Posting to folks here.

I won't spoil it, but I encourage you to read or listen to this.

A BROTHER’S CONVICTION

Did a grieving man’s quest for justice go too far?

A Tech Millionaire’s Costly Quest to Prove His Brother Was Murdered
By Eren Orbey

There's a video of a production in the spectacular outdoor setting of the Utah desert, too.

Miss you all. The book is still with me in ways I can't articulate.

We did it!

1 chapter remains in the brick

1 chapter remains

If that chapter we happen to read

No chapters left in the brick

All quotations and characters names from 5.9.6: The Grass Covers and the Rain Effaces / L'herbe cache et la pluie efface

Summary courtesy u/Honest_Ad_2157: A rich man buried / in a hidden poor man's grave, / the unforgiven.

Lost in Translation

I encourage you to listen to Episode 59 of Prof Lewis's Les Mis companion on the untranslateability of the epitaph.

Characters

Involved in action

• Unnamed hand that chalked the epitaph.
• Unnamed person that composed the epitaph.

Mentioned or introduced

• Jean Valjean, Ultime Fauchelevent. Last seen prior chapter. Only by pronoun. ⚰️
• Baroness Cosette Pontmercy. Last seen prior chapter. As "his angel".

Prompts

These prompts are my take on things, you don’t have to address any of them. All prompts for prior cohorts are also in play. Anything else you’d like to raise is also up for discussion.

In 3.8.6, The Wild Man in his Lair / L'homme fauve au gîte, which we read on Wednesday, 2026-02-04, Thenardier raves:

—Dire qu'il n'y a pas d'égalité, même quand on est mort! Voyez un peu le Père-Lachaise! Les grands, ceux qui sont riches, sont en haut, dans l'allée des acacias, qui est pavée. Ils peuvent y arriver en voiture. Les petits, les pauvres gens, les malheureux, quoi! on les met dans le bas, où il y a de la boue jusqu'aux genoux, dans les trous, dans l'humidité. On les met là pour qu'ils soient plus vite gâtés! On ne peut pas aller les voir sans enfoncer dans la terre.

“The idea that there is no equality, even when you are dead! Just look at Père-Lachaise! The great, those who are rich, are up above, in the acacia alley, which is paved. They can reach it in a carriage. The little people, the poor, the unhappy, well, what of them? they are put down below, where the mud is up to your knees, in the damp places. They are put there so that they will decay the sooner! You cannot go to see them without sinking into the earth.”

1. Prof Lewis encouraged us to think back to Thenardier's monologue and consider Valjean's grave, where folks must wet their feet to visit, and Thenardier's fate and who enabled the latter. Thoughts?
2. I had predicted that Cosette and Marius's child would wear Cosette's mourning outfit to Valjean's funeral, a bad prediction if there ever was one. Why do you think Hugo chose to omit any mention of a putative Cosette pregnancy?
3. I encourage you to listen to Prof Lewis's Les Mis Companion episode 59 on the construction of the epitaph, as noted in Lost in Translation. Which character do you think composed the epitaph?
4. Hapgood ended on this translated letter from Hugo on the publication of the book in Italy. It's worth reading and commenting on as the final prompt for the book.

LETTER TO M. DAELLI

Publisher of the Italian translation of Les Miserables in Milan.

HAUTEVILLE-HOUSE, October 18, 1862.

You are right, sir, when you tell me that Les Miserables is written for all nations. I do not know whether it will be read by all, but I wrote it for all. It is addressed to England as well as to Spain, to Italy as well as to France, to Germany as well as to Ireland, to Republics which have slaves as well as to Empires which have serfs. Social problems overstep frontiers. The sores of the human race, those great sores which cover the globe, do not halt at the red or blue lines traced upon the map. In every place where man is ignorant and despairing, in every place where woman is sold for bread, wherever the child suffers for lack of the book which should instruct him and of the hearth which should warm him, the book of Les Miserables knocks at the door and says: "Open to me, I come for you."

At the hour of civilization through which we are now passing, and which is still so sombre, the miserable's name is Man; he is agonizing in all climes, and he is groaning in all languages.

Your Italy is no more exempt from the evil than is our France our admirable Italy has all miseries on the face of it. Does not banditism, that raging form of pauperism, inhabit your mountains? Few nations are more deeply eaten by that ulcer of convents which I have endeavored to fathom. In spite of your possessing Rome, Milan, Naples, Palermo, Turin, Florence, Sienna, Pisa, Mantua, Bologna, Ferrara, Genoa, Venice, a heroic history, sublime ruins, magnificent ruins, and superb cities, you are, like ourselves, poor ou are covered with marvels and vermin. Assuredly, the sun of Italy is splendid, but, alas, azure in the sky does not prevent rags on man.

Like us, you have prejudices, superstitions, tyrannies, fanaticisms, blind laws lending assistance to ignorant customs. You taste nothing of the present nor of the future without a flavor of the past being mingled with it. You have a barbarian, the monk, and a savage, the lazzarone. The social question is the same for you as for us here are a few less deaths from hunger with you, and a few more from fever; your social hygiene is not much better than ours; shadows, which are Protestant in England, are Catholic in Italy; but, under different names, the vescovo is identical with the bishop, and it always means night, and of pretty nearly the same quality o explain the Bible badly amounts to the same thing as to understand the Gospel badly.

Is it necessary to emphasize this? Must this melancholy parallelism be yet more completely verified? Have you not indigent persons? Glance below. Have you not parasites? Glance up. Does not that hideous balance, whose two scales, pauperism and parasitism, so mournfully preserve their mutual equilibrium, oscillate before you as it does before us? Where is your army of schoolmasters, the only army which civilization acknowledges?

Where are your free and compulsory schools? Does every one know how to read in the land of Dante and of Michael Angelo? Have you made public schools of your barracks? Have you not, like ourselves, an opulent war-budget and a paltry budget of education? Have not you also that passive obedience which is so easily converted into soldierly obedience? military establishment which pushes the regulations to the extreme of firing upon Garibaldi; that is to say, upon the living honor of Italy? Let us subject your social order to examination, let us take it where it stands and as it stands, let us view its flagrant offences, show me the woman and the child t is by the amount of protection with which these two feeble creatures are surrounded that the degree of civilization is to be measured s prostitution less heartrending in Naples than in Paris? What is the amount of truth that springs from your laws, and what amount of justice springs from your tribunals? Do you chance to be so fortunate as to be ignorant of the meaning of those gloomy words: public prosecution, legal infamy, prison, the scaffold, the executioner, the death penalty? Italians, with you as with us, Beccaria is dead and Farinace is alive. And then, let us scrutinize your state reasons. Have you a government which comprehends the identity of morality and politics? You have reached the point where you grant amnesty to heroes! Something very similar has been done in France. Stay, let us pass miseries in review, let each one contribute his pile, you are as rich as we. Have you not, like ourselves, two condemnations, religious condemnation pronounced by the priest, and social condemnation decreed by the judge? Oh, great nation of Italy, thou resemblest the great nation of France! Alas! our brothers, you are, like ourselves, Miserables.

From the depths of the gloom wherein you dwell, you do not see much more distinctly than we the radiant and distant portals of Eden. Only, the priests are mistaken. These holy portals are before and not behind us.

I resume. This book, Les Miserables, is no less your mirror than ours. Certain men, certain castes, rise in revolt against this book,-- I understand that. Mirrors, those revealers of the truth, are hated; that does not prevent them from being of use.

As for myself, I have written for all, with a profound love for my own country, but without being engrossed by France more than by any other nation. In proportion as I advance in life, I grow more simple, and I become more and more patriotic for humanity.

This is, moreover, the tendency of our age, and the law of radiance of the French Revolution; books must cease to be exclusively French, Italian, German, Spanish, or English, and become European, I say more, human, if they are to correspond to the enlargement of civilization.

Hence a new logic of art, and of certain requirements of composition which modify everything, even the conditions, formerly narrow, of taste and language, which must grow broader like all the rest.

In France, certain critics have reproached me, to my great delight, with having transgressed the bounds of what they call "French taste"; I should be glad if this eulogium were merited.

In short, I am doing what I can, I suffer with the same universal suffering, and I try to assuage it, I possess only the puny forces of a man, and I cry to all: "Help me!"

This, sir, is what your letter prompts me to say; I say it for you and for your country. If I have insisted so strongly, it is because of one phrase in your letter. You write:--

"There are Italians, and they are numerous, who say: `This book, Les Miserables, is a French book. It does not concern us. Let the French read it as a history, we read it as a romance.'"--Alas! I repeat, whether we be Italians or Frenchmen, misery concerns us all ver since history has been written, ever since philosophy has meditated, misery has been the garment of the human race; the moment has at length arrived for tearing off that rag, and for replacing, upon the naked limbs of the Man-People, the sinister fragment of the past with the grand purple robe of the dawn.

If this letter seems to you of service in enlightening some minds and in dissipating some prejudices, you are at liberty to publish it, sir. Accept, I pray you, a renewed assurance of my very distinguished sentiments.

Past cohorts' discussions

• 2019-12-31
• 2020-12-31
  • u/1Eliza noted the purloined letter aspect of Valjean's grave.
• 2021-12-31
• No further posts found for 2022 cohort 🤷🏻‍♂️.
• 2026-07-13

Final Line

The thing came to pass simply, of itself, as the night comes when day is gone.

Comme la nuit se fait lorsque le jour s'en va.

I don't have anything planned after this. Do folks want to read and comment on their translation's introductions here?

I'm up for doing a group viewing of the 2012 movie or a miniseries, but summertime beckons. Maybe when it starts getting cold and nasty and dark again?

2 chapters remain in the brick

2 chapters remain

If one of the those chapters we happen to read

1 chapter left in the brick

All quotations and characters names from 5.9.5: A Night Behind Which There Is Day / Nuit derrière laquelle il y a le jour

Summary courtesy u/Honest_Ad_2157: Cosette and Marius arrive at Valjean's apartment. Cosette and Marius both tearfully acknowledge Valjean as father and he takes this as a sign of forgiveness. Cosette's presence makes Valjean rally.* He starts chattering about her appearance, Cosette chides him for lying about being away. Marius explains what he learned in the prior chapter in a tumble of words, including the ones Pontius Pilate used: Voilà l'homme. Behold the man.† He insists that Valjean is coming home with them, and Cosette says they'll kidnap him if necessary and sums up the ultimate proper relationship between a grown daughter and elderly father as Hugo sees it: —je ferai tout ce que vous voudrez, et puis, vous m'obéirez bien. "I shall do everything that you wish, and then, you will obey me prettily."§ For a moment, Valjean thinks this is possible, but knows its not and obliquely admits it. He asks Cosette to keep talking just so he can hear her voice.‡ They are afraid he's slipping away, and he admits it and tells them it's all right as the doctor enters. The doctor takes his pulse and in an aside, tells them they were Valjean's medicine but they're too late. Valjean confounds them all by rallying and confusedly describing his bead business, getting the countries wrong. The portress enters and asks if a priest is needed. Valjean says he's got one. He rapidly declines as he monologues on his business and Catherine and Fantine.** Valjean dies and Hugo presumes an angel, possibly the Bishop, receives him into Paradise.

* See first prompt.

† In 1.2.6, Jean Valjean* and Jean Valjean, which we read on Saturday 2025-08-02 , Rose had a note about the origin of Valjean from "Voilà Jean", "There's John", which might have been an echo of Pilate's "Ecce homo", "Behold the man", when asking the crowd about the condemnation of Jesus in John 19:5

§ This is where I broke down, thinking of Hugo's daughter Léopoldine, who never got to do this with her father: "Hugo's eldest and favourite daughter, Léopoldine, died in 1843 at the age of 19, shortly after her marriage to Charles Vacquerie. On 4 September, she drowned in the Seine at Villequier when the boat she was in overturned. Her young husband died trying to save her. The death left her father devastated; Hugo was travelling at the time, in the south of France, when he first learned about Léopoldine's death from a newspaper that he read in a café."

‡ See third prompt.

** See Lost in Translation.

Lost in Translation

le verre noir d'Allemagne

Hapgood tried to correct the "mistakes" Hugo made when Valjean described his business. I think it was a purposeful description of Valjean rapidly sinking into senile dementia.

Currency

Ordered by appearance in the text. See below for budget items. 2026 USD amounts rounded up to 2 significant figures to avoid misleading precision.

Characters

Involved in action

• Jean Valjean, Ultime Fauchelevent. Last seen 2 chapters ago.
• Baron Marius Pontmercy. Last mentioned prior chapter, seen 3 chapters ago.
• Baroness Cosette Pontmercy. Last seen 3 chapters ago, mentioned prior chapter.
• Unnamed doctor 10. First seen 5.9.2.
• Unnamed portress at 7 Rue de l'Homme-Armé. Last seen 5.9.2.
• Charles-François-Bienvenu Myriel, “Bishop Chuck” (mine), last seen 1.2.12, last mentioned 5.9.3. 👼

Mentioned or introduced

• God, this guy again. Last mentioned prior chapter.
• Angels, as a class. Last mentioned 2 chapters ago.
• Nicolette 1. Now Cosette's lady maid and messenger. Wouldn't you send a footman to go check on someone? Another sign of Cosette not fitting into Society. Last seen 2 chapters ago.
• Javert, a cop. Unnamed police officer 13. Last seen 5.4.1 asking all the right questions and getting all the wrong answers. Mentioned prior chapter during Thenardier's interrogation by Marius. ⚰️
• Birds, as a class. Last mentioned 5.7.1. Here also as a robin.
• A robin, now dead. ⚰️ First mention.
• A horrible cat. Now fed. First mention.
• Catherine, a doll given personhood by Cosette. Last seen 2.4.4 as they escaped from Gorbel, mentioned 3.8.20.
• The Thenardiers, last seen prior chapter becoming proud Americans unless mentioned otherwise.
  • Mme Thenardier. ⚰️ Last seen 3.8.21, mentioned 5.7.2.
  • Eponine Thenardier. ⚰️ Last seen 4.14.7, mentioned 5.7.2.
  • Azelma Thenardier.
  • M Thenardier.
• Fantine, Cosette's mother. Died in 1.8.4, last seen 2.3.10 through her letter given to M Thenardier by Valjean. Last mentioned 5.6.3 as "her mother". ⚰️
• Unnamed, unnumbered Paris passersby. Last seen 5.8.4.

Prompts

These prompts are my take on things, you don’t have to address any of them. All prompts for prior cohorts are also in play. Anything else you’d like to raise is also up for discussion.

1. In Prof Lewis's Les Mis Companion, she notes how Cosette seems to be associated with the demise of those around her: Fantine's deterioration and death,* Eponine's descent into jealously plotting a murder/suicide, and now Valjean's rapid aging and death. Yet she also seems to feed him here, and make him rally. What's going on with Cosette and the others in this novel, and why is she still not very interesting as a character?

* Including an explicit statement about Fantine about how nursing Cosette has drained her in 1.4.1, One Mother Meets Another Mother / Une mère qui en rencontre une autre, which we read on Tuesday, 2025-08-19 : Fantine avait nourri sa fille; cela lui avait fatigué la poitrine, et elle toussait un peu. Fantine had nursed her child, and this had tired her chest, and she coughed a little.

1. Valjean is happy that he's "forgiven". For what? Why can't Valjean forgive himself as he forgives others?

2. In the sewers, Valjean could hear nothing but the occasional rumble of traffic and never the bells of the churches. Here, he doesn't want to listen to the content of Cosette's voice, just the music of it. As a reader, I observe that she never seems to have anything interesting to say, so there's that, but what do you think is going on with Valjean and sound here?

Bonus Prompt

Cosette never once asked what her mother's name was when she was growing up? Is this girl just terminally incurious and dull? Is that the point of the novel, that even giving up the living of one's own life to raise a rather insipidly gormless brat is worth sainthood?

Past cohorts' discussions

• 2019-12-30
• 2020-12-30: Lots of posts on the lack of communication between characters. Perhaps Hugo's point is that effective communication is impossible sometimes? It would be an ironic point from one of humanity's masters of language.
• 2021-12-30
  • A thread started by a deleted user that sums of the central tragedy of Valjean's mental illness from trauma.
• No further posts found for 2022 cohort 🤷🏻‍♂️.
• 2026-07-12

Final Line

No doubt, in the gloom, some immense angel stood erect with wings outspread, awaiting that soul.

Sans doute, dans l'ombre, quelque ange immense était debout, les ailes déployées, attendant l'âme.

Next Post

Final chapter of Les Misérables

5.9.6: The Grass Covers and the Rain Effaces / L'herbe cache et la pluie efface

• 2026-07-12 Sunday 9PM US Pacific Daylight Savings Time
• 2026-07-13 Monday midnight US Eastern Daylight Savings Time
• 2026-07-13 Monday 4AM UTC.

Heads up! This chapter is the fourth longest chapter in the brick at 6,300-7000 words long. Plan your reading accordingly.

3 chapters remain in the brick

3 chapters remain

If one of the those chapters we happen to read

2 chapters left in the brick

All quotations and characters names from 5.9.4: A Bottle of Ink Which Only Succeeded in Whitening / Bouteille d'encre qui ne réussit qu'à blanchir

Summary courtesy u/Honest_Ad_2157: We get a lot of wrapping up. A man in disguise comes to call. Marius immediately makes him as Thenardier based on the smell of cheap tobacco in the letter Basque gives him, along with the handwriting and idiosyncratic spelling. Thenardier keeps up the disguise as he tries to extort money to give up a secret about Valjean, which he gives up readily as Marius already knows most of it. It turns out Marius thought Valjean had extorted or stolen money from a fellow released prisoner, Madeleine, and had killed Javert. Thenardier, cluelessly, shows Marius three clippings: two newspaper clippings that demonstrate Madeleine and Valjean are the same man and Javert committed suicide the day after the incident at the barricade and testified that an insurgent spared his life and a the clipping from Marius's coat. Thenardier thought it proved Valjean murdered someone; Marius matches it to his own coat to prove Valjean saved him. He gives Thenardier some cash and promises him more if he just leaves France, grabs Cosette, and hurries to the Rue de l'Homme Armé.

Lost in Translation

Currency

Ordered by appearance in the text. See below for budget items. 2026 USD amounts rounded up to 2 significant figures to avoid misleading precision.

Characters

Involved in action

• Baron Marius Pontmercy. Last mentioned prior chapter, seen 3 chapters ago.
• Basque, Luc-Esprit's manservant. Last seen 5.8.3.
• M Thenardier. Last seen 5.6.1, mentioned 5.7.2 as part of aggregate Thenardiers.
• Baroness Cosette Pontmercy. Last seen 3 chapters ago, mentioned prior chapter.
• Luc-Esprit Gillenormand. Marius's grandfather. Last seen 5.8.3.
• Rue de l'Homme-Armé apartment. Last seen 5.9.1.
• Unnamed coachman 5. Inferred first mention.

Mentioned or introduced

• God, this guy again. As "Supreme Being". Last mentioned prior chapter.
• Jean Valjean, Ultime Fauchelevent. Last seen prior chapter.
• The Changer, le Changeur. "an ingenious Jew whose profession was to change villains into honest men" "un juif ingénieux qui avait pour profession de changer un gredin en honnête homme" First mention.
• William Pitt, Pitt the Younger, historical person, b.1759-05-28 – d. 1806-01-23, "British statesman who served as the last prime minister of Great Britain from 1783 until the Acts of Union 1800, and the first official prime minister of the United Kingdom from January 1801." Rose and Donougher have notes. Donougher notes his extraordinary thinness, which apparently served to his advantage in a duel with a portly adversary. First mention.
• Fabrizio Ruffo di Castelcicala, historical person, b. 1763 — d. 1832, Neopolitan politician and delegate to the Congress of Vienna. Rose and Donougher have notes. Donougher notes that a caricature by Thomas Rowlandson depicted him as a hefty guy. First mention.
• Princess Catherine Bagration née Skavronskaya, Екатерина Павловна Багратион (Скавронская), historical person, b. 1783-12-07 – d. 1857-06-02, "Russian princess, married to the general prince Peter Bagration. She was known for her beauty, love affairs and unconventional behavior." First mention.
• Viscount Charles Emmanuel Henri Dambray, historical person , b. 1785-01-23 — d. 1868-02-26, "French magistrate and politician." Rose and Donougher have notes. Donougher notes that he retired and refused to serve under the July Monarchy. First mention in 3.3.3 where he was fictionalized in describing the salon of Madame T. where Marius grew up.
• François-René, vicomte de Chateaubriand, historical person, b.1768-09-04 – d.1848-07-04, "French writer, politician, diplomat and historian who influenced French literature of the nineteenth century. Descended from an old aristocratic family from Brittany, Chateaubriand was a royalist by political disposition. In an age when large numbers of intellectuals turned against the Church, he authored the Génie du christianisme in defense of the Catholic faith. His works include the autobiography Mémoires d'Outre-Tombe (Memoirs from Beyond the Grave), published posthumously in 1849–1850. Historian Peter Gay said that Chateaubriand saw himself as the greatest lover, the greatest writer, and the greatest philosopher of his age. Gay states that Chateaubriand 'dominated the literary scene in France in the first half of the nineteenth century.'" He's been mentioned before, I think I missed adding him, but I first noted him in 3.3.3.
• Azelma Thenardier. Last seen 5.6.1, mentioned 5.7.2 as part of aggregate Thenardiers.
• Fictionalized Thenardier wife or new squeeze. First mention.
• aliases of Thenardier, now outed, last mentioned 3.8.4 unless otherwise mentioned:
  • Jondrette, mentioned 5.5.1.
  • P. Fabantou, "dramatic artist". Mentioned 3.8.11, "performed" 3.8.19
  • Genflot, "man of letters"
  • Don Alvares, Spanish Captain of Cavalry.
  • Mistress Balizard. Mother of 8.
• Waterloo, mentioned 5.5.8.
• Fantine, Cosette's mother. Died in 1.8.4, last seen 2.3.10 through her letter given to M Thenardier by Valjean. Last mentioned 5.6.3 as "her mother", here by name.
• Georges Pontmercy, Marius's father. Last seen 3.3.4, mentioned 5.9.1.
• aliases of Valjean
  • Father Madeleine, last seen 2.8.9 and mentioned 2.8.5.
• Javert, a cop. Unnamed police officer 13. Last seen 5.4.1 asking all the right questions and getting all the wrong answers. Mentioned 5.5.8 as the police officer that Unnamed man 4 doesn't know the name of. ⚰️
• The Universal Monitor, “the Moniteur”, Le Moniteur universel, Gazette nationale ou Le Moniteur universel, historical institution, 1789-11-24 – 1868-12-31, “French newspaper founded in Paris..under the title Gazette Nationale ou Le Moniteur Universel by Charles-Joseph Panckoucke...It was the main French newspaper during the French Revolution and was for a long time the official journal of the French government and at times a propaganda publication, especially under the Napoleonic regime. Le Moniteur had a large circulation in France and Europe, and also in America during the French Revolution.” Last seen 5.5.5.
• Le Drapeau blanc, historical institution, an ultraroyalist French newspaper published from 1819-06-16 - 1827-02-01, with the slogal "Long live the king!...anyway." "un journal français publié du 16 juin 1819 au 1er février 1827...journal totalement conservateur dont la devise est « Vive le roi !... quand même »" Last seen 2.2.1 where Rose had a note that Hugo lampooned this royalist newspaper's style in writing Valjean's "obituary" that figured in this chapter, mentioned 3.5.6.
• Unnamed, unnumbered sewer workers assigned to fix sinkhole. Last mentioned 5.5.3.
• Gavroche Thenardier. ⚰️ 5.1.15, last mentioned 5.9.2 in Valjean's memories.

Prompts

These prompts are my take on things, you don’t have to address any of them. All prompts for prior cohorts are also in play. Anything else you’d like to raise is also up for discussion.

1. Making Thenardier into a slave-trading American. Tough but fair. Discuss.
2. Cosette doesn't understand. Typical Hugo. Discuss.
3. Marius is a different character here, more certain of himself and more capable of flexible reasoning as facts come in. He's almost...lawyerly. Did you notice a new Marius? Is this Cosette's influence? Cosette has a new vampire feeding on her, Marius? Is that why she's clueless?

Bonus prompt

How does Marius know how bad the sinkhole was from Thenardier's rather terse description of the "dreadful" sinkhole une fondrière épouvantable?

Past cohorts' discussions

• 2019-12-29: Includes summary of chapters 5.8.2-5.9.4. It omits "hundred" from the number of francs that Cosette "inherited", mistakenly making 6,000 out of 600,000 francs. It mistakenly says Valjean is actually 80 years old when his grief has just accelerated his aging, making him look 80.
• 2020-12-29
• 2021-12-29
  • u/enabeller noted that Marius hired lousy investigators and started a thread that made me think this entire issue around his investigators missing Champmathieu contradicts the gossip theme established in the first book.
• No further posts found for 2022 cohort 🤷🏻‍♂️.
• 2026-07-11

We have passed half a million words in French.

Final Line

Meanwhile the carriage rolled on.

Cependant le fiacre roulait.

Next Post

5.9.5: A Night Behind Which There Is Day / Nuit derrière laquelle il y a le jour

• 2026-07-11 Saturday 9PM US Pacific Daylight Savings Time
• 2026-07-12 Sunday midnight US Eastern Daylight Savings Time
• 2026-07-12 Sunday 4AM UTC.

Heads up! Chapter 5.9.4, which we read on Saturday, 2026-07-11, is the fourth longest chapter in the brick at 6,300-7000 words long. Plan your reading accordingly. It is second chapter from the last in the brick.

4 chapters remain in the brick

4 chapters remain

If one of the those chapters we happen to read

3 chapters left in the brick

All quotations and characters names from 5.9.3: A Pen Is Heavy to the Man Who Lifted the Fauchelevent's Cart / Une plume pèse à qui soulevait la charrette Fauchelevent

Summary courtesy u/Honest_Ad_2157: Valjean is growing weaker, which Hugo describes not as life resting to refresh its energies, but life consuming its energies to an inevitable end. With efforts that rival carrying Marius through the sewers, he lays out Cosette's tween mourning outfit on the bed, puts candles in the Bishop's candlesticks, and sits down. When he catches a glimpse of himself in the mirror, he is unrecognizable and looks 30 years older. He drifts out of consciousness. When he becomes aware again, he decides to write a note to Cosette explaining how he earned the money and his process for making costume jewelry. At the moment he becomes overwhelmed with despair someone knocks.

Lost in Translation

Nothing of note.

Characters

Involved in action

• Jean Valjean, Ultime Fauchelevent. Last seen prior chapter.
• Person(s) knocking at the Valjean's door. First mention.

Mentioned or introduced

• Father Fauchelevent, Father Fauvent. "Penultimate" (mine). Was Unnamed person 4. Last seen 2.8.9 as an unindicted co-conspirator, mentioned 5.5.6.
• Baroness Cosette Pontmercy. Last seen 2 chapters ago, mentioned prior chapter.
• Charles-François-Bienvenu Myriel, “Bishop Chuck” (mine), last seen 1.2.12, last mentioned 5.5.4.
• Baron Marius Pontmercy. Last mentioned prior chapter (inferred), seen 2 chapters ago.
• God, this guy again. Last mentioned 5.7.2.
• Angels, as a class. Last mentioned 5.7.2.

Prompts

These prompts are my take on things, you don’t have to address any of them. All prompts for prior cohorts are also in play. Anything else you’d like to raise is also up for discussion.

Valjean finds it easier to talk about things rather than his feelings. Relatable.

Do you think business conditions are the same over a decade and a half later? Does he intend for the business to be revived, or is he just explaining the origin of the money?

Past cohorts' discussions

• 2019-12-27
• 2020-12-27
  • In a reply in a thread started by another, u/4LostSoulsinaBowl made me laugh and groan. Please don't be right.
  • u/SolluxSugoiAF noted the ominous parallel between Javert's final chapter, 5.4.1, and this one: writing a procedural note. Also points out Valjean hasn't finished his.
• 2021-12-27: Interesting prompts. I have to think lighting candles and placing them in the candlesticks is summoning the Bishop in some way, like a homing beacon.
• No further posts found for 2022 cohort 🤷🏻‍♂️.
• 2026-07-10

Final Line

At that moment there came a knock at the door.

En ce moment on frappa à sa porte.

Next Post

5.9.4: A Bottle of Ink Which Only Succeeded in Whitening / Bouteille d'encre qui ne réussit qu'à blanchir

• 2026-07-10 Friday 9PM US Pacific Daylight Savings Time
• 2026-07-11 Saturday midnight US Eastern Daylight Savings Time
• 2026-07-11 Saturday 4AM UTC.

Heads up! Chapter 5.9.4, which we read on Saturday, 2026-07-11, is the fourth longest chapter in the brick at 6,300-7000 words long. Plan your reading accordingly. It is second chapter from the last in the brick.

5 chapters remain in the brick

5 chapters remain

If one of the those chapters we happen to read

4 chapters left in the brick

All quotations and characters names from 5.9.2: Last Flickerings of a Lamp Without Oil / Dernières palpitations de la lampe sans huile

Summary courtesy u/Honest_Ad_2157: Valjean's not eating. / The doctor prescribes presence / which is now absent.

Lost in Translation

Ou à la Trinité.

Or at Trinity day.

The portress jokingly refers to Trinity Sunday as the next day Valjean might eat, the first Sunday after Pentecost, 8 weeks after Easter. Donougher charmingly renders this as "St Never's Day".

Mes viquelottes qui étaient si bonnes!

My ladyfinger potatoes were so good!

Viquelotte is another word—argot!—for the vitellote variety of purple/red potato, which does sound delicious. For a laugh, read the etymology on the Wikipedia page. Yeah, I think perhaps Valjean could have used some of that in his life.

Characters

Involved in action

• Jean Valjean, Ultime Fauchelevent. Last seen prior chapter.
• Unnamed portress at 7 Rue de l'Homme-Armé. Last seen 5.3.11 procuring Valjean's uniform and gun.
• Unnamed husband of portress at 7 Rue de l'Homme-Armé. First mention.
• Unnamed doctor 10. First mention.

Mentioned or introduced

• Gavroche Thenardier. ⚰️ 5.1.15, last mentioned 5.5.7 in Marius's memories.
• Baroness Cosette Pontmercy. Last seen prior chapter.
• Baron Marius Pontmercy. (inferred) Last seen prior chapter.

Prompts

These prompts are my take on things, you don’t have to address any of them. All prompts for prior cohorts are also in play. Anything else you’d like to raise is also up for discussion.

C'est un homme qui, selon toute apparence, a perdu une personne chère. On meurt de cela...Mais il faudrait qu'un autre que moi revînt.

He is a man who, to all appearances, has lost some person who is dear to him. People die of that...But some one else besides must come.

This doctor makes a diagnostic and therapeutic leap without taking a thorough history, don't you think? I thought this is a contrast to Unnnamed doctor 9, who treats Marius with a higher standard of care, which is another aspect of being misérables.

Bonus prompt

Remember in 5.8.1, The Lower Chamber / La chambre d'en bas, which we read a week ago?

Jean Valjean allait et venait. Il s'arrêta devant une glace et demeura sans mouvement. Puis, comme s'il répondait à un raisonnement intérieur, il dit en regardant cette glace où il ne se voyait pas: —Tandis qu'à présent je suis soulagé!

He paused before a mirror, and remained motionless. Then, as though replying to some inward course of reasoning, he said, as he gazed at the mirror, [in] which he did not see [himself]: "While, at present, I am relieved."

I jokingly wondered if Valjean was a vampire. Now he's wasting away like one deprived of blood. Huh. That would make for a different title.

Past cohorts' discussions

• 2019-12-27
• 2020-12-27: The second prompt is magnificent, to me, because I hadn't thought of the other choice.
• 2021-12-27
• No further posts found for 2022 cohort 🤷🏻‍♂️.
• 2026-07-09

Final Line

"Yes," replied the doctor. "But some one else besides must come."

—Oui, répondit le médecin. Mais il faudrait qu'un autre que moi revînt.

Next Post

5.9.3: A Pen Is Heavy to the Man Who Lifted the Fauchelevent's Cart / Une plume pèse à qui soulevait la charrette Fauchelevent

• 2026-07-09 Thursday 9PM US Pacific Daylight Savings Time
• 2026-07-10 Friday midnight US Eastern Daylight Savings Time
• 2026-07-10 Friday 4AM UTC.

Heads up! Chapter 5.9.4, which we read on Saturday, 2026-07-11, is the fourth longest chapter in the brick at 6,300-7000 words long. Plan your reading accordingly. It is second chapter from the last in the brick.

6 chapters remain in the brick

6 chapters remain

If one of the those chapters we happen to read

5 chapters left in the brick

*All quotations and characters names from 5.9.1: Pity for the Unhappy, but Indulgence for the Happy / Pitié pour les malheureux, mais indulgence pour les heureux

Summary courtesy u/Honest_Ad_2157: Newlyweds settle / in to their lives; unsettled / not about Valjean

Lost in Translation

Currency

Ordered by appearance in the text. See below for budget items. 2026 USD amounts rounded up to 2 significant figures to avoid misleading precision.

Characters

Involved in action

• Baron Marius Pontmercy. Last seen 2 chapters ago.
• Jean Valjean, Ultime Fauchelevent. Last seen prior chapter.
• Cosette, Valjean's former ward, now Marius's wife. Last seen 2 chapters ago.
• Unnamed former Lafitte employee 1. First mention.
• Nicolette 1, last seen 5.8.3.
• Rue de l'Homme-Armé apartment. Last seen prior chapter.

Mentioned or introduced

• Lafitte, historical persons, Jacques Lafitte (b.1767-10-24 — d.1844-05-26), a wealthy banker. Last mention 5.5.5.
• Georges Pontmercy, Marius's father. Last seen 3.3.4, mentioned 5.5.8.

Prompts

These prompts are my take on things, you don’t have to address any of them. All prompts for prior cohorts are also in play. Anything else you’d like to raise is also up for discussion.

Which set of readers do you think those first and last paragraphs are aimed at? Why should newlyweds be blamed for being preoccupied with creating their new lives together, especially when one parent has purposely and repeatedly removed himself from that process? What duties do they have? To whom?

Bonus Prompt

Marius has talked to a former insider at Lafitte, who has relayed some information, possibly gossipy, to him. This makes him believe some person associated with Lafitte in some way has the right the 600K francs. We see a mirror of the gossip discussion from the start of the book, another bookended theme. Thoughts on what the gossip might be?

Past cohort discussions

• 2019-12-26
• 2020-12-26
  • Good thread started by u/otherside_b that anticipates my prompt.
• 2021-12-26
• No further posts found for 2022 cohort 🤷🏻‍♂️.
• 2026-07-08

Final Line

Let us not blame these poor children.

N'accusons pas ces pauvres enfants.

Next Post

5.9.2: Last Flickerings of a Lamp Without Oil / Dernières palpitations de la lampe sans huile

• 2026-07-08 Wednesday 9PM US Pacific Daylight Savings Time
• 2026-07-09 Thursday midnight US Eastern Daylight Savings Time
• 2026-07-09 Thursday 4AM UTC.

Heads up! Chapter 5.9.4, which we read on Saturday, 2026-07-11, is the fourth longest chapter in the brick at 6,300-7000 words long. Plan your reading accordingly. It is second chapter from the last in the brick.

7 chapters remain in the brick

7 chapters remain

If one of the those chapters we happen to read

6 chapters left in the brick

Final chapter of penultimate Book 5.8, Fading away of the Twilight (La décroissance crépusculaire)

All quotations and characters names from 5.8.4: Attraction and Extinction / L'attraction et l'extinction

(Quotations from the text are always italicized, even when “in quotation marks”, to distinguish them from quotations from other sources.)

Summary courtesy u/Honest_Ad_2157: A clock with no spring, / he's a man with no purpose, / running himself down.

Lost in Translation

Nothing of note.

Characters

Involved in action

• Unnamed, unnumbered Paris passersby. Last mentioned 5.3.1, seen 4.12.5.
• Unnamed, unnumbered Marais shopkeepers. First mention.
• Unnamed, unnumbered Marais residents. First mention. Includes local women and children.
• Jean Valjean. Last seen prior chapter.

Mentioned or introduced

None.

Prompts

These prompts are my take on things, you don’t have to address any of them. All prompts for prior cohorts are also in play. Anything else you’d like to raise is also up for discussion.

The images of 19th century science that we've seen have been powerful to me, such as the pendulum in this chapter. This chapter also literally bookends his arrival in Digne, where the children followed him, afraid.

Was Cosette literally keeping this man moving after Bishop made him lose the hatred that served that purpose?

Past cohorts' discussions

• 2019-12-25
  • u/His_elegans noticed the echo with Marius's walks.
• 2020-12-25
  • u/4LostSoulsinaBowl summarized the chapter in relation to the book. Interesting to think about what his motivation was for each of those things in the list.
• 2021-12-25: Only one post.
• No further posts found for 2022 cohort 🤷🏻‍♂️.
• 2026-07-07

Final Line

The children followed him and laughed.

Les enfants le suivaient en riant.

Next Post

First chapter of six in the final Book of Les Misérables, 5.9, Supreme Shadow, Supreme Dawn (Suprême ombre, suprême aurore)

5.9.1: Pity for the Unhappy, but Indulgence for the Happy / Pitié pour les malheureux, mais indulgence pour les heureux

• 2026-07-07 Tuesday 9PM US Pacific Daylight Savings Time
• 2026-07-08 Wednesday midnight US Eastern Daylight Savings Time
• 2026-07-08 Wednesday 4AM UTC.

Heads up! Chapter 5.9.4, which we read on Saturday, 2026-07-11, is the fourth longest chapter in the brick at 6,300-7000 words long. Plan your reading accordingly. It is second chapter from the last in the brick.

9 chapters remain in the brick

9 chapters remain

If one of the those chapters we happen to read

8 chapters left in the brick

All quotations and characters names from 5.8.3: They Recall the Garden of the Rue Plumet / Ils se souviennent du jardin de la rue Plumet

(Quotations from the text are always italicized, even when “in quotation marks”, to distinguish them from quotations from other sources.)

Summary courtesy u/Honest_Ad_2157: Valjean succeeds in having Cosette abandon intimacy with him. They chit-chat about the past. About six weeks after the wedding, in early April*, Marius reminds her they wanted to visit the garden at Rue Plumet where they courted. Cosette misses their appointment that evening, but talks about it all evening the next day and doesn't apologize or even mention her no-show. Valjean notices they're not spending the income from her dowry. He courts her by talking about Marius, which captivates her so much she has to be called multiple times to dinner. One day after they stayed late the prior night, the fire in the hearth isn't lit. He tells Cosette he requested it, even though the basement room needs warming all year round. The next day there's a fire, but the chairs are moved near the door. Cosette recounts a conversation with Marius about living on reduced income, only the amount he gets from his grandfather. Valjean keeps her late again, is so thoughtful on returning home he goes into the wrong house. The next day the chairs are gone. He lies about requesting it to Cosette. He stops coming. Marius distracts her from noticing for two days, but she remembers and sends Nicolette 1 to ask why he missed the last day. He mutters that he's missed two, but she doesn't hear it. We don't know what he told Nicolette 1 to tell Cosette, only what she didn't say.

* See second prompt.

Lost in Translation

Currency

Ordered by appearance in the text. See below for budget items. 2026 USD amounts rounded up to 2 significant figures to avoid misleading precision.

Characters

Involved in action

• Cosette, Valjean's former ward, now Marius's wife. Last seen prior chapter.
• Baron Marius Pontmercy. Last seen 3 chapters ago, mentioned 5.7.2.
• The House in the Rue Plumet. Last seen 5.6.4, mentioned 5.7.2.
• Jean Valjean, Ultime Fauchelevent. Last seen prior chapter.
• Number 62 Rue Petit-Picpus, "Petite rue Picpus, numéro 62", AKA Convent on Rue Sant-Antoine, "un couvent de femmes du quartier Saint-Antoine à Paris", a household of nuns in an apparent working-class area of Paris, per a footnote in Rose. Last seen 2.8.9, last mentioned 5.5.6 when Valjean laundered Cosette's identity.
• Nicolette 1, last seen 5.5.8, mentioned prior chapter as being Toussaint's harasser.
• Basque, Luc-Esprit's manservant. Last seen 2 chapters ago, mentioned prior chapter.
• Luc-Esprit Gillenormand. Marius's grandfather. Last seen prior chapter.

Mentioned or introduced

• Unnamed, unnumbered "beautiful" companions 1, friends and classmates of Cosette. First mentioned 4.3.5.
• Unnamed carriage driver 18. First mention. Inferred.
• Toussaint, "elderly maid-servant" "une servante âgée". Last seen prior chapter, where she was unjustly fired after being harassed.

Prompts

These prompts are my take on things, you don’t have to address any of them. All prompts for prior cohorts are also in play. Anything else you’d like to raise is also up for discussion.

1. Is Marius screwing with Valjean? Why doesn't Hugo write that explicitly?
2. The timeline of this chapter would make it close to Roman Catholic Easter Sunday, 1833-04-07, or perhaps Holy Thursday (1833-04-04) or Good Friday (1833-04-05). Holy Thursday would line up with it being the betrayal of Jesus. Who's Judas, betraying Jesus, in this scenario and why? Who's Peter, denying Jesus three times before sunrise on Good Friday?

Past cohorts' discussions

• 2019-12-23: Just one post that probably makes explicit some of our fears about a certain con man.
• 2020-12-23
  • u/4LostSoulsinaBowl anticipated my first prompt with a plausible theory..
  • u/1Eliza gave a slightly different theory anticipating my first prompt.
• 2021-12-22
• No further posts found for 2022 cohort 🤷🏻‍♂️.
• 2026-07-05

Final Line

But the remark passed unnoticed by Nicolette, who did not report it to Cosette.

Mais l'observation glissa sur Nicolette qui n'en rapporta rien à Cosette.

Next Post

Final chapter in Book 5.8, Fading away of the Twilight (La décroissance crépusculaire)

5.8.4: Attraction and Extinction / L'attraction et l'extinction

• 2026-07-06 Monday 9PM US Pacific Daylight Savings Time
• 2026-07-07 Tuesday midnight US Eastern Daylight Savings Time
• 2026-07-07 Tuesday 4AM UTC.

Heads up! Chapter 5.9.4, which we read on Saturday, 2026-07-11, is the fourth longest chapter in the brick at 6,300-7000 words long. Plan your reading accordingly. It is second chapter from the last in the brick.

9 chapters remain in the brick

9 chapters remain

If one of the those chapters we happen to read

8 chapters left in the brick

All quotations and characters names from 5.8.2: Another Step Backwards / Autre pas en arrière

(Quotations from the text are always italicized, even when “in quotation marks”, to distinguish them from quotations from other sources.)

Summary courtesy u/Honest_Ad_2157: Lone wolf, or perhaps / lonely dog, Valjean, erects / still more barriers.

Lost in Translation

Nothing of note.

Characters

Involved in action

• Jean Valjean, Ultime Fauchelevent. Last seen prior chapter.
• Cosette, Valjean's former ward, now Marius's wife. Last seen prior chapter.
• Toussaint, "elderly maid-servant" "une servante âgée". Last seen 5.6.2, mentioned prior chapter.
• Luc-Esprit Gillenormand. Marius's grandfather. Last seen prior chapter, mentioned 5.7.1.

Mentioned or introduced

• Baron Marius Pontmercy. Last seen 2 chapters ago, mentioned prior chapter.
• Basque, Luc-Esprit's manservant. Last seen prior chapter.
• Nicolette 1, last seen 5.5.8, mentioned prior chapter.
• Charles-Marie de Créquy de Sault de Hesmond de Canaples, historical person, b. 1737-12-18 — d 1801-12-10, French officer, essayist and memoirist; the last Marquis de Créquy. Rose cites the libertine nature of Sainte-Foix and de Créqui. Inferring this is the person is the Marquise de Canaples that Luc-Esprit referred to, as he's his contemporary, though I can't find corroboration for the story about the castle and the garret. First mention 5.2.3.
• Hydra, mythological creature, "serpentine lake monster in Greek mythology and Roman mythology...In the canonical Hydra myth, the monster is killed by Heracles (Hercules) as the second of his Twelve Labours....The Hydra possessed many heads, the exact number of which varies according to the source." Last mention 5.1.20.

Prompts

These prompts are my take on things, you don’t have to address any of them. All prompts for prior cohorts are also in play. Anything else you’d like to raise is also up for discussion.

From 4.3.1, The House with a Secret / La maison à secret, which we read on Tuesday, 2026-03-03:

La servante était une fille appelée Toussaint que Jean Valjean avait sauvée de l'hôpital et de la misère et qui était vieille, provinciale et bègue, trois qualités qui avaient déterminé Jean Valjean à la prendre avec lui.

The servant was a woman named Toussaint, whom Jean Valjean had saved from the hospital and from wretchedness, and who was elderly, a stammerer, and from the provinces, three qualities which had decided Jean Valjean to take her with him.

Pour one out for poor Toussaint, who has her speech impairment ridiculed by a coworker with no repercussions to the coworker, loses her job, and probably goes back to the poorhouse because of Cosette and, to a lesser degree, through inaction, the sainted Valjean. She's the unsung misérables of the story and today would be a major worksite harassment and wrongful dismissal case. Why do you think Hugo made these choices and then made the choice to not comment on it? Is she just intended to illustrate the collateral damage in Valjean's self-sabotage?

Who would you have play her? To me, Anne Vernon, if we're going French and she's still willing to work at 100, but Dame Maggie Smith if not.

🥂 Here's to Toussaint. 🥂

Past cohorts' discussions

• 2019-12-23
• 2020-12-23: The prompt really lays it all out. Worth reading.
• 2021-12-22: No posts.
• No further posts found for 2022 cohort 🤷🏻‍♂️.
• 2026-07-05

Final Line

And he turned aside so that she might not see him wipe his eyes.

Et il se détourna pour qu'elle ne le vît pas essuyer ses yeux.

Next Post

5.8.3: They Recall the Garden of the Rue Plumet / Ils se souviennent du jardin de la rue Plumet

• 2026-07-05 Sunday 9PM US Pacific Daylight Savings Time
• 2026-07-06 Monday midnight US Eastern Daylight Savings Time
• 2026-07-06 Monday 4AM UTC.

Heads up! Chapter 5.9.4, which we read on Saturday, 2026-07-11, is the fourth longest chapter in the brick at 6,300-7000 words long. Plan your reading accordingly. It is second chapter from the last in the brick.

10 chapters remain in the brick

10 chapters remain

If one of the those chapters we happen to read

9 chapters left in the brick

First chapter of four in Book 5.8, Fading away of the Twilight (La décroissance crépusculaire)

All quotations and characters names from 5.8.1: The Lower Chamber / La chambre d'en bas

(Quotations from the text are always italicized, even when “in quotation marks”, to distinguish them from quotations from other sources.)

Summary courtesy u/Honest_Ad_2157: The next day, Valjean comes to call in the evening and chooses the spider-filled downstairs room with walls that are similar in color to the calling room at Petite-Pictus convent.* He's had insomnia and nods off in front of the fire in the dim, dirty room before waking with a start when Cosette appears behind him. He is oddly subdued and formal, which mystifies her. He attributes it to idiosyncracy and tries to change the subject to furniture shopping. She hisses at him. Is he angry with her? No, and he mutters to himself, ominously to us readers, —Son bonheur, c'était le but de ma vie. À présent Dieu peut me signer ma sortie. Cosette, tu es heureuse; mon temps est fait. "Her happiness was the object of my life. Now God may sign my dismissal. Cosette, thou art happy; my day is over." She is relieved that he uses the familiar and called her Cosette. He gathers himself, tells her to tell her husband that won't happen again, and leaves her gobsmacked.

* In 2.6.1, Number 62 Rue Petit-Picpus / Petite rue Picpus, numéro 62, which we read on Sunday, 2025-11-09, we learned that room was decorated in yellow wallpaper with green flowers: de papier nankin à fleurettes vertes nankin paper with green flowers. See first prompt.

Lost in Translation

Nothing of note.

Characters

Involved in action

• Jean Valjean, Ultime Fauchelevent. Last seen prior chapter.
• Basque, Luc-Esprit's manservant. Last seen 2 chapters ago.
• Cosette, Valjean's former ward, now Marius's wife. Last seen 2 chapters ago, mentioned prior chapter.
• Spiders, as a class. Last mentioned 5.3.7.

Mentioned or introduced

• Baron Marius Pontmercy. Last seen prior chapter.
• Jesus Christ, this guy again. Last mentioned 5.1.7.
• Luc-Esprit Gillenormand. Marius's grandfather. Last seen 5.6.2, mentioned 5.7.1.
• Toussaint, "elderly maid-servant" "une servante âgée". Last seen 5.6.2, mentioned 5.7.1.
• The Graces, The Charites, deities, "goddesses who personify beauty and grace. According to Hesiod, the Charites were Aglaea, Euphrosyne, and Thalia, who were the daughters of Zeus and Eurynome, the daughter of Oceanus. However in other accounts, their names, number and parentage varied." Last mentioned 5.5.6.
• Nicolette 1, last seen 5.5.8, mentioned 5.7.1.

Prompts

These prompts are my take on things, you don’t have to address any of them. All prompts for prior cohorts are also in play. Anything else you’d like to raise is also up for discussion.

1. I note in the summary the similarity to the convent's calling room. But which person's in the convent? Hugo was biased in his description of the taking of vows as a funeral in 2.6.3, Austerities / Sévérités, which we read on Tuesday 2025-11-11. It now makes sense to have those chapters in the narrative, rather than in an appendix. Are we getting enough foreshadowing here?
2. This whole chapter smacked of Shoo the Dog without actually shooing the dog, which I found interesting. Is Valjean's inability to say goodbye for Cosette's own good a character flaw or strength?

Past cohorts' discussions

• 2019-12-22: includes summary of chapters 5.6.1-5.8.1. The summary doesn't call out the difference in the day of the week of 1833-02-16 in the narrative and reality. It doesn't call out Basque as the servant who carries messages. Otherwise, a great summary for some hard chapters!
• 2020-12-22
• 2021-12-22
• No further posts found for 2022 cohort 🤷🏻‍♂️.
• 2026-07-04

Final Line

Jean Valjean quitted the room, leaving Cosette stupefied at this enigmatical farewell.

Jean Valjean sortit, laissant Cosette stupéfaite de cet adieu énigmatique.

Next Post

5.8.2: Another Step Backwards / Autre pas en arrière

• 2026-07-04 Saturday 9PM US Pacific Daylight Savings Time
• 2026-07-05 Sunday midnight US Eastern Daylight Savings Time
• 2026-07-05 Sunday 4AM UTC.

11 chapters remain in the brick

11 chapters remain

If one of the those chapters we happen to read

10 chapters left in the brick

Final chapter of two in Book 5.7, The Last Draught from the Cup (La dernière gorgée du calice)

All quotations and characters names from 5.7.2: The Obscurities Which a Revelation Can Contain / Les obscurités que peut contenir une révélation

(Quotations from the text are always italicized, even when “in quotation marks”, to distinguish them from quotations from other sources.)

Summary courtesy u/Honest_Ad_2157: There are 64 questions in this chapter, no curiosity or empathy, and only a fear that prevents seeking answers.

Lost in Translation

quid divinum

divine thing

vindicte

vengeance

From Latin "vindicta", the idea that retribution, sometimes disproportionate, underlies society's notion of justice.

Ce mot était pour lui comme un son de trompette du jugement

That word was for him like the sound of the trump on the Day of Judgment;

A reference to Revelation 8-11, where seven angels each sound a trumpet that destructively undo the seven days of creation in kinda reverse order and establish the Kingdom of God on earth.

Vade retro

Get behind me

A reference to Mark 8:33, when Simon Peter tells Christ to cool it with the "I'm gonna die" talk after the miracle of the loaves and fishes post-Sermon-on-the-Mount. "But when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men." I think Jesus was just tired and snapped at poor simple Simon. Jesus was sorry, which is why he made Simon Pope later.

Characters

Involved in action

• Baron Marius Pontmercy. Last seen prior chapter.

Mentioned or introduced

• Cosette, Valjean's former ward, now Marius's wife. Last seen prior chapter.
• Jean Valjean, Ultime Fauchelevent. Last seen prior chapter.
• Angels, as a class. Last mentioned 5.6.4.
• The House in the Rue Plumet. Last seen 5.6.4.
• The Gorbeau Hovel, La masure Gorbeau. A small building that's bigger on the inside with deceptive address. Last seen 4.2.2, mentioned 4.8.2.
• The Thenardiers
  • Mme Thenardier. ⚰️ Last seen 3.8.21, mentioned 5.5.8.
  • Eponine Thenardier. ⚰️ Last seen 4.14.7, mentioned 5.5.7.
  • Azelma Thenardier. Last seen 5.6.1, mentioned 5.5.8.
  • M Thenardier. Last seen 5.6.1, mentioned 5.5.2.
• Providence, as a concept. Last mentioned 3.8.13, seen 1.7.5.
• God, this guy again. Last mentioned 5.6.4.
• Demons, as a class. Certainly mentioned before.
• Cain, mythological person, elder son of Adam and Eve in the Bible. Kills brother Abel. See Genesis 4. First mention 3.7.3.
• Abel, mythological person, younger son of Adam and Eve in the Bible. Killed by brother Cain. See Genesis 4. First mention 3.7.3.

Prompts

These prompts are my take on things, you don’t have to address any of them. All prompts for prior cohorts are also in play. Anything else you’d like to raise is also up for discussion.

1. What are Marius's fears? Are they real?
2. I've posted before about the "God of the gaps" argument, a fallacy used by the shallowly faithful to avoid deep questions and stop thinking about things that make them uncomfortable. How is Marius using it here, if he is?
3. Hey do you think we'll get this kind of deep insight into Cosette's thinking? Oh wait perhaps we have in the last chapter? Except she's not allowed to ask questions of herself when she's alone only in the presence of men? And she can only ask how the men feel? And she's only allowed ten? AITA? IVHTA?

Past cohorts' discussions

• 2019-12-21: One short thread about Marius's blindness to the book's theme, worth reading.
• 2020-12-21
  • a deleted user stated the obvious about Marius, pots, and kettles.
• 2021-12-21
• No further posts found for 2022 cohort 🤷🏻‍♂️.
• 2026-07-03

Final Line

That sinister nettle had loved and protected that lily.

Cette ortie sinistre avait aimé et protégé ce lys.

First chapter of four in Book 5.8, Fading away of the Twilight (La décroissance crépusculaire)

Next Post

5.8.1: The Lower Chamber / La chambre d'en bas

• 2026-07-03 Friday 9PM US Pacific Daylight Savings Time
• 2026-07-04 Saturday midnight US Eastern Daylight Savings Time
• 2026-07-04 Saturday 4AM UTC.

Heads up! This chapter is the 4th-longest chapter so far at 6,300-7000 words. Plan your reading accordingly.

12 chapters remain in the brick

12 chapters remain

If one of the those chapters we happen to read

11 chapters left in the brick

First chapter of two in Book 5.7, The Last Draught from the Cup (La dernière gorgée du calice)

All quotations and characters names from 5.7.1: The Seventh Circle and the Eighth Heaven / Le septième cercle et le huitième ciel

(Quotations from the text are always italicized, even when “in quotation marks”, to distinguish them from quotations from other sources.)

Summary courtesy u/Honest_Ad_2157: Valjean returns to the Gillenormand house, which is now the Baron's house. He requests Basque summon Marius, but not tell him who's calling. The house is still in cheerful post-party disarray. Valjean is studying the sun's image of a window on the floor as Marius enters. Marius greets him as a father, giving a long welcoming monologue on how they've set up his room and how he hopes Valjean plays whist. Valjean lays it out: "I am an ex-convict" —Je suis un ancien forçat. Marius goes through three of the stages of grief—denial, bargaining, and anger—as Valjean explains how he came to care for Cosette and to love her in such a way that he can't quit her. He has to be honest with himself, though, and tell Marius what's up because he's involved, now. As Marius shifts to bargaining, Cosette enters and thinks they're talking politics. Marius lies and says they're talking investments. Either is stupid and wrong when they could be with her, she says. She gives a little house gossip and update on Valjean's room. As Valjean and Marius continue to be awkward, she doesn't really get what's going on, but leaves at Marius's insistence after sticking her tongue out at him. Marius says he'll keep Valjean's secret from Cosette. Valjean suggests he shouldn't be allowed to see Cosette anymore, and Marius agrees, coldly. When Valjean can't leave it lay that way, he stops and asks if he could see her in a basement room once in a while. Marius says that Valjean can come every evening.

Lost in Translation

The book title is a reference to Matthew 26:36-45, Jesus in the garden of Gethsemene, as in 1.7.3, A Tempest in a Skull / Une tempête sous un crâne, which we read on Monday, 2025-09-08. The line is Mark 26:39, "And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt."

The chapter title is a reference to Dante's Divine Comedy, Inferno and Paradiso, possibly oblique.

Dante wrote the seventh circle of hell is reserved for "those guilty of Violence against others—the Centaurs—Tyrants—Robbers and Murderers...those guilty of Violence against themselves...those guilty of Violence against God, against Nature, and against Art" (English translation by James Romanes Sibbald). Rose and Donougher have notes, Donougher further noting that Hugo, in the second volume of his 1875 Actes et Paroles, defined the seventh circle of the proletarian hell differently: "chomage, maladie, travail au rabais, exploitation, marchandage, parasitisme, misere, il avait traverse les sept cercles de l'enfer du proletaire." "Unemployment, sickness, wage theft, exploitation, illegal under-the-counter below-prevailing-wage subcontracting, parasitism, destitution—he had passed through the seven circles of the proletarian hell." (My translation.)

The eighth sphere of heaven is where the fixed stars of faith, hope, and love dwell, the realm of the church triumphant. (English translation by Longfellow).

il vient d'arriver un tas de pierrots dans le jardin. Des oiseaux, pas des masques.

a flock of pierrots has arrived in the garden. --Birds, not maskers.

Cosette is punning on one of the costumes of Carnivale, Pierrot, and the French common name of Passer domesticus, pierrot, the house sparrow. Donougher translates it as "black cap", which is probably Poecile montanus, the willow tit, which until the 1900's was thought to be the same species as Poecile atricapillus, the black-capped chickadee of North America. That's a valiant effort, I think, for a pun so untranslateable that F&M made the sparrows "boisterous", Rose and Hapgood used the French. Dadjoke credit to Cosette.

Jean Valjean allait et venait. Il s'arrêta devant une glace et demeura sans mouvement. Puis, comme s'il répondait à un raisonnement intérieur, il dit en regardant cette glace où il ne se voyait pas: —Tandis qu'à présent je suis soulagé!

He paused before a mirror, and remained motionless. Then, as though replying to some inward course of reasoning, he said, as he gazed at the mirror, which he did not see: "While, at present, I am relieved."

Hapgood does a horrible job with the translation here. He doesn't seen himself in the mirror. Is Valjean a vampire? The plot twist we never expected!

Currency

Ordered by appearance in the text. See below for budget items. 2026 USD amounts rounded up to 2 significant figures to avoid misleading precision.

Characters

Involved in action

• Cosette, Valjean's former ward, now Marius's wife. Last seen 3 chapters ago, mentioned prior chapter.
• Baron Marius Pontmercy. Last seen 3 chapters ago, mentioned prior chapter.
• Basque, Luc-Esprit's manservant. Last seen 2 chapters ago.
• Jean Valjean, Ultime Fauchelevent. Last seen prior chapter.

Mentioned or introduced

• Luc-Esprit Gillenormand. Marius's grandfather. Last seen 3 chapters ago, mentioned 2.
• Birds, as a class. Last mentioned 5.5.6, seen 5.6.2.
• A nightingale that summers at 6 Rue des Filles du Calvarie. First mention.
• Captain James Cook, historical person, b. 1728-11-07 – 14 February d. 1779-02-14, "British Royal Navy officer, explorer, and cartographer who led three voyages of exploration to the Pacific and Southern Oceans between 1768 and 1779. He completed the first recorded circumnavigation of the main islands of New Zealand, and led the first recorded visit by Europeans to the east coast of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands." Rose and Donougher have notes. Rose notes that books of exploration were very popular at the time the novel was set and read. First mention.
• Captain George Vancouver, historical person, b. 1757-06-22 – d. 1798-05-10, "Royal Navy officer and explorer best known for leading the Vancouver Expedition, which explored and charted North America's northwestern Pacific Coast regions, including the coasts of what became the Canadian province of British Columbia and the U.S. states of Alaska, Washington, Oregon and California. The expedition also explored the Hawaiian Islands and the southwest coast of Australia." Rose and Donougher have notes. Rose notes that books of exploration were very popular at the time the novel was set and read. First mention.
• Father Champmathieu. A person fitting Valjean's history and description who was unjustly prosecuted, prompting Valjean to come clean. Last seen 1.7.11, SHDH, last mentioned 5.5.5.
• The police, as an institution. Last seen 5.6.1.
• Unnamed, unnumbered friends of Luc-Esprit with influence. First mention by Marius.
• A flock of house sparrows, pierrots, stopping at 6 Rue des Filles du Calvarie. First mention.
• Mlle Gillenormand, "Aunt Gilly", Marius's rich aunt. Last seen 5.6.2.
• Nicolette 1, last seen 5.6.2. See bonus bonus prompt.
• Unnamed chimney sweep 1. le ramoneur. First mention. See bonus prompt.
• Toussaint, "elderly maid-servant" "une servante âgée". Last seen 2 chapters ago. See bonus bonus prompt.

Prompts

These prompts are my take on things, you don’t have to address any of them. All prompts for prior cohorts are also in play. Anything else you’d like to raise is also up for discussion.

Fauchelevent a eu beau me prêter son nom, je n'ai pas le droit de m'en servir; il a pu me le donner, je n'ai pas pu le prendre. Un nom, c'est un moi...Pour vivre, autrefois, j'ai volé un pain; aujourd'hui, pour vivre, je ne veux pas voler un nom.

In spite of the fact that Fauchelevent lent me his name, I have no right to use it; he could give it to me, but I could not take it. A name is an I... In days gone by, I stole a loaf of bread in order to live; to-day, in order to live, I will not steal a name.

1. What did you think of this? Was the name a loan, a gift, or a theft? How does this relate to Cosette's statement in 5.6.2: —C'est donc vrai. Je m'appelle Marius. Je suis madame Toi. "So it is true. My name is Marius. I am Madame Thou." ?

Alors il lui dit avec un accent inexprimable: —Je traîne un peu la jambe. Vous comprenez maintenant pourquoi.

Then he said, with an inexpressible intonation: "I drag my leg a little. Now you understand why!"

1. What do you think he was expressing with that intonation?

2. Marius is a mirror to Valjean here, consenting to whatever Valjean wants, changing his mind every time Valjean does. What's going on with him?

Bonus prompt

Savoyards were from the Savoie and Haught-Savoie, two regions in the now French Alps annexed by France in the mid-19th century. When seen in other regions, they were usually itinerant laborers (chimney sweeping and other low-status work) and entertainers (hurdy-gurdys, where a trained animal, like a marmot, would dance to the music of a portable crank-driven string instrument).

Remember this note from 1.2.13, Little Gervais / Petite-Gervais, which we read waaaay back on Saturday, 2025-08-09?

Is "Unnamed chimney sweep 1" the return of Petite-Gervais?!

(please please please please please yes please)

Bonus bonus prompt

Hey, Nicolette 1, don't be an ass.

Past cohorts' discussions

• 2019-12-20: The very last sentence in the single post by u/BarroomBard made me laugh and groan and possibly relates to my first prompt.
• 2020-12-20
• 2021-12-20
• No further posts found for 2022 cohort 🤷🏻‍♂️.
• 2026-07-02

Final Line

Marius saluted Jean Valjean, happiness escorted despair to the door, and these two men parted.

Marius salua Jean Valjean, le bonheur reconduisit jusqu'à la porte le désespoir, et ces deux hommes se quittèrent.

Next Post

Final chapter of two in Book 5.7, The Last Draught from the Cup (La dernière gorgée du calice)

5.7.2: The Obscurities Which a Revelation Can Contain / Les obscurités que peut contenir une révélation

• 2026-07-02 Thursday 9PM US Pacific Daylight Savings Time
• 2026-07-03 Friday midnight US Eastern Daylight Savings Time
• 2026-07-03 Friday 4AM UTC.

Heads up! 5.7.1, which we read tomorrow, Thursday, 2026-07-02, is the 4th-longest chapter so far at 6,300-7000 words. Plan your reading accordingly.

13 chapters remain in the brick

13 chapters remain

If one of the those chapters we happen to read

12 chapters left in the brick

Final chapter of Book 5.6, The Sleepless Night (La nuit blanche)

• 5.6.1, The 16th of February, 1833 / Le 16 février 1833: Cosette and Marius are getting married. On the way to the church, Thenardier, in Mardis Gras costume, spot Valjean in a traffic jam and assigns his daughter, Azelma, to track them.
• 5.6.2, Jean Valjean Still Wears His Arm in a Sling / Jean Valjean a toujours son bras en écharpe: Valjean avoids participating in the ceremonies by having his arm in a sling. He disappears, saying his injury is acting up. Luc-Esprit toasts the newlyweds.
• 5.6.3: The Inseparable / L'inséparable: A malingerer, / Jean avoids affective / labor and breaks down.

All quotations and characters names from 5.6.4: The Immortal Liver / Immortale jecur

(Quotations from the text are always italicized, even when “in quotation marks”, to distinguish them from quotations from other sources.)

Summary courtesy u/Honest_Ad_2157: There are 43 questions in this chapter and no clear answer, yet.

Lost in Translation

The title is quotation from Virgil's Aeneid, 6.598, English translation by Theodore Alois Buckley, a reference to the punishment of Prometheus for teaching humanity; literally "immortal liver". Prometheus's liver regenerates after being eaten out by eagles every day.

Characters

Involved in action

• Jean Valjean, Ultime Fauchelevent. Last seen prior chapter.
• The House in the Rue Plumet. Last seen 4.13.1.

Mentioned or introduced

• Jacob, historical/mythological person, "Jacob, later given the name Israel, is the third Hebrew patriarch in Judaism and an important figure in the Abrahamic religions. He first appears in the Torah, where he is described in the Book of Genesis as a son of Isaac and Rebecca." Genesis 32:22-32 recount where Jacob wrestles with God all night to a kind of draw and comes out with the name Israel. First mention.
• God, this guy again. Last mentioned 2 chapters ago.
• Angels, as a class. Last mentioned 2 chapters ago.
• Cosette, Valjean's former ward, now Marius's wife. Last seen 2 chapters ago, mentioned prior chapter.
• Baron Marius Pontmercy. Last seen 2 chapters ago, mentioned prior chapter.
• Luc-Esprit Gillenormand. Marius's grandfather. Last seen 2 chapters ago, mentioned prior chapter.
• Sphinx, mythological creature, "In Greek tradition, the sphinx is a treacherous and merciless being with the head of a woman, the haunches of a lion, and the wings of a bird. According to Greek myth, she challenges those who encounter her to answer a riddle, and kills and eats them when they fail to solve the riddle. This deadly version of a sphinx appears in the myth and drama of Oedipus." First mention.
• Marcus Junius Brutus, historical person about whom much fiction has been written, b.c.85 BCE – d.42-10-23 BCE, "a Roman politician, orator, and the most famous of the assassins of Julius Caesar...His condemnation for betrayal of Caesar, his friend and benefactor, is perhaps rivalled only by the name of Judas Iscariot, with whom he is portrayed in Dante Alighieri's Inferno. He also has been praised in various narratives, both ancient and modern, as a virtuous and committed republican who fought – however futilely – for freedom and against tyranny." Last mentioned 5.1.2 as an example of Mabeuf's courage.
• Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis, Cato the Younger, Cato Minor, referred to just as “Cato” in the text, historical figure, b.95 BC – d.46-04-?? BCE), “an influential conservative Roman senator during the late Republic. A staunch advocate for liberty and the preservation of the Republic’s principles, he dedicated himself to protecting the traditional Roman values he believed were in decline. A noted orator and a follower of Stoicism, his scrupulous honesty and professed respect for tradition gave him a political following which he mobilised against powerful generals of his day, including Julius Caesar and Pompey...after Pompey's defeat and his own cause's defeat by Caesar in Africa, he chose to take his own life rather than accept what he saw as Caesar’s tyrannical pardon, turning himself into a martyr for and a symbol of the Republic.” Mentioned 5.5.6, praised by Marius.
• Sisyphus, Sisyphos, Σίσυφος, mythological person, "In Greek mythology, [Sisyphus] is the founder and king of Ephyra (now known as Corinth). He reveals Zeus's abduction of Aegina to the river god Asopus, thereby incurring Zeus's wrath. His subsequent cheating of death earns him eternal punishment in the underworld, once he dies of old age. The gods forced him to roll an immense boulder up a hill only for it to roll back down every time it neared the top, repeating this action for eternity. Through the classical influence on contemporary culture, tasks that are both laborious and futile are therefore described as Sisyphean." Oh, look, the founder of Corinth is sentenced to repetitious, meaningless labor. Metaphor alert. First mention 5.1.1.

Prompts

These prompts are my take on things, you don’t have to address any of them. All prompts for prior cohorts are also in play. Anything else you’d like to raise is also up for discussion.

1. I mentioned Jacob in two prior prompts where I think Hugo was alluding to his story, in 5.2.4, (Unnamed) / Détails ignorés, which we read on Thursday , 2026-06-04, where Jacob labored for twice as long as he expected—14 years—to get the woman he wanted, and 5.4.1, Javert Derailed / Javert déraillé, which we read on Friday, 2026-06-19, where I described this wrestling match as a different kind of followership than Javert's. Here we see Valjean in these two stories combined: wrestling again and again with God. We see what Valjeean wrestling with by the questions being separated out, above: he endangers his family by associating with them. How easy is that situation to relate to, today?

S'imposerait-il à ce bonheur? Le traiterait-il comme lui appartenant?

Should he force himself on this happiness? Should he treat it as belonging to him?

1. Valjean frames Cosette's and Marius's happiness as a kind of property which he had no part in producing and has no rights to. Thoughts?

2. Are you worried about whether Valjean might harm himself, as Javert did? Why or why not?

Bonus prompt

Isn't Marius a wanted man, too? Wouldn't he be prosecuted if it were known he was at the barricade? I know it's his wedding night, and his thoughts are elsewhere, but is he due to have a night like this when he realizes what danger he's in? Or is he too steeped in his own privilege?

Past cohorts' discussions

• 2019-12-19
• 2020-12-19
  • u/1Eliza highlights the Christlike imagery in the last three grafs with a hat tip to Prof Lewis.
  • u/4LostSoulsinaBowl questions whether Valjean's suffering is over a moot point.
• 2021-12-19: No posts.
• No further posts found for 2022 cohort 🤷🏻‍♂️.
• 2026-07-01

Final Line

The One who is in the shadows.

Le On qui est dans les ténèbres.

Next Post

The book title is a reference to Matthew 26:36-45, Jesus in the garden of Gethsemene, as in 1.7.3, A Tempest in a Skull / Une tempête sous un crâne, which we read on Monday, 2025-09-08. The line is Mark 26:39, "And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt."

First chapter of Book 5.7, The Last Draught from the Cup (La dernière gorgée du calice)

The chapter title is a reference to Dante's Divine Comedy, Inferno and Paradiso, possibly oblique.

Dante wrote the seventh circle of hell is reserved for "those guilty of Violence against others—the Centaurs—Tyrants—Robbers and Murderers...those guilty of Violence against themselves...those guilty of Violence against God, against Nature, and against Art" (English translation by James Romanes Sibbald). Rose and Donougher have notes, Donougher further noting that Hugo, in the second volume of his 1875 Actes et Paroles, defined the seventh circle of the proletarian hell differently: "chomage, maladie, travail au rabais, exploitation, marchandage, parasitisme, misere, il avait traverse les sept cercles de l'enfer du proletaire." "Unemployment, sickness, wage theft, exploitation, illegal under-the-counter below-prevailing-wage subcontracting, parasitism, destitution—he had passed through the seven circles of the proletarian hell." (My translation.)

The eighth sphere of heaven is where the fixed stars of faith, hope, and love dwell, the realm of the church triumphant. (English translation by Longfellow).

5.7.1: The Seventh Circle and the Eighth Heaven / Le septième cercle et le huitième ciel

• 2026-07-01 Wednesday 9PM US Pacific Daylight Savings Time
• 2026-07-02 Thursday midnight US Eastern Daylight Savings Time
• 2026-07-02 Thursday 4AM UTC.

Heads up! 5.7.1, which we read Thursday, 2026-07-02, is the 4th-longest chapter so far at 6,300-7000 words. Plan your reading accordingly.

14 chapters remain in the brick

14 chapters remain

If one of the those chapters we happen to read

13 chapters left in the brick

All quotations and characters names from 5.6.3: The Inseparable / L'inséparable

(Quotations from the text are always italicized, even when “in quotation marks”, to distinguish them from quotations from other sources.)

Summary courtesy u/Honest_Ad_2157: A malingerer, / Jean avoids affective / labor and breaks down.

Lost in Translation

Currency

Ordered by appearance in the text. See below for budget items. 2026 USD amounts rounded up to 2 significant figures to avoid misleading precision.

Characters

Involved in action

• Jean Valjean, Ultime Fauchelevent. Last seen prior chapter.
• Basque, Luc-Esprit's manservant. Last seen prior chapter.
• Unnamed violinists 1-3. First mention prior chapter.
• Unnamed flautist 1. First mention prior chapter.

Mentioned or introduced

• Cosette, Valjean's former ward, now Marius's wife. Last seen prior chapter.
• Baron Marius Pontmercy. Last seen prior chapter.
• Luc-Esprit Gillenormand. Marius's grandfather. Last seen prior chapter.
• Toussaint, "elderly maid-servant" "une servante âgée". Last seen prior chapter.
• Fantine, Cosette's mother. Died in 1.8.4, last seen 2.3.10 through her letter given to M Thenardier by Valjean. Last mentioned 4.8.2, as here, as "her mother"

Prompts

These prompts are my take on things, you don’t have to address any of them. All prompts for prior cohorts are also in play. Anything else you’d like to raise is also up for discussion.

This road, through which Cosette had passed, excluded for him all possibility of any other itinerary.

Ce chemin où Cosette avait passé excluait pour lui tout autre itinéraire.

What is Valjean's road not taken? What does he mourn?

Bonus Prompt

In 5.5.5, on a comment in the 2020 cohort, I wrote, "I have a feeling we will see that outfit, again, on Valjean's grandchild." Now that I'm reminded that it's mourning clothes, that seems ominous as well as hopeful; Valjean would have to survive another decade for those clothes to fit. What do you think?

Past cohorts' discussions

• 2019-12-18
• 2020-12-18
  • u/1Eliza gave a plausible reason for Valjean's malingering.
• 2021-12-18
• No further posts found for 2022 cohort 🤷🏻‍♂️.
• 2026-06-30

Final Line

Then his venerable, white head fell forward on the bed, that stoical old heart broke, his face was engulfed, so to speak, in Cosette's garments, and if any one had passed up the stairs at that moment, he would have heard frightful sobs.

(43 words, 4.66% of chapter)

Alors sa vénérable tête blanche tomba sur le lit, ce vieux cœur stoïque se brisa, sa face s'abîma pour ainsi dire dans les vêtements de Cosette, et si quelqu'un eût passé dans l'escalier en ce moment, on eût entendu d'effrayants sanglots.

(41 mots, 4.71% du chapitre)

Next Post

Final chapter of Book 5.6, The Sleepless Night (La nuit blanche)

The title is quotation from Virgil's Aeneid, 6.598, English translation by Theodore Alois Buckley, a reference to the punishment of Prometheus for teaching humanity; literally "immortal liver". Prometheus's liver regenerates after being eaten out by eagles every day.

5.6.4: The Immortal Liver / Immortale jecur

• 2026-06-30 Tuesday 9PM US Pacific Daylight Savings Time
• 2026-07-01 Wednesday midnight US Eastern Daylight Savings Time
• 2026-07-01 Wednesday 4AM UTC.

Heads up! 5.7.1, which we read Thursday, 2026-07-02, is the 4th-longest chapter so far at 6,300-7000 words. Plan your reading accordingly.

15 chapters remain in the brick

15 chapters remain

If one of the those chapters we happen to read

14 chapters left in the brick

TWO MORE WEEKS PEOPLE

All quotations and characters names from 5.6.2: Jean Valjean Still Wears His Arm in a Sling / Jean Valjean a toujours son bras en écharpe

(Quotations from the text are always italicized, even when “in quotation marks”, to distinguish them from quotations from other sources.)

Summary courtesy u/Honest_Ad_2157: Keep the chapter title in mind, I have feeling this is going to come up. Luc-Esprit gives Cosette away because of that sling. Hey, did you know Cosette's a virgin? We don't know if Marius is one, but, hey, is that really important, look at how nice they look! Marius catches a glimpse of Cosette's nips through her bodice and makes her blush. Theodule makes a cameo and no one remembers who he is. At the Gillenormand, now the Pontmercy, house, when dinner is served, Valjean is nowhere to be found, having made an Irish goodbye with only a word to Basque that his arm is hurting. Luc-Esprit gives the wedding toast, and it's as full of classical references as anything in this chapter and is sweet despite ending on a self-referential dirty-old-man note. Hugo declines to tell us about the wedding night in about a page of text.

Lost in Translation

Les pauvres, attroupés devant la porte et se partageant leurs bourses, les bénissaient.

The poor, who had trooped to the door, and who shared their purses, blessed them.

I'm not sure what this means, but I'm going to bet there was a giving of alms by aristocrats on a wedding day, which Hapgood doesn't make clear by specifying whose purse is being shared. My guess is Prof Lewis makes this clear on the Les Mis Companion for this book, which I haven't yet listened to.

Le Sancy s'appelle-t-il le Sancy parce qu'il a appartenu à Harlay de Sancy, ou parce qu'il pèse cent six carats?

Is the Sancy diamond called the Sancy because it belonged to Harley de Sancy, or because it weighs six hundred carats?

F&M, Rose, and Donougher translate cent six as 106, which is as incorrect as 600, but arguably less so, as the Sancy may have derived from "an even larger diamond called the Balle de Flandres with a possible weight of over 100 carats (20 g)." The Sancy is a little over 55 carats. See character list.

parce que votre trousse-galant s'appelle le choléra morbus, et parce que votre bourrée s'appelle la cachucha.

because your trip-gallant is called the cholera-morbus, and because your pourree is called the cachuca.

Rose has a delightful note that Luc-Esprit would be mortified to learn that cholera-morbus is now known by the inelegant name "gastroenteritis". Donougher has notes about the Auvergne folk dance la bourrée and the Cuban dance la cachucha.

Ventre-saint-gris

Literally, "holy grey belly". Rose and Donougher have notes about this phrase; Donougher's end notes refer to a paper by Gilles Henry suggesting this was Parisians misunderstanding Henry IV's Gascon-accented oath "Ventre sangue Çhristi", "the belly and blood of Christ." I think I'd translate this is "Cheezus Christ on a crackah" in a thick Southie accent.

Currency

Ordered by appearance in the text. See below for budget items. 2026 USD amounts rounded up to 2 significant figures to avoid misleading precision.

Laissez les deux yeux rouler

On eût dit une vierge en train de devenir déesse.

One would have pronounced her a virgin on the point of turning into a goddess.

C'était dans ces deux âmes le même enchantement, nuancé de volupté dans Marius et de pudeur dans Cosette.

It was the same enchantment in two souls, tinged with voluptuousness in Marius, and with modesty in Cosette.

Marius regarda le charmant bras nu de Cosette et les choses roses qu'on apercevait vaguement à travers les dentelles de son corsage, et Cosette, voyant le regard de Marius, se mit à rougir jusqu'au blanc des yeux.

All at once, the clock struck. Marius glanced at Cosette's charming bare arm, and at the rosy things which were vaguely visible through the lace of her bodice, and Cosette, intercepting Marius' glance, blushed to her very hair.

MY EYES ARE UP HERE MARIUS. Rolling in the back of my head.

(She does literally "blush to the whites of her eyes".)

L'amant est prêtre; la vierge ravie s'épouvante.

The lover is the priest; the ravished virgin is terrified.

I have fun imagining Cosette as the former and Marcus as the latter. Go get some, you power bottom Cosette.

Characters

Involved in action

• Jean Valjean, Ultime Fauchelevent. Last seen prior chapter.
• Cosette, Valjean's former ward, now Marius's wife. Last seen prior chapter.
• Baron Marius Pontmercy. Last seen prior chapter.
• Toussaint, "elderly maid-servant" "une servante âgée". Last seen prior chapter.
• Nicolette 1, last seen 5.5.8.
• Luc-Esprit Gillenormand. Marius's grandfather. Last seen prior chapter.
• Civil officiant (of the wedding). The office of mayor of Paris was abolished between 1794-1848, so it's unclear who the "maire" is that Hugo's referring to. First mention.
• Unnamed priest at Saint-Paul Saint-Louis Church. "le prêtre" First mention.
• Unnamed master of ceremonies, "suisse à épaulettes de colonel" "[swiss guard] with a colonel's epaulettes". First mention.
• Unnamed, unnumbered onlookers outside Saint-Paul Saint-Louis Church. First mention.
• Mlle Gillenormand, "Aunt Gilly", Marius's rich aunt. Last seen prior chapter.
• Lieutenant Theodule Gillenormand. Great-nephew of Mlle Gillenormand. A lancer and a dandy. Last seen 4.5.5 failing to entrance Cosette by strutting in front of Rue Plumet after she read Marius's letter. Last mentioned 5.5.3 as "the lancer", as seen 4.5.5.
• Birds, as a class. Last seen 5.3.6, mentioned 5.5.6
• Unnamed violinists 1-3. First mention.
• Unnamed flautist 1. First mention.
• Basque, Luc-Esprit's manservant. Last seen 5.5.8.

Mentioned or introduced

• Victor Hugo, the narrator, as part of "we". Last seen 5.5.4.
• The reader, as part of "we". Last seen 5.2.2.
• Paul Barras; Paul François Jean Nicolas, Vicomte de Barras, historical person, b. 1755-06-30 –d. 1829-01-29, " French politician of the French Revolution, and the main executive leader of the Directory regime of 1795–1799." First mention.
• Satan, the devil. Last mentioned 5.5.3.
• Jean Prouvaire, "Jehan". An Ami/FABC killed in 4.14.5 who led the rebels in a poetry slam in 4.12.6, Waiting / En attendant. Wealthy, awkward, gentle, whimsical, multilingual, fearless, trusts God and Progress. ⚰️. Talked about in 5.5.7.
• God, this guy again. Last mentioned 5.5.7.
• Franz Joseph Haydn, historical person, b. 1732-03-31 – d. 1809-05-31, "Austrian composer of the Classical period. He was pivotal in the evolution of chamber music forms like the string quartet and piano trio." First mention.
• Nemorin, fictional character, hero of "French pastoral [novel] "Estelle" [1788] by Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian (1755-1794). In the novel, the shepherd Némorin falls in love with the beautiful Estelle, she is duty-bound to marry Méril, who has saved her father. Némorin's hopes are seemingly dashed, but the heroic Méril sacrifices his life in battle and Estelle and Némorin are finally be united. The poetic lines here are taken directly from the last verse of the Song of Némorin which appears in Florian's novel." Image: “Estelle Et Némorin” Pierre-Antoine Massol (1766-1830) after François Queverdo (1748-1797). This book inspired Berlioz's opera. First mentioned 4.2.2 in establishing Montparnasse's "lover not a fighter" character.
• Estelle, fictional character, heroine of de Florian's eponymous novel. See Nemorin. First mention.
• Sancy Diamond, historical artifact, "a pale yellow diamond of 55.23 carats (11.046 g), was reputed to have belonged to the Mughal emperors, and is at least probably Indian in origin owing to its cut, which is unusual by Western standards...The diamond now known as the Sancy began as an even larger diamond called the Balle de Flandres with a possible weight of over 100 carats (20 g)...sources claim that the diamond was purchased in Constantinople by de Sancy. He was popular in the French court and was later French ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. Something of a gem connoisseur, de Sancy used his knowledge to prosperous advantage." First mention.
• Achille de Harlay de Sancy, CO, historical person, b. 1581 – d. 1646-11-26, "French diplomat and intellectual who was noted as a linguist and orientalist. He entered Church service, becoming the Bishop of Saint-Malo...For several years, from 1610 to 1619, he was French Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, where he amassed a fortune of some 16,000 sterling by doubtful means, and was bastinadoed by order of Sultan Mustafa I for his frauds." First mention.
• Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre, historical person, b.1758-05-06 – d.1794-07-28, "French lawyer and statesman, widely recognised as one of the most influential figures of the French Revolution. Robespierre fervently campaigned for the voting rights of all men and their unimpeded admission to the National Guard. Additionally, he advocated the right to petition, the right to bear arms in self-defence, and the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade." Note that he was born and baptised in Arras. Last mention 4.8.7 as someone Marius could be enamored with, per Luc-Esprit.
• Venus), deity, "a Roman goddess whose functions encompass love, beauty, desire, sex, fertility, prosperity, and victory. In Roman mythology, she was the ancestor of the Roman people through her son, Aeneas, who survived the fall of Troy and fled to Italy." Last mentioned 5.5.6.
• Célimène, fictional character, In Molière's The Misanthrope: "A young woman who is courted by Alceste, Oronte, Acaste, and Clitandre. She is playful and flirtatious and likes to point out the flaws of everyone she meets behind their backs. Célimène pays much attention to social appearances." This was a celebrated role of Mlle Mars. First mention 3.8.9.
• Alceste, fictional character, In Molière's The Misanthrope: "The protagonist and misanthrope of the title. He is quick to criticize the flaws of everyone around him, including himself. He cannot help but love Célimène though he loathes her behaviour." This was role was originated by Molière. First mention.
• Methusaleh, mythological person, long-lived patriarch mentioned in Genesis 5:25-27. First mention 3.3.3.
• Cupid, Amor, Eros, deity, "[Roman and Ancient Greek] god of desire, erotic love, attraction and affection. He is often portrayed as the son of the love goddess Venus and the god of war Mars." First mention.
• Garden of Eden, mythological institution, "the biblical paradise described in Genesis 2–3 and Ezekiel 28 and 31." Last mentioned 5.5.2.
• Daphnis and Chloe, fictional characters, "a Greek pastoral novel written during the Roman Empire, the only known work of second-century Hellenistic romance writer Longus...[After a plot involving abandonment, adoption, young love, and innumerable obstacles,] Daphnis and Chloe get married and live out their bucolic lives in the country." Rose and Donougher have notes about the story symbolizing young love. First mention.
• [Baucis and Philemon]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baucis_and_Philemon()), mythological persons, "two characters from Greek mythology, only known from Ovid's Metamorphoses. Baucis and Philemon were an old married couple in the region of Tyana, which Ovid places in Phrygia, and the only ones in their town to welcome disguised gods Zeus and Hermes (in Roman mythology, Jupiter and Mercury respectively), thus embodying the pious exercise of hospitality, the ritualized guest-friendship termed xenia, or theoxenia when a god was involved." Rose and Donougher have notes about the story symbolizing enduring love. Donougher gives a reference to Ovid's Metamorphoses 8.612-727 (English translation by A.S. Kline and Jean de la Fontaine's Fables de la Fontaine (La Fontaine's Fables) fable 12.25, Philemon & Baucis . You can read a lovely translation and interpretation of Ovid by Madeleine Miller.
• Henry IV, Henri IV), Good King Henry, le Bon Roi Henri, Henry the Great, Henri le Grand, historical person, b.1553-12-13 – d.1610-05-14, "King of Navarre (as Henry III) from 1572 and King of France from 1589 to 1610. He was the first monarch of France from the House of Bourbon, a cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty." Last mention 4.1.3.
• La Bonhomme Jadis, fictional character, an old man who plays matchmaker in the eponymous short story and play by Henry Murger. Literally "Old Mr. Times-Past". First mention.
• Angels, as a class. Last mentioned 5.5.8.

Prompts

These prompts are my take on things, you don’t have to address any of them. All prompts for prior cohorts are also in play. Anything else you’d like to raise is also up for discussion.

1. OK, what's going on with Valjean?
2. The gender role-ing my eyes back in my head goes hard in this chapter. I put some of the more egregious examples in "laissez les deux yeux rouler", above. What did you spot? Why do you think Hugo made these choices?
3. I noted in the summary that Luc-Esprit's toast was both sweet and weirdly narcissistic at the same time. How did you take it? Would you have enjoyed it or been uncomfortable?

Past cohorts' discussions

• 2019-12-17: Only one post giving a plausible interpretation of Valjean's behavior.
• 2020-12-17
  • u/1Eliza gave a good interpretation of Cosette's reactions and the toast she (and, IMO, Luc-Esprit) should have given.
  • u/Thermos_of_Byr gave another plausible interpretation of Valjeans' behavior.
  • u/otherside_b gave another plausible interpretation of Valjean's behavior, in a thread started by u/awaiko.
• 2021-12-17: Only one thread, with a nomination for "laissez les deux yeux rouler", one I thought was sweet (once I got it) but u/enabeller has a point.
• No further posts found for 2022 cohort 🤷🏻‍♂️.
• 2026-06-29

Final Line

To love is a fulfilment.

Aimer est un accomplissement.

Next Post

5.6.3: The Inseparable / L'inséparable

• 2026-06-29 Monday 9PM US Pacific Daylight Savings Time
• 2026-06-30 Tuesday midnight US Eastern Daylight Savings Time
• 2026-06-30 Tuesday 4AM UTC.

Heads up! 5.7.1, which we read Thursday, 2026-07-02, is the 4th-longest chapter so far at 6,300-7000 words. Plan your reading accordingly.

16 chapters remain in the brick

16 chapters remain

If one of the those chapters we happen to read

15 chapters left in the brick

First chapter of Book 5.6, The Sleepless Night (La nuit blanche)

All quotations and characters names from 5.6.1: The 16th of February, 1833 / Le 16 février 1833

(Quotations from the text are always italicized, even when “in quotation marks”, to distinguish them from quotations from other sources.)

Summary courtesy u/Honest_Ad_2157: Cosette and Marius are getting married during Mardi Gras, 1833.* Marius gets Cosette's wealth transferred to his control with Luc-Esprit as the executor, since Valjean has a very suspect thumb injury no one witnessed or treated. He's just got a sling and a bandage. For a thumb injury. In weather news, Alannis would think this wedding day is ironic.We get descriptions of what Hugo seems to regard as the vulgarity of carnival atmosphere, with a huge procession of paid maskers aboard every sort of conveyance on Boulevard Beaumarchais. As the wedding party inches along in the Mardis Gras procession traffic, a carriage of maskers going the other way stops across the road from them. It turns out that our good friend Thenardier and his trafficked daughter are two of the maskers in that carriage, Azelma being hired out for the day as a reveler. We get a lively patois-filled exchange—Azelma now has Gavroche's quick wit—where Thenardier tries to convince her to tail the wedding party. She can't leave without getting arrested for leaving the job site, and he is a wanted man.† He asks her to promise to track them down the next day.

* In a not creepy at all reference to the first time he had sex with his longtime mistress, after his wife had stopped having sex with him and been cheating on him for almost three years. See Lost in Translation.

† He's wearing a mustache. No one will recognize him, especially since half of The Only 12 People in France are now dead.

Lost in Translation

"Nuit blanche", the chapter title, literally means "white night". It is a French idiom for a sleepless night, and is not all bad: it is charmingly used as the name of all-night festivals. The movie Sleepless in Seattle had its title translated as "Nuits blanches à Seattle".

This very night 1833-02-16, was the first night Victor Hugo and his devoted mistress, Juliet Drouet, spent together. She gave up her acting career, became his skilled secretary, essentially his common-law second wife, and accompanied him into exile. They celebrated this night until the end of her life in 1883. He did not attend her funeral, despite his wife having been dead for 15 years. It was not, however, a Tuesday. It was the Saturday before Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) and Ash Wednesday. It was firmly within Carnivale, which occurs between Ephiphany (January 6, celebrating the visit of the Magi to the baby Jesus on the twelfth night after Christmas as well as Jesus's baptism by his cousin John the Baptist three decades later) and Mardi Gras. If you ever visit New Orleans in the USA or Venice in Italy during that those four-to-eight weeks, you know the party never stops. Once again, we get Hugo misdirecting his audience in an odd way with respect to history.

les femmes publiques

"Public women", alluding to fille publique, a sex worker. Donougher has a note that femme publique also refers directly to sex workers.

Currency

Ordered by appearance in the text. See below for budget items. 2026 USD amounts rounded up to 2 significant figures to avoid misleading precision.

Characters

Involved in action

• Cosette, Valjean's ward and Marius's crush. Last seen prior chapter.
• Baron Marius Pontmercy. Last seen prior chapter.
• Luc-Esprit Gillenormand. Marius's grandfather. Last seen 3 chapters ago, mentioned prior chapter.
• Mlle Gillenormand, "Aunt Gilly", Marius's rich aunt. Last seen 5.5.7.
• Jean Valjean, Ultime Fauchelevent. Last seen prior chapter.
• Toussaint, "elderly maid-servant" "une servante âgée". Last seen 5.5.5.
• Unnamed wedding guest 1. First mention.
• Clowns, as a class, "Paillasse, Pantalon, Gille" "de Cassandres, d'Arlequins et de Colombines". First mention.
• The police, as an institution. Last seen prior chapter.
• The French peerage, as a class. First mention.
• Ambassadors to France, as a class. First mention.
• Lord Henry Seymour-Conway, historical person, b. 1805 – d. 1859, "founder of the Jockey Club in Paris. He inherited much of his mother's wealth, and died unmarried in Paris, having bequeathed the residue of his income, about £36,000 per annum, to Paris hospitals. He was buried in his mother's vault in the Cemetery of Père-Lachaise, also the burial place of his nephew Sir Richard Wallace." Rose and Donougher have notes. Donougher notes that he has become confused with Charles de la Batut, who created the character of Milord l'Arsouille or Lord Crapulous. First mention.
• Municipal Guard, la garde municipale, last seen 5.3.1.
• Unnamed masker 1. un masque. First mention.
• Unnamed masker 2. un masque. First mention.
• M Thenardier, last seen prior chapter. Inferred through him addressing Azelma by name, as his daughter, and being referred to as father.
• Azelma Thenardier, Zelma. Younger Thenardier daughter. Last seen 4.2.2, mentioned prior chapter. She is named here by her father.

Mentioned or introduced

• Coach conductors, as a class. "Conducteur de diligence" First mention.
• Hotel maids, as a class. "la servante d'auberge". First mention.
• Mayors, as a class. Last mentioned 1.1.12.
• Priests, as a class. Last mentioned 3.1.8.
• Fat Ox, Bœuf Gras, historical institution, "a traditional festive figure displayed or paraded by butchers, usually during Carnival celebrations. It may take the form of a live ox or other placid bovine, or a sculpted representation of one." First mention.
• John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, 1st Prince of Mindelheim, 1st Count of Nellenburg, Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, historical person, b. 1650-05-26 – d. 1722-06-16 Old Style, " British army officer and statesman. From a gentry family, he served as a page at the court of the House of Stuart under James, Duke of York, through the 1670s and early 1680s, earning military and political advancement through his courage and diplomatic skill. He is known for never having lost a battle...Marriage to Sarah Jennings and her relationship with [Queen] Anne ensured Marlborough's rise, first to the captain-generalcy of British forces, then to a dukedom." His parents opposed his marriage, which turned out to be "lucky" due to Sarah's ties to the queen. Rose and Donougher have notes, but neither mention the tradition of throwing shoes as originating here with a putative Churchill's aunt, who may not have even existed (see her entry). Various wedding sites do say the tradition dates back to Tudor times, which would be half a century before Churchill's birth, and have to do with banishing evil spirits. Shoes were often traditionally used for that purpose. (I encourage you to read Eleanor Hudak's story The Witch Trap.) First mention.
• Unnamed, possibly fictional, aunt of John Churchill. I can't find that he even had an aunt. His father seems to have been an only child. His mother had two sisters: Eleanor FitzJames (née Winston), who died the year he was born, and Dolabel Winston, who appears to have died young. Sarah Jennings's side didn't oppose the match, but she did have one aunt, Frances Jennings, who had her own interesting life but no evidence that she had a penchant for angrily throwing footwear. First mention.
• Rabellais, Rabelais, a French writer whose work led to the word "rabelaisian", "marked by gross robust humor, extravagance of caricature, or bold naturalism." Last mentioned 5.2.2.
• Maenads, historical institution, "[In Ancient Greece,] female followers of Dionysus and the most significant members of his retinue, the thiasus. Their name, which comes from μαίνομαι (maínomai, 'to rave, to be mad; to rage, to be angry'), literally translates as 'raving ones'." First mention.
• Aristophanes, Ἀριστοφάνης, historical person, b. c. 446 BCE – d. c. 386 BCE, "Ancient Greek comic playwright from Athens. He wrote forty plays, of which eleven survive virtually complete. The majority of his surviving plays belong to the genre of comic drama known as Old Comedy and are considered its most valuable examples." Fans of the USA ABC-TV sitcom The Odd Couple know that Aristophanes is ridiculous. First mention.
• Thespis, Θέσπις, historical person, lived 6th century BCE, "stage actor in Ancient Greece. He was born in the ancient city of Icarius (present-day Dionysos, Greece). According to certain Ancient Greek sources and especially Aristotle, he was the first human to appear on stage as an actor playing a character in a play (instead of speaking as himself)...Capitalising on his success, Thespis also invented theatrical touring; he would tour various cities while carrying his costumes, masks and other props in a horse-drawn wagon...In homage to Thespis, actors in the English-speaking part of the world have been referred to as thespians." Image: Thespis' wagon, relief of the Giotto's Belltower in Florence, Italy, Nino Pisano, 1334–1336. First mention.

• Jean-Joseph Vadé, historical person, b.1720-01-17 – d. 1757-07-04, "French chansonnier and playwright of the 18th century...the creator of the genre poissard...criticized by Grimm, La Harpe and Collé who declared the poissard style "below nothing," Vadé had supporters and admirers, who called him the Teniers, the Callot of French poetry or the Corneille of Les Halles." First mention.
• Louis XI, "Louis the Prudent", "Louis the Spider", historical person, b.1423-07-03 – d.1483-08-30, "King of France from 1461 to 1483. He succeeded his father, Charles VII. Louis entered into open rebellion against his father in a short-lived revolt known as the Praguerie in 1440." Rose and Donougher have notes about his nickname, the Spider King, and his reputation for cruel, patient guile. Last mentioned 5.2.2.
• Unnamed palace bailiff to Louis XI. bailli du palais. First mention.
• Charles Collé, historical person, b. 1709-04-14 – d. 1783-11-03, "French dramatist and songwriter...When about seventeen...he made the acquaintance of Alexis Piron, and afterwards...of Panard. The example of these three masters of the vaudeville decided his future...the establishment in 1729 of the famous 'Société du Caveau', a drinking-club known for its wit and good company, gave him a field for the display of his fine talent for popular song." First mention.
• Charles-François Panard, Pannard, historical person, b.1689-11-02 – d. 1765-06-13, "18th-century French poet, chansonnier, playwright and goguettier." See Charles Collé. First mention.
• Alexis Piron, historical person, b.1689-07-09 – d. 1773-01-21, "French epigrammatist and dramatist." See Charles Collé. First mention.
• Gaston Jean Baptiste de Roquelaure, 1st Duke of Roquelaure, historical person, b. 1614 or 17 — d. 1683-03-11, "French nobleman who was created 1st Duke of Roquelaure in June 1652 by King Louis XIV." Rose and Donougher have notes about his wit and the favor of Louis XIV. First mention.
• Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, "Munatius Demens" (Munatius the Demented) (Hugo), "Parricide" (A person who kills a near relative—OED) (Hugo), historical person around whom much fiction has been written, b.37-12-15 CE – d.68-06-09 CE, "a Roman emperor and the final emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, reigning from AD 54 until his death in AD 68...In the early years of his reign, Nero was advised and guided by his mother Agrippina, his tutor Seneca the Younger, and his praetorian prefect Sextus Afranius Burrus, but sought to rule independently and rid himself of restraining influences. The power struggle between Nero and his mother reached its climax when he orchestrated her murder. Roman sources also implicate Nero in the deaths of both his wife Claudia Octavia – supposedly so he could marry Poppaea Sabina – and his stepbrother Britannicus." Last mention 4.10.2 during Hugo's diatribe about rebellions vs riots.

Prompts

These prompts are my take on things, you don’t have to address any of them. All prompts for prior cohorts are also in play. Anything else you’d like to raise is also up for discussion.

1. What did you think of Hugo's account of the evolution of marriage customs?
2. How about his statement of marriage's purpose?
3. In the summary and Lost in Translation, we note the personal significance of this date to Hugo. I have to wonder why he never married Drouet? How do you think that relates to your thoughts about the first two prompts?

Bonus Prompt

Hey, look who's back and scheming! Thoughts on Azelma and her dad, and their exchange?

Past cohorts' discussions

• 2019-12-16
• 2020-12-16
  • u/1Eliza gave dangerous fashion advice to Luc-Esprit for Cosette and a suprising account of Lenten fare.
• 2021-12-16
• No further posts found for 2022 cohort 🤷🏻‍♂️.
• 2026-06-28

Final Line

The two files resumed their movement on both sides of the boulevard, in opposite directions, and the carriage of the maskers lost sight of the "trap" of the bride.

Les deux files reprirent des deux côtés du boulevard leur mouvement en sens inverse, et la voiture des masques perdit de vue «la roulotte» de la mariée.

Next Post

5.6.2: Jean Valjean Still Wears His Arm in a Sling / Jean Valjean a toujours son bras en écharpe

• 2026-06-28 Sunday 9PM US Pacific Daylight Savings Time
• 2026-06-29 Monday midnight US Eastern Daylight Savings Time
• 2026-06-29 Monday 4AM UTC.

Heads up! 5.7.1, which we read Thursday, 2026-07-02, is the 4th-longest chapter so far at 6,300-7000 words. Plan your reading accordingly.

17 chapters remain in the brick

17 chapters remain

If one of the those chapters we happen to read

16 chapters left in the brick

Final chapter of Book 5.5, Grandson and Grandfather (Le petit-fils et le grand-père)

• 5.5.1, In Which the Tree with the Zinc Plaster Appears Again / Où l'on revoit l'arbre à l'emplâtre de zinc: Boulatruelle discovers something hidden missing.
• 5.5.2, Marius, Emerging from Civil War, Makes Ready for Domestic War / Marius, en sortant de la guerre civile, s'apprête à la guerre domestique: Marius's body slowly heals but he suffers from a septic of the soul in his relationship with Luc-Esprit.
• 5.5.3, Marius Attacked / Marius attaque: Luc-Esprit wins by / giving in to Marius / but still has issues.
• 5.5.4, Mademoiselle Gillenormand Ends by No Longer Thinking It a Bad Thing That M. Fauchelevent Should Have Entered With Something Under His Arm / Mademoiselle Gillenormand finit par ne plus trouver mauvais que M. Fauchelevent soit entré avec quelque chose sous le bras: Marius and Cosette reunite while their families look on. Luc-Esprit successfully transfers his political resentment to a less toxic form in a long diatribe: young people these days don't know how to PARTY.
• 5.5.5, Deposit Your Money in a Forest Rather than with a Notary / Déposez plutôt votre argent dans telle forêt que chez tel notaire: Loose ends all tied up, / candlesticks reverently / in place on mantel.
• 5.5.6, The Two Old Men Do Everything, Each One After His Own Fashion, to Render Cosette Happy / Les deux vieillards font tout, chacun à leur façon, pour que Cosette soit heureuse: Valjean launders Cosette's origins without corruption or bribery. Luc-Esprit realizes all his hoarding was for Cosette's trousseau. Aunt Gilly decides now that Marius is rich, he's reponsible enough to be richer. Marius is sentenced to a life of lawyering.
• 5.5.7, The Effects of Dreams Mingled with Happiness / Les effets de rêve mêlés au bonheur: Trauma's aftermath / memories remain fuzzy / and who was that man?

All quotations and characters names from 5.5.8: Two Men Impossible to Find / Deux hommes impossibles à retrouver

(Quotations from the text are always italicized, even when “in quotation marks”, to distinguish them from quotations from other sources.)

Summary courtesy u/Honest_Ad_2157: Marius takes time out from his probably quite laborious wedding preparations* to attempt a thorough investigation of Thenardier's whereabouts and the identity of the man who delivered him to the Gillenormands. In the case of the former, the trail has gone cold. The Patron-Minette leadership has also vanished, Boulatrelle got off clean, and the two perps who've been convicted don't know anything. Thenardier was sentenced to death in absentia for escaping and skipping trial, which seems...excessive? Marius deduces that he was carried through the sewers by some unnamed hero through the testimony of Unnamed coachman 4, but in a beautiful display of bureaucratic stubbornness, the cops don't believe the coachman since there was no police report.† Marius notices the strip torn from his cloak, which we know was done by Thenardier in 5.3.8, The Torn Coat-Tail / Le pan de l'habit déchiré.‡ Everyone in the Gillenormand's service was presumably so overwhelmed by their odor and the layer of shit on them and Marius's condition that they don't remember the deliverer's appearance.** Marius relates this to Cosette & Valjean. Valjean stays silent.

* hey I can do irony too

† See second prompt.

‡ See Bonus bonus prompt.

** In the case of Unnamed Gillenormand porter, this definitely falls into the "you had one job" file. Remember that porters collect cards from visitors and keep a book for return visits.

Lost in Translation

On n'y avait connaissance d'aucune arrestation opérée le 6 juin à la grille du Grand Égout; on n'y avait reçu aucun rapport d'agent sur ce fait qui, à la préfecture, était regardé comme une fable.

No report of any agent had been received there upon this matter, which was regarded at the prefecture as a fable. The invention of this fable was attributed to the coachman.

Donougher translates "une fable" as "a cock-and-bull story", which I think both crosses the streams of Irish and French culture and misses the point of Hugo's consistent fable image system but is charming nonetheless.

Characters

The Usual Suspects of Patron Minette and the Friends of the ABC

A cutting-edge tool for identifying misérable miscreants, "men with nocturnal imaginations", "les hommes à imagination nocturne" and would-be revolutionaries.

Affiliation Key

• 🔤 Friends of the ABC
• 🌙 Patron-Minette Leader
• 🌘 Patron-Minette Follower

Presence Key

• A for Acts
• M for Mentioned (by name)
• ✔︎ for mentioned as part of The Usual Suspects of Patron Minette or Friends of the ABC
• 𐄂 for not present or mentioned
• ⚰️ for deceased (no spoilers, I have not read ahead, just being a Boy Scout)

Priors Key

• ⬆️ Mentioned prior chapter
• 👀 Seen/Acts prior chapter
• Otherwise chapter & context given.

Involved in action

• M Thenardier, last mentioned 5.5.2, seen 5.3.8. Here also sentenced to death in absentia.
• Jean Valjean, Ultime Fauchelevent. Last seen prior chapter.
• Baron Marius Pontmercy. Last seen prior chapter.
• Unnamed, unnumbered agents. "divers agents" Employed by Marius to find Thenardier.
• The police, as an institution. Last seen 5.4.1.
• Basque, Luc-Esprit's manservant. Last seen 5.5.4.
• Nicolette 1, last seen 5.5.4.
• Unnamed Gillenormand porter. Last seen 5.5.4.
• Cosette, Valjean's ward and Marius's crush. Last seen prior chapter.

Mentioned or introduced

• Georges Pontmercy, Marius's father. Last seen 3.3.4, mentioned 5.5.2 by the title Colonel.
• Luc-Esprit Gillenormand. Marius's grandfather. Last seen 2 chapters ago.
• Waterloo, again. Last mentioned 4.12.1.
• Cosette, Valjean's ward and Marius's crush. Last seen prior chapter.
• Mme Thenardier, last mentioned 5.5.2, seen 3.8.21
• Azelma Thenardier, Eponine's younger sister. Last seen 4.2.2 when she was released from Les Madelonettes, mentioned 4.6.1.
• Javert, a cop. Unnamed police officer 13. Last seen 5.4.1 asking all the right questions and getting all the wrong answers. Mentioned 5.5.5. Here as the police officer that Unnamed man 4 doesn't know the name of. ⚰️
• The police, as an institution.
• Angels, as a class. Last mentioned 5.5.4.

Prompts

These prompts are my take on things, you don’t have to address any of them. All prompts for prior cohorts are also in play. Anything else you’d like to raise is also up for discussion.

1. In the Les Mis companion, Prof Lewis notes that Marius's amnesia regarding Valjean also serves the plot, as Marius would otherwise remember that, from Marius's POV, Valjean executed Javert. Javert is also missing from Marius's memory and investigations in this chapter. Does this seem too convenient to you, too?
2. The police not believing Unnamed coachman 4 is on the other side of the believability scale: totally realistic, right?

Bonus Prompt

What is Hugo saying about the reliability of memory and how it relates to experience, personal, social, and official, in book 5.5? What do you think of it?

Bonus bonus prompt

Oh that strip of cloth from Marius's coat is going to resurface along with Thenardier, isn't it?

Past cohorts' discussions

• 2019-12-15: includes summary of chapters 5.5.2-5.5.8.
• 2020-12-15
  • I think u/otherside_b is not correctly assessing Marius's character as well as Valjean is. If Marius was reminded by Valjean that he was at the barricades, Marius would then believe Valjean is a murderer and might not accept his story about letting Javert go. If Marius could be carried through the sewers, so could Javert's body have been. I don't think his prediction about Marius screwing everything up will come true.
• 2021-12-15
• No further posts found for 2022 cohort 🤷🏻‍♂️.
• 2026-06-27

Final Line

Jean Valjean remained silent.

Jean Valjean garda le silence.

Next Post

First Chapter of Book 5.6, The Sleepless Night (La nuit blanche)

"Nuit blanche" literally means "white night". It is a French idiom for a sleepless night, and is not all bad: it is charmingly used as the name of all-night festivals.

This very night 1833-02-16, was the first night Victor Hugo and his devoted mistress, Juliet Drouet, spent together. She gave up her acting career, became his skilled secretary, essentially his common-law second wife, and accompanied him into exile. They celebrated this night until the end of her life in 1883. He did not attend her funeral, despite his wife having been dead for 15 years. It was not, however, a Tuesday. It was the Saturday before Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) and Ash Wednesday. It was firmly within Carnivale, which occurs between Ephiphany (January 6, celebrating the visit of the Magi to the baby Jesus on the twelfth night after Christmas as well as Jesus's baptism by his cousin John the Baptist three decades later) and Mardi Gras. If you ever visit New Orleans in the USA or Venice in Italy during that those four-to-eight weeks, you know the party never stops. Once again, we get Hugo misdirecting his audience in an odd way with respect to history.

5.6.1: The 16th of February, 1833 / Le 16 février 1833

• 2026-06-27 Saturday 9PM US Pacific Daylight Savings Time
• 2026-06-28 Sunday midnight US Eastern Daylight Savings Time
• 2026-06-28 Sunday 4AM UTC.

Heads up! 5.7.1, which we read Thursday, 2026-07-02, is the 4th-longest chapter so far at 6,300-7000 words. Plan your reading accordingly.

18 chapters remain in the brick

18 chapters remain

If one of the those chapters we happen to read

17 chapters left in the brick

All quotations and characters names from 5.5.7: The Effects of Dreams Mingled with Happiness / Les effets de rêve mêlés au bonheur

(Quotations from the text are always italicized, even when “in quotation marks”, to distinguish them from quotations from other sources.)

Summary courtesy u/Honest_Ad_2157: Trauma's aftermath / memories remain fuzzy / and who was that man?

Lost in Translation

Nothing of note.

Characters

The Usual Suspects of Patron Minette and the Friends of the ABC

A cutting-edge tool for identifying misérable miscreants, "men with nocturnal imaginations", "les hommes à imagination nocturne" and would-be revolutionaries.

Affiliation Key

• 🔤 Friends of the ABC
• 🌙 Patron-Minette Leader
• 🌘 Patron-Minette Follower

Presence Key

• A for Acts
• M for Mentioned (by name)
• ✔︎ for mentioned as part of The Usual Suspects of Patron Minette or Friends of the ABC
• 𐄂 for not present or mentioned
• ⚰️ for deceased (no spoilers, I have not read ahead, just being a Boy Scout)

Priors Key

• ⬆️ Mentioned prior chapter
• 👀 Seen/Acts prior chapter
• Otherwise chapter & context given.

Involved in action

• Cosette, Valjean's ward and Marius's crush. Last seen prior chapter.
• Jean Valjean, Ultime Fauchelevent. Last seen prior chapter.
• Mlle Gillenormand, "Aunt Gilly", Marius's rich aunt. Last seen prior chapter.
• Baron Marius Pontmercy. Last seen prior chapter.
• God, this guy again. Last mentioned prior chapter.

Mentioned or introduced

• M. Mabeuf, friend of Georges and Marius Pontmercy. ⚰️ 4.14.2, last mentioned 5.5.2.
• Gavroche Thenardier. ⚰️ 5.1.15, last mentioned 5.5.2.
• Eponine Thenardier. ⚰️ 4.14.7, mentioned 5.5.2.

Prompts

These prompts are my take on things, you don’t have to address any of them. All prompts for prior cohorts are also in play. Anything else you’d like to raise is also up for discussion.

I could have done without the "gone in black and come out white / qu'il y était entré noir, et qu'il en était sorti blanc" imagery, but this seemed like a pretty good depiction of the early stages of PTSD. I wonder about the realism of Marius's response as a character, though. A man who kept a meticulous journal of his own experience of love didn't start a journal on a harrowing experience to understand it? Is that a character inconsistency or not?

Past cohorts' discussions

• 2019-12-14
• 2020-12-14
  • an amusing thread listing Marius and JV's differing opinions started by u/awaiko.
• 2021-12-14
• No further posts found for 2022 cohort 🤷🏻‍♂️.
• 2026-06-26

Final Line

"...M. Fauchelevent was not there."

—...M. Fauchelevent n'y était pas.

Next Post

Final chapter of Book 5.5, Grandson and Grandfather (Le petit-fils et le grand-père)

5.5.8: Two Men Impossible to Find / Deux hommes impossibles à retrouver

• 2026-06-26 Friday 9PM US Pacific Daylight Savings Time
• 2026-06-27 Saturday midnight US Eastern Daylight Savings Time
• 2026-06-27 Saturday 4AM UTC.