(Spoilers)
On Thursday, June 3, 2010 I finished reading Les Miserables by Victor Hugo, the unabridged translation by Charles Wilbur; all 1,222 pages. It took me about six months to get through it, though I did take a break between volumes IV and V to read Mountains Beyond Mountains (see earlier review). The fifth volume of Les Mis, Jean Valjean, is around the same length as the other volumes, not as long as volume 4, St. Denis. It covers the rest of the fighting at the barricade, Jean Valjean’s journey through the sewer (that was mentioned in a Jeopardy! clue not long before I read it), Javert’s dilemma that kind of mirrors Jean Valjean’s dilemma from the first volume, the wedding of Cosette and Marius and everyone’s resolutions. Of course, there are the requisite digressions, minimal compared to the other volumes. In all a fitting conclusion to the epic story.
The book continues Hugo’s commentary of the political and economic conditions of the time. He quotes more statistics that show that “the mortality of abandoned children is 55%” (p. 996). In a speech before the final battle at the barricade, Enjolras quotes education theory that’s ahead of its time: “The primary school obligation upon all, the higher school offered to all, such is the law. From identical school springs equal society” (p. 1000). Descriptions of the Paris sewer also serve as social commentary. Via the sewer, Paris throws 5 million per year into the sea. (5 million what? He’s not clear on that.) Another interesting quote is that, “When a man has passed his time on earth in enduring the spectacle of the grand airs which are assumed by reasons of state, oaths, political wisdom, human justice, professional honesty, the necessities of position, incorruptible robes, it is a consolation to enter the sewer and see the slime which befits it” (p. 1059). It’s like the sewer is the ultimate equalizer, the ultimate melting pot.
Hugo also includes a long quote about the purpose of the book: “the march from good to evil, from the false to the true, from night to day, from appetite to conscience, from rottenness to life, from brutality to duty, from Hell to Heaven, from nothingness to God. Starting point: matter; goal: the soul. Hydra at the beginning, angel at the end” (p. 1042).
This volume wouldn’t be complete without digressions and tangents. They aren’t quite as lengthy or frequent as in other volumes. There’s one about uprisings similar to the 1832 one described and a book on the history of the Paris sewer. Hugo prefaces the former on uprising by saying, “When the subject is not lost sight of, there is no digression…” (p. 984). He goes on to write how they shall reproduce Eden by A+B where A is Art and B is science. When discussing the sewer, Hugo proposes a system “to bring our cities the pure water of the fields and send to our fields the rich (sewer) water of our cities” (p. 1055). There’s some humor such as how in the sewer, “the apple core which had literary aspiration becomes again the apple core” (p. 1058).
As with the other volumes, I learned some new words. An early digression about politics mentions ochlocracy that’s not in my Random House dictionary but defined on Merriam-Webster online as “government by the mob or mob rule.” A description of the barricade mentions its excrescences defined as “abnormal outgrowths, as a mole” by my Random House dictionary. After storming the barricade the French National Guard makes an irruption into the Corinthe wine bar where the revolutionaries gathered. Per mw.com, an irruption can mean to break or bust in or the increase suddenly in number of animals. The word tergiversation comes up in one of Marius’ grandfather’s speeches. Per my Random House this can mean 1) evasion of a straightforward action or clear cut statement or 2) desertion of a cause, position, party, or faith. I had to Google another word used by the grandfather, tohubohu that means chaos or confusion. His phrase is “…when you do many with the fever and the dizziness and the uproar and the tohubohu of happiness” (p. 1134).
I could relate to a couple of passages. At the barricade, Combeferre gets mathematical when discussing combat by musket and cannon: “In the short range, the trajectory has not the stiffness desirable, the parabola is exaggerated, the path of the projectile is not rectilinear enough to permit it to hit the immediate objects, a necessity of combat…” (p. 1005). Later some other soldiers take the “sunken road of Montebello” to get to the barricade (p. 1061).
As with the earlier volumes, I compared this one to the musical. The iconic red and black colors are mentioned. I think it’s the National Guard captain who is described as “Exasperated by the successive appearance of the red flag and the old coat he took for the black flag” (p. 1015). The final battle at the barricade seems to end quickly with Bossuet, Feuilly, Courfeyrac, Joly and Combeferre all gone in one sentence (p. 1044). Not long after, Enjolras kisses the hand of the old man Mabeuf “as in the evening he had kissed the forehead. They were the only kisses which he had given in his life” (p. 1047).
Like in the musical Javert is torn after Jean Valjean spares his life and Javert later lets him go free. His words almost match the song, “This convict, this desperate man that I have pursued even to persecution, and who has had me beneath his feet, and could have avenged himself and ought to have done so as well for his revenge as for his security, in granting me my life, in sparing me, what has he done?” (p. 1109) Another song is mentioned when Marius is made “master of the house” (p. 1120). Marius never says “Empty chairs and empty tables” though he does have a nightmare in which “He saw Mabeuf fall again, he heard Gavroche singing beneath the grape (shot), he felt upon his lip the chill of Eponine’s forehead; Enjolras, Courfeyrac, rose up before him, the dissipated” (p. 1136).
Despite all the tragedy, the book ends happily for those that survive, as in the musical. They sing in the musical, “To love another person is to see the face of God.” In the book, Marius’ grandfather says, “the best way to worship God is to love your wife” (p. 1154). Jean Valjean doesn’t exactly write his last confession on a page but proof that his fortune that he’ll pass on to Cosette is legitimate. Though realizing the evil of Thenardier, Marius still gives him 20,000 francs for saving his father at Waterloo. Thenardier uses these funds to go to America and become a slaver (p. 1213). Unlike in the musical, Madame Thenardier dies in prison. But like the musical, Jean Valjean is on his deathbed by the end. On seeing him, Cosette utters the cry, “Father! My father! You shall live. You’re going to live. I will have you live, do you hear!”
Jean Valjean answers, “Oh yes, forbid me to die. Who knows? I shall obey perhaps. I was just dying when you came. That stopped me. It seemed to me that I was born again” (p. 1,217).
Les Miserables is quite a story, arguably too dense and slow reading but I still can’t imagine it with anything excluded. It all isn’t resolved, such as why Jean Valjean came to the barricade, until the very end. I already knew the major plot points from seeing the musical, yet the book adds so much more to the story from the geography of the early 19th century Paris, to the effects of all the political changes to the struggles of the lower classes, even the history of convents and the battles of Waterloo. There isn’t much that isn’t there. After finishing the book, I read the synopsis on Wikipedia.com and found it to be grossly inadequate. The book is long, slow, and dense but also thorough and realistic. The barricade struggle doesn’t lead to much change. The French people have to wait longer for that. But the characters go through many changes. Some perish, all who don’t find success. Jean Valjean finds peace. Hugo finally runs out of words and digressions. That’s one thing the musical doesn’t have: the mischievous, not completely serious, but still earnest tone. He’s not always reliable either, sometimes putting the reader in the position of the characters. It’s Hugo’s story more than anyone else’s, from evil to good, hell to heaven, miserable to musical.
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