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Les Miserables
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Volume 5 - Jean Valjean
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Underground Paris is always interesting. I wanted to skim a lot…but I just couldn’t because it would get so interesting. I really loved the story of Bruneseau and the updating and expanding he did to the sewers. I might have to see if he wrote anything about it.
....I couldn't find anything written by him, but apparently he was a friend of Hugo's in real life.
Jean Valjean – Book 3 – Mud But the Soul
The journey through the sewers was riveting for me. I totally get the whole scenario of having to guess which direction to take at each turn, knowing that a bad guess could mean calamity. I was tense throughout. I always love it when Valjean’s brain is in top form. He is such a fantastic hero when that happens. Which makes such a nice and distressing contrast to when he acts like a doink.
Ah gods, when the cops show up down in the sewers…I just raised my fist and mouthed “Jaaaveerrrrtttt!”
For some reason, when Valjean made it through the neck high sludge…and found the firm ground under his feet -- I started to really think that Cosette and Marius might survive Volume 5. It seems like such a standard romantic ending for the young lovers to survive while everyone else perishes – just doesn’t seem like Victor Hugo. But I’m starting to think it is going to happen. Weird. I am not even sure if I want it to happen at this point.
Thenardier in the sewers. My only note is “huh.” I don’t hate it, don’t love it. Indifference best describes it. I’m sure it will be significant later…but still just a “huh.”
I am convinced that Javert is a witch. It is the only explanation that makes sense.
At the beginning of this particular string of events, I would never ever have guessed that Marius would end up back at his grandfather’s house…almost fully dead, covered in shit and blood, carried by Valjean, escorted by Javert. Hugo is a master of the “I’m taking you to point B, but you’ll never guess how we’ll get there.”
Jean Valjean – Book 4 – Javert Derailed That sounds promising
About Javert: “One of his anxieties consisted in being constrained to think. The very violence of all these conflicting emotions forced him to it. Thought was something to which he was unused, and which was peculiarly painful.”
“His supreme anguish was the loss of certainty.” Interesting...but I still don't really believe in him.
“If facts did their duty, they would confine themselves to being proofs of the law.” Those rebellious facts. They are such trouble makers.
I know it’s not very sensitive, but my main thought when Javert jumped off the bridge was – I guess you need at least one suicide in this circus of death. I didn’t really care much, though.
Mod
I enjoyed the excursion back to the woods near Montfermeil, with Boulatruelle’s final disappointment. I knew the end was nigh, as we were tying up all the little frayed ends.
I’m getting a little tired of what a princess baby Marius is becoming. Good grief, he just barely survived a pitched battle, and saw all his friends die. And all he can do is moan that he must have Cosette or die – he is actually planning on killing himself if his Gramps won’t consent to the marriage. When is he going to mature a little? The book is almost over! Have a little imagination, man, not a hissy fit!
Boy, there are a lot of classic sitcom bits in this particular book. I really enjoyed that – Gramps leaving the room to vent off all the stuff he couldn’t say to Marius; the Tranchelevent bit…I guess it was mostly around Gramps and his hepped up behavior. Anyway, I liked it.
Oh – and the title of Chapter 5 – Deposit Your Money in a Forest Rather Than With a Notary. Nice.
“…one of the interested parties had his eyes blindfolded by love, the others by the six hundred thousand francs.”
Okay, I guess I can cut Marius some slack, as Hugo does a pretty bang up job of describing Marius’ PTSD.
Jean Valjean – Book 6 – The Sleepless Night
When they started making their way through the Carnival, I was thinking Montparnasse might show up. He scares the bejesus out of me.
“A frightful exchange of metaphors took place between the maskers and the crowd.” Funny.
Yikes. I thought stuff was going to hit the fan when Thenardier and Azelma showed up. I was sort of surprised to see Azelma. It seemed like Thenardier was kind of done with her. I wonder how they managed to reassemble into a team.
I absolutely did not care for the scene with Valjean setting out Cosette’s childhood clothes from the magical valise. It was just so sad and lonely.
Very nice description of how Valjean viewed his triumph of uniting the young lovers:
“…he was able to enjoy the sort of satisfaction which an armorer would experience on recognizing his factory mark on a knife, on withdrawing it, all smoking, from his own breast.”
Mod
Very cruel to have Cosette spell out such a lovely scene of domestic happiness, with Valjean settled in the house and everyone so content and cuddly…and then destroy it shortly thereafter. Mean. Not surprising, but still mean.
I have mixed feeling about Valjean’s “confession” to Marius. It seems unfair to slop his self loathing secret onto Marius, and force him to share that secret – and to lie to his wife! Almost like he is using Marius as a way to assuage some of his feelings of guilt. I do understand that he feels like a big ugly guilty liar, and wants to be honest now…but still.
Plus, I still question the idea that everyone was so freaked out over petty theft. I am under the impression that many people were punished overly harshly during this time period, so wouldn’t folks be more used to convicts, and not view them with such fear and disgust? Because it was common. I don’t know. It seems weird. And I guess the issue isn't whether it is "realistic" or not...but just whether I believe it in the context of the story. And I just don't. Same thing with Javert. Just can't buy it.
And what is Marius so freaked out about? It feels like a gross over-reaction. I am wondering if we are supposed to think that Marius is a bit of a dick…because I do.
Jean Valjean – Book 8 – Fading Away of the Twilight
Marius’ dickishness continues. How distasteful and petty and cruel to slowly disassemble the crappy meeting room for Cosette and Valjean. Tacky.
Jean Valjean – Book 9 – Supreme Dawn
Once again I am very surprised by the turn of events. I never would have thought that Valjean would slowly waste away due to a broken heart. I would have expected M. Thenardier to blackmail him and force him in to some violent and self-sacrificing action. This is much much worse.
Figures that Thenardier goes to America and becomes a slave dealer. And is probably rolling in money and cruelty and happily ruining hundreds and hundreds of lives.
Oh Holy Crap. I was absolutely destroyed when Valjean started to tell Cosette about Fantine. Poor poor Fantine. I was so excited to meet her, and she just barely had any page time in this big dense behemoth of a book. But her presence really did color every page. I didn’t realize how much I kind of missed her and felt bad for her until this resurrection. I just sobbed, and had to stop reading for awhile.
I’m glad I’m done.
”The sky was of that charming, undecided hue, which may be white and may be blue.” Nice.
”…how his ribs stood out on his skin like the graves beneath the grass in a cemetery. A sort of mud was found in his stomach. There were ashes in his teeth.” Yikes. Vivid and disturbing.
The fifth uniform. I was not expecting this turn of events. I don’t know why, because I am expecting Valjean to save Marius’ life somehow…but this was a neat surprise. And very dramatic!
“And Gavroche flung himself into the barricade just as the ball dashed against it.” Goddammit. God. Dam. It. I guess that’s all she wrote. No no no no. Maybe Valjean will also save G.
“This grand little soul had taken its flight.” Okay. I no longer care about what happens. I still want to read the book and see what happens and experience the whole big thing. But everything has changed. I am over my limit. My heart has simply shut down. But my intellect goes on alone.
And then we see the little ones again!! It is both comforting and heartbreaking.
And Hugo takes this opportunity to give the most pointed condemnation of the “everything happens for a reason” philosophy I have ever heard. “These thinkers forget to love. The zodiac thrives with them to such a point that it prevents their seeing the weeping child. God eclipses their souls. This is a family of minds which are, at once, great and petty.” Wow.
“Ram that into your muzzle.” Bittersweet.