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 5: BEAD BUSINESS

A little background on Montrieul sur Mer...apparently the main form of industry in this town at the time was bead making. The materials were expensive and the cost too high though. The bead business was slow until some guy, we'll call him Madeline, breezed into town, bringing with him ideas to revolutionize the industry. He changed the materials to something cheaper than what they were using, and basically ran around town doing awesome things for everybody with the piles and piles of money he had made with his business. He owned a factory that would pretty much hire everybody, he built schools, he built shelters, he paid teachers out of his own pocket, and everybody pretty much thought he was the bees knees.

Except for this one guy. He was the chief Inspector of the town, and his name is Javert. Javert is basically described as a walking coat and hat with amazing facial hair, and his spirit animal is the wolf puppy voted most likely to kill all his siblings. He was born in a jail to a fortune teller, and considered himself a permanent outsider, which in his mind only left him two career options: crime or law enforcement. He chose the latter. He detests all forms of revolution. He considers all law breaking a form of revolution. He'd even turn in his own mother for breaking parole, and believes that a criminal will never change his stripes. M. Madeline reminds him of somebody he used to know from back in the day, and he walks around with suspicious eyes. Being a wolf himself, he feels he knows a wolf in sheep's clothing when he sees one.

This all culminates in an incident where a poor old guy named Fauchelevent, who only owns a cart and a horse to make his living carting stuff around, has somehow managed to get himself caught underneath a load when his horse breaks its legs there in the street. He is basically being crushed under the weight of it and there is not enough time to wait for a jack. M. Madeline keeps offering more and more money for anybody who is willing to go under the cart and lift it up off the guy, but there are no takers. He's not doing it himself because there is somebody keeping an eye on him.

Javert is there to announce that nobody's offering because nobody's strong enough. Only one person he has ever known would be strong enough: this convict he used to know when he worked down in Toulon. It gets to the point where M. Madeline can no longer stand by and watch the man perish despite Javert heavily implying left and right that nobody on Earth could do the job except for that one guy. wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

Madeline raises the cart himself along with Javert's suspicions, and once everybody is safe and sound, he buys the broken cart and the dead horse and sets up Fauchelevent with a new job in Paris once he is healed.

Now, if you thought gossip traveled fast down in Digne, then you haven't met Montreuil sur Mer. It kind of feels like the rumor capital of the world here. First of all, there is all kinds of talk about M. Madeline; where he came from, and what his motivation is for doing all the awesome things that he does. There has to be some kind of reason he's so nice, right? At first they just think he's in it for they money, but he can't give that stuff away fast enough. Then they just think he's an ambitious dude, but he keeps refusing every accolade offered to him. He refuses the Legion of Honor , and he continually refuses a position as mayor of the town until the people finally beg for him to just take the job already. He introduces himself to every traveling boy looking for chimney sweeping work who wanders into town so he can give them money. Word gets around. It's a popular destination. (I wonder what that's all about. Hmmm.) He's pretty much an well loved enigma, and the fact that he very publicly mourns the passing of the Bishop of Digne just adds more grist to the rumor mill. (Let us take a moment to mourn with him. :( ) All he will say is that he was a student of the guy once a long time ago.

Those aren't the only rumors flying around town though. Let us return to Fantine, who had happily procured a job in the women's side of the bead factory. (They are separate from the men so as to preserve their modesty of course.) Everything started out well enough for her, she was so optimistic that she even took out some credit to purchase furniture for her apartment there. But well, as we all know, the Thenardier's kept jacking up their price for taking care of Cosette, and on top of that...

Well, M. Madeline had employed a certain overseer for the factory. Here she is an old lady who delights in malicious gossip for no other reason than keep herself entertained, and she's got her sights set on Fantine. Fantine, who can neither read nor write and has to employ someone to pen her letters to Cosette, which she sends often. So, the rumor mill starts to turn, and they find out about Fantine's illegitimate daughter. Scandal! Apparently this impropriety is reason enough for dismissal and she's sent packing. M. Madeline has no idea this is happening, and Fantine doesn't go to him for help since she has him pegged as the source of this trouble anyway, so what good would that do?

So, begins Fantine's descent into abject poverty. She tries to get odd jobs sewing with a friend that lives in her building, but it definitely isn't pulling in enough cash. She's definitely has some kind of ailment, because every so often it is pointed out that she has this lingering cough. It's been around since she left Cosette at Montfermeil. She owes for her rent, she owes for her furniture and the Thenardiers keep asking for more money or they'll turn Cosette out on the street. She's making it work at this point and can still look in the mirror, and brushing her hair makes her feel okay... But then come the extra expenses.

First it's only ten francs for wool skirt. Fantine heads straight off to sell her hair. Instead of sending the money, she sends the skirt. The Thenardiers give it to Eponine.

Then Cosette is 'sick' and needs 'medicine' by sick and medicine, the Thenadiers mean neither of those things. They just want some extra cash, and this time it's forty.

Fantine's beside herself, because how can she come up with that? Just so happens there's some people in town buying teeth. They are interested in Fantine's two front ones, which will just so happen to bring in the exact amount of money she needs. I know I failed to mention this before, but Fantine's teeth are fabulous and pearly white. It's mentioned more than once. She doesn't go in for this idea right away and even talks it over with her neighbor, but in the end she decides to go through with it, because what's she going to do? She gets rid of her mirror, and she can't even brush her hair to feel better anymore.

The Thenardiers write again, and this time it's for a hundred, because why they hell not? So, Fantine is still behind in credit (even though she's returned all of the furniture) and rent and now has to pony up another extra hundred so her kid isn't turned out on the street. No matter how hard she tries, she can't climb her way out of this debt she's accumulated. She can see no other option than turning to prostitution. All this she blames squarely on M. Madeline, because if she repeats it enough then it must be true. Boy, does she hate that guy who she once adored along with everybody else.

And this is where we find Fantine, with little hope and no prospects, when she stumbles upon a M. Bamatabois. This guy is a dandy, an idler, he layers his waistcoats and wears more chains than necessary on his watch. In his circle they wear boots and spurs and have "fierce mustaches". The fiercer the better. This is quite a picture that's being painted in my mind.

One day, he's just hanging around with his dandy buddies doing idle dandy things, spurs and mustaches and all, and Fantine just happens to be there, pacing back and forth and muttering to herself. Naturally, these guys proceed to harass her, because Fantine really can't catch a break at all. It comes to the point where Bamatabois puts snow down her back and this finally is the last straw. She comes after him and manages to lay a smackdown on him before she's apprehended by the police. And by police, I mean Javert, because Javert just happens to be in all the right places at all the right times these days.

He takes her back to police HQ and is quite determined to send her to jail for six months. He's unmoved by her pleas for mercy, and there are plenty. Meanwhile, unseen, the mayor has entered and he's hearing Fantine's sad story as well. (He must be following the same bat signal that Javert is.)

Madeline asks for a moment of Javert's time, and upon realizing that this is the mayor...sole cause of her whole situation...Fantine spits right in his face. Madeline orders her free.

This is when things start to get a little crazy.

Fantine is beside herself and she goes on a long rant about how great and awesome and forgiving Javert is, because she seems to be under the impression that he's the one who set her free. The mayor couldn't do such a thing, since she's built him up as such a bad guy in her mind.

While this is happening, Javert's brain has apparently broken. He's standing there at a loss for words, because A. The Mayor is ordering this wrongdoer free for no reason. She's clearly committed a crime and must be punished for it accordingly! B. She just spit in the mayor's face! An inconceivable affront to authority! Still he orders her free!, and C. This guy might be that one convict from Toulon. I guess to be fair, 'C' is always lurking in the back of Javert's mind.

Finally, Fantine's mistaken impression is corrected. She cannot believe this shit. Javert can really not believe this shit. He attempts to argue with the Mayor, but he shuts the inspector down and pulls rank on him. What can Javert do?

 He's getting articles of law quoted at him, and if there's one thing Javert is, it's a stickler for the rules.

So, that leaves Fantine and Madeline there, Javert having left them to their own devices apparently. Here, Madeline offers Fantine all she's wanted for the past few years...he will pay her debts, he will reunite mother and daughter, either there or in Paris. Whatever Fantine wants. He basically offers to fund the rest of Fantine's existence so she'll never have to work again. She falls to her knees and kisses his hand in thanks and then promptly faints.

Cliffhanger!