#lm 2.3.9

[maybeitsapineapple]

Owl Valjean and Songbird Cosette

[cliozaur]

If Valjean and Cosette lie to survive and protect themselves, Thénardier represents lie of completely different kind. He weaves an elaborate lies to have a material gain and harm other people. I will never tire of repeating how much I hate him.

Valjean, on the other hand, is amazing! He brilliantly maintains a poker face in the morning, pretending not to remember any child from the day before and showing no interest in her. This yields results, as Mme Thénardier is only too happy to get rid of Cosette. And Valjean’s harsh response to Thénardier shows how well he has sensed his nature after an evening of observation. He puts the innkeeper in his place, shuts him up with money, and takes Cosette away from this cursed place. I like how Hugo described Thénardier’s reaction: “Since geniuses, like demons, recognize the presence of a superior God by certain signs, Thénardier comprehended that he had to deal with a very strong person.”

I am so happy for Cosette who can finally feel that she is not alone in this world and there is someone who can protect her for the first time in her life. “For the last five years, that is to say, as far back as her memory ran, the poor child had shivered and trembled. She had always been exposed completely naked to the sharp wind of adversity; now it seemed to her she was clothed. Formerly her soul had seemed cold, now it was warm. Cosette was no longer afraid of the Thénardier. She was no longer alone; there was some one there.” It’s such a profoundly moving moment!

[lmchaptertitlebracket]

Round 1, Matchup 26: I.ii.12 vs II.iii.9

[pureanonofficial]

LES MIS LETTERS IN ADAPTATION - Thénardier and His Manœuvres, LM 2.3.9 (Les Miserables 1925)

Daylight was appearing when those of the inhabitants of Montfermeil who had begun to open their doors beheld a poorly clad old man leading a little girl dressed in mourning, and carrying a pink doll in her arms, pass along the road to Paris. They were going in the direction of Livry.

It was our man and Cosette.

No one knew the man; as Cosette was no longer in rags, many did not recognize her. Cosette was going away. With whom? She did not know. Whither? She knew not. All that she understood was that she was leaving the Thénardier tavern behind her. No one had thought of bidding her farewell, nor had she thought of taking leave of any one. She was leaving that hated and hating house.

Poor, gentle creature, whose heart had been repressed up to that hour!

Cosette walked along gravely, with her large eyes wide open, and gazing at the sky. She had put her louis in the pocket of her new apron. From time to time, she bent down and glanced at it; then she looked at the good man. She felt something as though she were beside the good God.

[dolphin1812]

Cosette is finally free!

The characterization in this chapter is honestly incredible. Unlike her husband, Mme Thénardier has some scruples; while they may be twisted (preferring to marry Louis XVIII over doing something truly awful sounds like a fair comparison until it’s revealed that she means having Cosette around), and while she may still be horrible, she’s not as sneaky as her husband and thus feels uncomfortable with some of his demands because she doesn’t see them the same way he does. She finds it challenging to demand such a large sum from Valjean, for instance, because of his dress. She’s noticed the discrepancy between his appearance and his money as well, but she still fears that he won’t be able to pay. This isn’t really a moral position - she’s still awful - but she does feel awkward because part of her worries that this is too much for him to pay and she doesn’t know what she’ll do if it is. Her husband has picked up on all of this, too, but he also has suspicions about why he’d have to pay.

Thénardier likely suspects Valjean is a criminal. His reasoning on why he can’t be Cosette’s relative is in the text, but his other thoughts are mostly revealed through his questions and attitude. We know Thénardier has associated with convicts before, as he wasn’t afraid to be seen with Boulatruelle when trying to get information out of him. He may have picked up on the similarities between their demeanors: constant caution, subservience to authority beyond what’s expected, a lack of confidence, social isolation, and so on. The gap between this man’s appearance and the amount of money he has is also suspicious, and it may lead him to believe that he looks like this because he didn’t acquire the money through ‘legitimate’ means. This suspicion gives him confidence. A man running from the law can’t be picky about money (we’ve seen this with Valjean accepting lower wages without much of a fight, but overcharging would have worked the same way; complaints would draw legal attention that current criminals and ex-convicts would want to avoid). Therefore, while his wife is nervous about asking for that much money, he knows that this man can’t complain too strongly about the price. When discussing Cosette, he maintains a friendly tone so as not to arouse suspicion, but he does ask Valjean for identifying information, including for a passport (and as we know from Digne, passports were a tricky business). Valjean’s refusal to provide any of those likely solidified his hunch that he’s running from the law.

With Valjean, we see him move from his state of constant anxiety to a form of confidence. When he asks Mme Thénardier about Cosette, his voice trembles; he’s afraid of making any demands, like we’ve seen in all the chapters since he escaped prison again (and in the preceding chapters as well, honestly). Once he’s dealing with M Thénardier, however, his voice is firm. He definitely speaks less and chooses his words and actions carefully. Valjean may have the strength of an action hero, but he’s not just going to burst out of the inn carrying Cosette because he knows that’ll attract too much attention. He knows he has to negotiate with Thénardier in the most discreet way possible. Still, he stands up for himself, refusing to offer him any identification because none of it is necessary. In doing so, he also reveals an understanding of what Cosette’s been through - he’s keeping her abusers from finding her - and implicitly accuses Thénardier of abuse by insisting that she’ll never see him again and referring to him as something that “binds her foot” (he says “thread,” but the image resembles a prison chain). He doesn’t flinch when asked, either, demonstrating that he’s more confident here than before. It’s always been easier for Valjean to demand better treatment for others than for himself, and this is a continuation of that. He likely wouldn’t have stood up for himself at all if this weren’t a way of helping Cosette. Still, this does raise the possibility of some healing for him through Cosette, which is always nice to see.

Cosette is also so cute, I love how she immediately gains a lot of courage from Valjean’s presence (no longer fearing her abusers) and is so happy to leave. The image of her looking up at him in awe from time to time as they walk is so adorable.

[alioshakaramazov]

"On waking up, Cosette had run to get her shoe. In it she had found the gold piece. It was not a Napoleon; it was one of those perfectly new twenty-franc pieces of the Restoration, on whose effigy the little Prussian queue had replaced the laurel wreath."

20 Francs Napoléon I. Years 1809-1814. Napoleon Bonaparte, laureate head left. x

20 Francs Louis XVIII. Years 1816-1824. Head of Louis XVIII turned right, the hair held by a band tied at the neck. x

[fremedon]

Brickclub catchup, 2.3.6 - 2.3.9

Brickclub restarts today! I still haven’t written up the last three chapters because they’re almost all plot, and I have a much harder time finding things to say about plot than I do about the digressions.

These four chapters bring Valjean into the Thenardiers’ inn and out of it again, with Cosette. Once again, Valjean is not named, and we see him mostly from outside, though Hugo is exercising very fine control over the level of distance--his departure from Paris is seen not merely from outside, but through sources which are named--police reports, the speech of the king and his bodyguards.

(I feel like Valjean’s encounter with Louis XVIII’s carriage has be significant--it’s the king, after all--but I don’t have a handle on how. The bishop’s encounter with Napoleon stated one of the principal concerns of the book; Louis...well, he’s that big man who’s the government.

He keeps coming up over the next couple of chapters, though--Hugo specifies that the gold coin Valjean leaves in Cosette’s shoe is not a Napoleon but a newly-mined louis d’or of the Restoration; Mme. Thenardier says she’d rather marry Louis XVIII than keep Cosette in the house another day. (And Cosette’s reaction to the doll is like being told she’s the queen of France; and Mme. Thenardier says soon the stranger will be calling Cosette “Your Majesty” as if she were the Duchesse du Berry. Maybe it’s just that we’ve left Waterloo, and the narrative is embedding itself in the Restoration?

Actually--no, maybe it’s that Cosette is leaving The Sergeant of Waterloo, emerging from the keeping of the character identified with both Bonapartes.)

After Valjean leaves the stagecoach, we follow him at a camera’s eye viewpoint and see his encounter with Cosette again, this time from outside; then into the inn where we see him through the eyes of Mme. Thenardier and the other patrons; and then finally, as he takes the candle and finds Cosette, and places the louis d’or in her shoe, it zooms in quite close--not entirely getting into his head, but making his thoughts and feelings very clear.

And then we zoom out again and watch him through Thenardier’s eyes, but this time, Valjean has the upper hand. The decrease in narrative distance has been matched by an increase in Valjean’s confidence and ability to navigate human society--he’s gone from so feral and baffled that he throws himself into ditches to hide from passers-by to calm, collected, and in control. Cosette--seeing her, realizing what she needs from him--is the catalyst; but it also feels almost like the reader’s observation is helping him along. The closer we get to his own viewpoint, the more human he becomes.

Some scattered observations:

Les Deux Forçats is a real play, which premiered in 1822.

Cosette saying she never had a mother when the narrator told us flat out in her last chapter that Fantine’s spirit was there and watching is heartbreaking. (And h/t to whoever pointed out--Pilf, possibly?--that Fantine’s deathbed vision of Valjean coming for Cosette isn’t just wishful thinking: she’s seeing this scene; she’s seeing the future.)

Cosette “resorted to the tactic adopted by children in constant fear: she lied.” Once again, it is really striking just how blasé Hugo is about lying. He doesn’t judge it at all, except from a purely utilitarian standpoint. It’s really striking here, on the heels of several mentions about how Cosette has never been to church and knows nothing of religion--you would expect any other writer of the time to point to Cosette’s lies as evidence of the neglect of her moral education, and Hugo doesn’t.

Immediately following that--Valjean pretends to find Cosette’s lost coin, and even though the one he hands over is the wrong denomination, Mme. Thenardier is still partially taken in: “Anyway, it’s just as well he didn’t take it into his head to steal the money that was on the floor.” Cosette lying out of fear is followed by Valjean lying out of compassion for her, and it’s a notable moment in his progression back to functionality and humanity.

“But that a man wearing a hat like that should take the liberty of making any request, and that a man wearing a coat like that should take the liberty of expressing himself, was something that Madame Thenardier did not think she had to tolerate.” The way Mme. Thenardier and Javert reach the same sorts of judgments through entirely different thought processes is fascinating. They both judge sort people instantly into social categories and are personally offended when they don’t fit into them nicely, but for Javert the social order is itself good and necessary, while for Mme. Thenardier it’s all about her fear of anything threatening her own interests or those of her daughters.

Similarly, “no matter how much in her effort to imitate her husband in all his actions she had made a habit of dissimulation,” controlling her feelings about Cosette’s sudden elevation in the world is beyond her. She and Javert will both attempt to lie to satisfy authorities, but it doesn’t come naturally to them.

Cosette dresses up her lead sword as a doll because she is so desperate for something to love. In her earshot, Mme. Thenardier tells Valjean that Fantine was a bad mother who abandoned Cosette and is probably dead; Thenardier and the other customers sing bawdy songs about the Virgin Mary and the baby Jesus; and Cosette rocks her swaddled sword and croons “My mother is dead! My mother is dead.” That’s...a lot of motherhood all over the page, and all of it twisted somehow. But it sets up the stage very well for Valjean to step in. He’s not anyone’s idea of a mother--but if these are the other options, he’ll do.

Cosette stares at the magnificent doll “as if it might have been the sun approaching.” Little Cosette really is Grantaire and I’m still not sure what to do with that, because everything it suggests about Grantaire’s potential is just heartbreaking.

Santa Claus Valjean! Just in case the breaking and entering to leave alms hadn’t already clued us in. Saint Nicholas is the patron of repentant thieves, prostitutes, small boys, and young girls of marriageable age; I feel like Hugo looked at that list and said “Sounds like the three problems of the age.”

Thenardier stays up until 3 AM watching Valjean, and then is up again two hours before daybreak writing the bill. I know it’s three nights past the solstice and daybreak is pretty late, but wow he is taking no chances on Valjean’s slipping away unnoticed.

Fursona watch:

“Eponine and Azelma did not look at Cosette. For them she was like the dog.”

The scene where the girls dress up the cat is such a well-observed piece of pretend, but also--if little girls are cats nowadays, does that mean they will grow up to be lions?

(Also, I am hella impressed at just how many minutes of time must elapse in the story without Eponine losing her hold on that cat--even holding it one-handed while she tugs on her mother’s skirt!. Donougher specifies that the cat is not just dressed, but “swaddled,” so maybe the cat is burritoed? Still impressive.)

Mme. Thenardier says Cosette is “more like a bat than a lark.”

[everyonewasabird]

Brickclub 2.3.9 ‘Thenardier in operation’

This chapter is where we see Thenardier at work--it’s in the title. His wife marvels at the masterpiece of the bill he draws up. Thenardier isn’t lacking his usual perspicacity here--this is Thenardier in fighting form.

And he’s absolutely no match for Valjean.

What I hadn’t realized before this readthrough was that this wasn’t exactly true at the beginning of the evening. Valjean’s recent trauma had turned him back into a wild thing, not able even to walk down a street without exciting suspicion and fear. We know from Boulatruelle that that’s what the bagne does to people.

Over this evening we’ve seen him complete the first stage of his transformation into Cosette’s parent: his first timid objections to Mme Thenardier, gradually growing into intervention to let Cosette play, watching Cosette steal the doll and enjoy the doll before suffering the inevitable consequences, then buying for Cosette the doll every child in town dreams of.

Whether it transformed him into something that resembles Madeleine, resembles his post-Madeleine self at Fantine’s deathbed, or something entirely new remains to be seen.

The way the Thenardiers justify their exorbitant bill is interesting. Madame Thenardier thinks Valjean should have to pay an exorbitant amount because he humiliated her children; Thenardier thinks Valjean should pay an exorbitant amount because Thenardier *needs* an exorbitant amount. Her anger feels like a reaction I can imagine having a small portion of--it’s not always easy to tell the difference between anger and justice, and we’ve seen even Javert be drawn astray by that. But the way Thenardier is in the world has absolutely no sense of other people as people. It’s absolutely empty of everything but his own wants.

It kinda makes sense that someone as brutal and selfish as his wife would follow him with baffled wonder--he’s working to her advantage, in theory, and to the advantage of her worst impulses, and there really is something hard to fathom about encountering a mind like this. And I also see how the shine comes off this later--when he’s desperate enough that his selfishness more visibly excludes her and the children.

He went and sat in the corner of the fireplace meditating, his feet on the hot ashes.

We saw Cosette’s eyes reflecting the firelight last chapter, a sign that she was fighting off that demonic impulse we saw in her before. Thenardier isn’t fighting it; I don’t think he’s even separate from his demonic impulses.

Damn. I knew Cosette was a werewolf child, but there are so many wolves I hadn’t put it together that she was in danger of catching the traits of this specific wolf. This kid needs a real parent now.

And Valjean gets her out. I love how the money he lavishes on her--the doll, the gold coin--are fascinating and terrifying, but Valjean himself is safe. He’s never really going to understand that. He thinks she should be showered in wealth and comfort, but what she loves is him.

And I don’t really know how this book feels about the comforts lavished on Cosette? Like France in this era, she’s the bourgeoise child of a revolution she’s forgotten, and her comfort means she doesn’t have to understand too much about the war she came from or the wars being waged around her.

Speaking of parallels to Grantaire, this chapter ends with her eyes gazing at the sky, and at Valjean.

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Brick Club 2.3.9 “Thenardier Maneuvering”

So Valjean has just stayed up until like 2 or 3 in the morning, staring at nothing, and Thenardier has stayed up with him, and now he’s awake again 2 hours before daybreak. In the dead of winter like this, daybreak is probably about 7 or 8am?

Thenardier knows Valjean will pay the bill, but I think he has his assumptions about Valjean all wrong. He thinks Valjean is paying out of politeness and decorum; really I think part of Valjean pays out of kindness and part is just the knowledge that certain moves must be made in this chess game of retrieving Cosette.

Because that’s kind of what this whole section feels like: a chess game, or something similar. Valjean is maneuvering across the “board” of France, trying to reach a specific destination, having to encounter and acquire certain things along the way. He defeated Javert, but then was captured, he defeated the Orion, but had to get past Boulatrelle, now he’s come to the Big Battle of Thenardier, and this is where he has to really pay attention to the moves of the other player, because now there are stakes for both of them. (Side note: this could be yet another Napoleon parallel, considering Napoleon’s thing about chess.)

The way Mme Thenardier makes excuses for/explains the bill is so interesting because it’s simultaneously an excuse and a confession. Like, her explaining it in this way reveals to Valjean that they hiked the expenses because they know he’s rich. I think Mme Thenardier is rambling this way because Valjean isn’t reacting the way she expected; she hands the letter over totally expecting an outburst, which she probably would have handled fairly well, in a confrontational yet innkeeper-like way. But because he doesn’t give her the outburst she expects, she’s not sure how to treat him, since he just sort of accepts the bill, so she rambles awkwardly. This works out incredibly well in Valjean’s favor. I get the feeling that what his mind was on when accepting the bill was how exactly to extract Cosette from the clutches of the Thenardiers, but the opportunity presents itself precisely because his mind was elsewhere.

It’s so interesting who gets to sit and who gets to stand in certain situations, and which position is the powerful one. When Javert drags Fantine into the station, he gets to sit at the desk, while she is left standing (and then crawling) because his comfort and ability to sit was the power move. But here, Valjean is made to sit and Thenardier to stand, because this ability to move about the space, to assume control over it and seem larger than he actually is, is the power move for Thenardier.

I love literary moments like this. Valjean and the reader both know the same things about Cosette’s origin, Fantine’s fate, the Thenardiers’ abuse of and lack of love for Cosette. Valjean staring at Thenardier during his absolutely bullshit monologue is Valjean and the reader embodying the same position for a moment. Usually the reader knows more than the characters; this time we are equals to Valjean and we are both judging Thenardier hard.

Hugo even tells us that Valjean’s gaze is penetrative, straight to the conscience. He’s not just looking at Thenardier, he’s reading Thenardier’s innermost morality and conscience and he knows what a slimeball this man is. Thenardier can’t out-maneuver Valjean because Valjean can read him and Thenardier can’t. It’s two trickster fae facing off, except Valjean has the stronger glamour and Thenardier can sense that but can’t really see through it.

It’s interesting that the material things scare Cosette, but Valjean doesn’t. She senses his role as savior and protector. It’s the material, physical change that is frightening. The world is huge and strange and expensive and she has no idea what her place is in it, really. And this is where Valjean and Cosette diverge: Valjean, poor into his adult years, expresses his love and affection etc through acts of monetary and material giving. He’s always been this way, since he acquired money as Madeleine. Cosette, since she grows up with bourgeoisie money, doesn’t care about the material and just wants Valjean’s love. I’m not sure if it’s that Valjean doesn’t quite understand the giving-versus-presence type of love, or if he is unable to give her the love she wants due to his own mental and emotional barriers.

I love Cosette so much! I love that she thinks with her tongue sticking out! I really really like to imagine that’s a quirk that remains as she grows up.

It’s strange that Mme Thenardier becomes slightly human as she loses Cosette, whereas Thenardier tries to seem human and only becomes more monstrous.

Full Circle moment! Cosette, this whole time, has been an echo of imprisoned Valjean. These moments of interaction in the forest and in barroom between herself and Valjean have been a parallel the earliest interactions between Valjean and Myriel: the awkward discussion in the forest parallels the awkward dinner discussion, the encouragement of playing parallels the offer of a comfortable bed. Now, as Valjean left prison hated and hating and then finds himself near God because of Myriel’s intervention, Cosette is leaving the Thenardier’s hated and hating, and finds herself feeling as though she is near God when she looks up at Valjean.

“Poor gentle thing, whose heart had been only and always crushed up until then.” And isn’t that a description that fits so many characters in this novel. The gentle ones have their hearts crushed for so long, and yet they are the strongest ones, who still survive and still manage to remain or return to being gentle.

[maybeitsapineapple]

LM 2.3.9

it's funny how valjean is like, trying to see if thénardier even knows cosette's name, and he does, when the musical makes such a point of him not knowing

"I break the thread that she has around her foot" wow projecting much. except that he’s also emphasising that he has power over her jailors, and that cosette’s situation is not as hopeless as his was

NEVER MIND MANOEUVRES ALWAYS GO AT THEM

"less happy than the least swallow of the heavens" feels like a reference to matthew (consider the birds of the heavens, something about them being provided for by god)

valjean is now "our man", as opposed to "the man". he has rejoined the ranks of the living!

[lmchaptertitlebracket]

II.iii.9 Thénardier À La Manœuvre

Thénardier Manœvering: Wilbour

Thénardier At Work: Wraxall, Beckwith

Thénardier and His Manœuvres: Hapgood

Thénardier Transacts Business: Denny

Thénardier Manuevering: FMA

Thenardier in Operation: Rose

Thénardier Up To His Tricks: Donougher

[pilferingapples]

Les Miserables 2.3.9

On a much less grimtastic note! This little bit cracks me up:

On waking up, Cosette had run to get her shoe. In it she had found the gold piece. It was not a Napoleon; it was one of those perfectly new twenty-franc pieces of the Restoration, on whose effigy the little Prussian queue had replaced the laurel wreath.

IT WAS NOT A NAPOLEON, because of course it wasn’t!XD

This is one of Hugo’s more subtle bits of Symbolic Politics, I think; Cosette is France, and so of course her liberation from the hypocritical, mercenary, battlefield-robbing Bonapartists starts  with the Restoration.  And Hugo has even gone out of his way to remind us they are  Bonapartists , with Mme. T using the idea of marrying King Louis the XVIII as A Horrible Thing that would still be better than the ultimate horror of Keeping Cosette-- which, keeping in mind that Cosette is France and So Can You, is a fantastic  burn on the particular kind of Bonapartists the Thenardiers represent.  They would sooner get in bed with monarchy, symbolically speaking, than care for their nation, the nation the people entrusted to them and they then abused and are now actively trying to sell out.  

And of course all of this is only Historical. Of course  it’s just about Napoleon the Great, and Louis the XVIII, as a sort of historical local color. It’s definitely  not any kind of commentary on the Napoleon who Hugo was at personal war with when he finished Les Mis.

I love it, I love it so much.