the judge and jury just can't ignore. Champmathieu is acquitted and a warrant is sent out for Jean Valjean aka M. Madeline.

They have to send it by special courier so it will make it to Montrieul Sur Mer and Javert before Valjean can get away. So, I guess he could have avoided all of what happens next if he'd just not gone back there, but he still has some things to take care of. Also, I don't think he's actually trying to avoid anything anyway. He did really try his best to get arrested back in Arras.

In any case, Valjean makes it there slightly ahead of the order for his arrest. He goes home where he learns of Fantine's poor state the night before, and that Sister Simplice let her believe that Cosette was on the way and how it made her feel better. He thinks it's for the best. She's surprised to find that his hair has turned completely white.

He asks to see Fantine, and Sister Simplice doesn't think this is the best idea, since Cosette isn't with him after all. She thinks maybe if he takes a few days to go and get her that it would be for the best. Fantine won't know the difference, and it will make her happy. That way she won't have to lie again.

Lie or not, Sister is getting adept at this deception thing.

And it would be a fine enough plan, if Valjean wasn't about to get arrested at any moment. This is what he's worried about, and he wants to see Fantine before he goes. Sister Simplice acquiesces to his request and he finds Fantine. She's happy to see him, and is already in quite a state, thinking that Cosette is there. She's happy that she's going to get to see her daughter and the sound of a different child playing outside has her convinced that the happy reunion is moments away. Valjean is talking to her, trying to stall the best he can when she sits straight up in bed, terrified, staring at a spot beyond him like she's seen a ghost. Or a monster. Or a monster ghost.

What is so frightful that could make Fantine react like this?

It's Javert standing in the doorway. Hand in coat, he seems outwardly chill about this whole thing, but if you're a close personal friend of Javert (I would like to know who these close personal friends of Javert's are) you can tell that he's super keyed up right now and not quite as cool as he's acting. How can you tell?

The buckle on his collar is on the side by his ear and not in the back where it should be. Just taking this moment to profess my love for Javert and how he expresses emotion through buckle location here. (Also, I've attempted to look up what exactly a collar buckle is, and I think it's referring to a stock buckle, because that actually makes sense in this context.) He is just really pleased with himself for being vindicated after all those years of suspicions and trying to catch the Mayor at being Valjean. Not even the fact that he testified about the wrong man's identity in front of God and everybody can put a damper on the fact that he's finally got his guy. He's gone so far to the left of being pleased with his rightness that he's dancing on the wrong side of it and is getting a bit scary in the process.

He's left some soldiers out in the courtyard and hasn't come in guns blazing or anything. He just Grabs Valjean by the collar, tells him to hurry up, without showing a warrant or anything. Javert don't need no warrants when he's this right, I guess.

Valjean, much to Fantine's extreme distress, hangs his head and doesn't attempt to break Javert's hold on him. She doesn't know how this could be, as far as she's concerned the Mayor is her savior and Javert can't hurt her as long as he's there. Javert, on the other hand is the monster that tried to put her away for defending herself. She's really confused, because, up until that point she'd thought the Inspector had come for her.

Valjean would be ready to go, resigned to his fate, but there's one thing he wants to take care of first. He asks Javert for a moment to speak to him alone.

Javert is having none of this. Whatever Valjean has to say, he can say it in front of everybody. So, he has no choice but to ask, out loud, in front of Fantine, for those three days to go fetch Cosette and bring her back. Then he'll turn himself in. He even offers to let Javert accompany him.

Now, I know we all want to see Fantine and Cosette reunited, and we're rooting for Valjean, because he's turned his life around after prison messed him all up, but... Javert isn't doing anything wrong here, and this is a totally insane request from his point of view or any policeman's point of view, really. At least if they're not terrible at their job. There's absolutely no reason to think that Valjean isn't just going to take off, never to be seen again. He's escaped before, several times. The fact that he's repeatedly been caught at it doesn't seem to be a deterrent. Javert is absolutely not going to grant this request. I can't really blame him.

Well if you weren't able to tell Javert's current state of agitation by the location of his buckle before, then you will be able to now because he's not being very subtle about it anymore. He's pretty much howling in disbelief that a convict would ask such a thing of him. He denounces this town were convicts can be mayor, and calls Fantine a whore for good measure. Way harsh, Javert.

Javert is just getting increasingly excited this whole time. When Fantine cries out for the mayor, Javert silences her, grabs Valjean by the collars again and goes off on this rant about Valjean and convicts and there is no mayor. I have this mental picture of Javert bouncing around the room, arms flailing in triumph shouting something like: I got him! Valjean, that dastardly criminal is mine at last! Woohoo! Javert, for the win!

As for poor Fantine, she has now been alerted to the truth. The mayor is a former convict, Cosette is not there, and nobody's going to get her. Thanks a bunch, Inspector. She sits up in bed again; a spectre of herself. With all this terrible news hitting her all at once, she finally gives in, and with one last breath, she is gone.

This tragic turn of events causes Valjean to lose patience. He easily prys Javert's hand from his collar, because the only reason Javert held onto him at all was because he was allowing it. Valjean walks over to the the fire place to grab some kind of big ole metal rod thing and warns Javert that he'd better not try anything. Javert does not, which is probably a wise choice.

He returns to Fantine's bedside and arranges her on the pillow. she looks at peace for the first time in a very long time. He whispers something in her ear that later Sister Simplice swears caused a smile to cross the dead woman's lips.

When Valjean is finished at Fantine's bedside he gives himself over to Javert's custody.

As we well know by now, gossip travels here and in the wink of an eye the entire town has turned against the former mayor despite all the awesome things he's done for everybody. Its like a game of telephone when they talk of his real identity: "Béjean", "Bojean", "Bonjean"...(Bonjovi?) There are only three people who are still on Valjean's side. Any guesses?

If you guessed the sisters and his concierge/servant (who, as it turns out, is a woman. I don't know how that escaped me before.) you would be right.

Later as the concierge is getting ready for the night, she finds a key removed from its peg. Where has it gone? Well, Jean Valjean has escaped from prison again and has sneaked back into his former residence for unfinished biz. Can I just say that I quite enjoy that Valjean did not, in fact, escape from Javert right there at Fantine's bedside. He actually broke out of jail AGAIN. (Fifth time's a charm??? Countdown to recapture starts now.) Of course, if they put the many awesome things that happen in this book into the film/stage adaptations we'd be sitting there for a month. The first chapter alone would take a week, although I would look forward to the song about the bandits returning their stolen goods to the Bishop, and the one about his thirteen chairs. Somebody make it happen.

Here Valjean actually prefers not to visit Fantine, because he doesn't want to disturb her just in case he gets arrested in her presence again. Instead he asks for the concierge to fetch Sister Simplice, who is holding vigil over Fantine with Sister Perpétua and to meet him in his room.

Since they're all still friends there, she only questions how he's not in jail right now. He tells her the story which involves removing a metal bar and dropping off a roof. Ain't no big thing. Once Sister Simplice arrives, he hands over a note. It's instructions for his money to be given to the Curé to be divided up to pay for his trial, Fantine's funeral, and the poor. No sooner does he do this than there are some noises out in the hallway. Valjean goes to hide in a corner.

It's Javert and some henchmen coming around like a herd of elephants. He demands entrance despite the concierge's protestations, because he saw a light in the window.

Javert is chastened when he barges in and finds Sister Simplice praying instead of the Valjean he is expecting. Now, Javert is a man who believes in authority, and the clergy and the nuns, etc...etc... are right on up there.  As far as he is concerned these men and women of God are above reproach.  Particularly Sister Simplice, because it is well known that she just never ever ever ever lies.

So, when he asks if Jean Valjean is there (he is) and she says without hesitation that he's not, Javert believes her.

And when he asks if Valjean had been there at all that night and she says "no", he believes her.

Dang, Sister Simplice! Look at you, aiding and abetting!

Javert leaves empty handed, and Valjean heads off into the night in the direction of Paris.

Later, the Curé decides that he's going to allocate most of Valjean's money to the poor, and gives Fantine the cheapest burial available...in a common grave. If you don't know what that is: Here. And join me in feeling extremely horrible and sad about this final turn of events in Fantine's story.