#Lm 5.9.5

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Round 2, Matchup 105: V.vii.2 vs V.ix.5

Propaganda from @zasnena-snovacka for V.ix.5 A Night Behind Which There Is Day: "there are two ways how to interpret this title (or at least two I noticed). Either the night symbolizes death and the day symbolizes the afterlife or, and perhaps more interestingly, the night symbolizes life, full of suffering and misery, and the day symbolizes the peaceful death, in which person leaves the flawed world of humans and enters the perfect world of God, which would also be on par with the rest of the book's themes. On top of that, it excellently epitomizes the main mesage of the book, combining its two major focus points - the problems of today and progress, leading to a brighter tomorrow. It shows that it is inevitable, like a literal law of nature, that the darkness will be followed by light, so even though it may currently be night, there is day behind it."

[cliozaur]

Upon arriving on Jersey, Hugo succumbed to a new fashionable craze from America—spiritist séances. He quickly learned how to communicate with long-dead spirits through the "turning table" and began asking questions to his “old friends”: Moses, Virgil, Dante, and Shakespeare. On one occasion, he summoned the Spirit of Civilization and asked what he should accomplish in the remaining years of his life. Blessed be the Spirit of Civilization! It commanded him to finish Les Misérables, which had been mostly abandoned for almost five years.

It’s surprising that, despite Hugo’s fascination with spirits, only one spirit of the dead is mentioned in Les Misérables: the bishop of Digne attending Valjean at his deathbed (5.9.5).

[gavroche-le-moineau]

I'm feeling SUPER NORMAL about Jean Valjean using the exact phrase Éponine does in the Original French Concept Album's version of her death scene: Ce n'est rien (translation: It's Nothing)

— Mourir ! s’écria Marius. — Oui, mais ce n’est rien, dit Jean Valjean. “To die!” exclaimed Marius. “Yes, but that is nothing,” said Jean Valjean.

— Ce n’est rien de mourir ; c’est affreux de ne pas vivre. “It is nothing to die; it is dreadful not to live.”

Some chosen lyrics from Ce n'est rien, which has the same tune as A Little Fall of Rain:

Ce n’est rien, Monsieur Marius / It's nothing, Monsieur Marius Ce n’est rien, non ce n’est rien / It's nothing, no, it's nothing qu’un peu de sang qui pleure / more than a little blood that cries

If you're interested in listening:

[breadvidence]

LM 5.9.5

@secretmellowblog keeps prompting folks to post their thoughts from the Discord on Tumblr, which I am not doing right now, but I am mimicking what I normally do on Discord, which is comment on particular lines as I read through the chapter—I'll see if I can maintain something like this through the 2025 cycle by copying over what I jabber about on the server. Quotes from the Hapgood, per the usual.

"'It is thou! thou art here! Thou dost pardon me then!'" — important insight for the conversation around whether Valjean's behavior in retreating from Cosette is all conciliation and resignation to Marius' authority or not. I want to believe what Valjean believes to be pardoned is his abandonment of his daughter, but combing back and forth over the scene—perhaps there's a hint in his acknowledgment that he's wounded her, Oh my Cosette, it is not my fault, indeed, that I have not seen thee all this time, it cut me to the heart—but he denies wrongdoing in the same breath, so—no, I think not. A pardon at last for what he has been expiating all these years with his mimicry of the nuns, I think, and I'd have to mull it over to come up with a succinct way to say what that is. Which is to say: as with his submission to the court at Arras, he agrees he committed the crime he has been charged with, there by the justice system and here by Marius standing in for the same.

"Cosette tore off her shawl and tossed her hat on the bed. 'It embarrasses me,' she said." -- Re-exerting her right to intimacy, to family. Crying.

My love of the One reckons without the good God speech comes with howling that it is addressed to Marius—as someone who loves Les Mis for the misery I am on fucking board for what this says about the dynamic between the men, and as someone invested in Cosette as a character I want the good God to bitchslap her papa and husband both for treating her as an child-icon-nonhuman in this moment.

But how much am I invested in the fact that Valjean was given one last moment to accuse God? Even if he pivots when he is granted grace in the form of Cosette, I think of "he had returned to prison, this time for having done right; he had quaffed fresh bitterness; disgust and lassitude were overpowering him" (2.4.3), of "[In Toulon] he condemned society, and felt that he was becoming wicked; he there condemned Providence, and was conscious that he was becoming impious." (1.2.7), that we never forget that this man defined by his gentleness can nonetheless by torment be rendered dangerous—in this case, to himself, I believe—and, bitterly but with love of the novel, I think there's a way in which he never completely escapes the "unhealthy perceptions of an incomplete nature and a crushed intelligence" (1.2.7), for all his intelligence and growth.

"I gave myself reasons: ‘They do not want you, keep in your own course, one has not the right to cling eternally." -- these aren't the reasons he gave for his confession or for his choice not to live at the Rue des Filles-du-Calvaire; I really don't think he planned to abandon Cosette entirely. Just, y'know, mostly.

"Dost thou know, Cosette, thy husband is very handsome?" -- aaand he's still doing that fucked-up thing where he believes Marius is the only acceptable topic of conversation with her. Goddamn.

"And Cosette began again: 'How wicked of you to have left us like that!" -- ;-; she tries again and again to assert her right to love, and here she is, shut out by Valjean again for not speaking what he expects.

"It is your own fault, too. You save people’s lives, and you conceal it from them! You do more, under the pretext of unmasking yourself, you calumniate yourself. It is frightful." -- Marius has insight into the true harm done by Valjean: and it has nothing to do with (failures of) justice and social shame, but with failures of love, of trust, of connection. A pitiful wrong. I'm reminded of Cosette's if I did not know how good you are, I should be afraid of you.

"You form a part of ourselves. You are her father, and mine." -- Broken clocks are right twice a day and so forth. Marius refutes the fault in thought that Valjean and Javert share: that such a thing exists as being outside of society and the human family.

"'To-morrow,' said Jean Valjean, 'I shall not be here, but I shall not be with you.'" -- OK do love when he's a sassy bitch tho.

"If you only knew, father, I have had a sorrow, there was a robin redbreast which had made her nest in a hole in the wall, and a horrible cat ate her." -- Cosette has changed tactics to the sort of speech that has won her attention in the past: pleasant, prattling, clever. This story of the robin, though. Do you know how the robin got its red breast? From plucking the thorns from Christ's brow; a little comfort in dying; this little bird who looks in at Cosette's window—I'm chewing on it, how it might symbolize those visits Valjean was making, some ill-defined in-between glass-separated contact for them. And what are cats a stand-in for? The bourgeoise, among others, in their latent state. But now nobody cries anymore—in any case, you only cry over the dead bird for so long, and Cosette represents the future.

"Oh! yes, forbid me to die. Who knows? Perhaps I shall obey. I was on the verge of dying when you came. That stopped me, it seemed to me that I was born again." -- someone give this man some soup, he loves to symbolically die but I think this time he's going a little too far, and it looks like he's game to try keeping on, eh?

"Even if you were to take possession of me, Monsieur Pontmercy, would that make me other than I am?" -- gay

"No, God has thought like you and myself, and he does not change his mind; it is useful for me to go. Death is a good arrangement. God knows better than we what we need. " -- Sir may I point out that you are presuming divine will in the same sentence as saying one shouldn't presume divine will. Goddamn. One of those examples, I think, of a character speaking against the spirit of the book, as a symbol of what's still broken in the world.

"Thou wilt weep for me a little, wilt thou not? Not too much. I do not wish thee to have any real griefs." -- And that's all he ever takes for himself without seeing it as meant for her, as well: a little weeping. I knew well that thou still felt friendly towards thy poor old man. In this speech he's finally speaking to her at length, acknowledging her feelings, their history together, and he touches briefly on a little shadow of his own worth, I think, in reflection of that.

"I had still other things to say, but never mind" -- Wow if only this death were somehow avoidable and you had more time to impart wisdom and love on your children.

"His white face looked up to heaven, he allowed Cosette and Marius to cover his hands with kisses." -- dead, with God, he allows them finally to demonstrate their connection to him, and can't resist it.

"The night was starless and extremely dark. No doubt, in the gloom, some immense angel stood erect with wings outspread, awaiting that soul." -- F

[the-wraxall-illustrations]

[spinosacha]

Jean Valjean, you really were the man ever. I’m sorry that society failed you, i’m sorry you felt you deserved it. Your death was too soon, i hope you at least get to find some peace in death. You are gone but not forgotten.

[nickywrites]

Jean Valjean in Les Misérables 5.9.5/The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry/Saturn, by Sleeping At Last

[dolphin1812]

Valjean’s joy and confusion is so sweet and so sad. His rambling speech is clearly that of a misérable as he dies, but he’s also just so disoriented in a way that he hasn’t been since the bishop at the beginning of the book? It’s like he once again grew so unaccustomed to kindness that he struggles to process it even as a gift from God.

He sees it as a “pardon,” too, framing Cosette and Marius’ presence as a legal decision for a criminal.

For once, thanks to Marius for pointing out that “embarrassment” is a very strange reason for withholding important information!

The bishop being present is so moving!!

At least he tells Cosette her mother’s name? His silence on his past and hers remains frustrating, but learning about her happier parts of childhood – like how she would put cherries behind her ears – is cute.

His death is still so tragic, as it feels so preventable. The angel imagery calls to mind Fantine, who similarly died of despair even more than of disease.

[saints-and-poets-maybe]

i spent all of two seconds thinking about making the musical finale closer to the brick and. my hand may have slipped, so.

Valjean's Confession, revised edition:

"I am the very model of a tortured lonely French ex-con, Who ran a fact'ry making glass (til I got outed by my brawn). White jet's from Norway, and the black is sourcèd from the British Isles The secret's here on paper, which will help Cosette to live in style—"

Jean Valjean you are literally dying why are we talking about manufacturing

[everyonewasabird]

Brickclub 5.9.5 “Night Behind Which is Dawn”

How has anyone ever written this chapter up. I’m just sitting here crying. What the hell. How am I supposed to write this.

I don’t have any kind of essay here, because HOW.

Some points I noticed:

- This is of course the fixit for Georges’s and Fantine’s deaths: Marius and Cosette didn’t make it to the deathbeds of their other parents, but they made it to this one. It’s devastating, but it’s also the resolution to the worse tragedies in this book.

- At the same time, Valjean and Marius’s flaws are still very much present: Marius is berating himself for being an ingrate and focusing on his personal debts. Valjean still argues at points that he doesn’t deserve to live with them, and one of his last acts is to take down the crucifix from the wall and focus on Jesus’s martyrdom. I’m not Christian, so I know that’s weirder to me than it is if you’re Christian.... but I do think the unhealthiness of Valjean’s focus on martyrdom instead of anything else about his faith is a particular characteristic of his.

- Valjean is also very focused on the money and making sure Cosette gets it--which isn’t a flaw, but it feels very, very informed by his history of poverty, as does the amount of time he spends on his deathbed defending the provenance of that money.

- The portress is there. I’m so glad.<3

- Valjean’s dialogue to Cosette when he first sees her, oh my god. He does things like

Cosette ! elle ! vous, madame ! c’est toi ! Ah mon Dieu !

Mercifully, his next sentence switches fully to tu.

Devastatingly, that sentence is:

"It is you, Cosette? You are here? You forgive me then !"

Just. The idea that he’s been waiting all this time to be forgiven by her. It makes perfect sense--emotionally, not so much rationally--but also my heart is broken.

- Marius, when he isn’t stuck in his ingrate nonsense, says a few smart things: he admonishes Valjean for how No, in fact, spinning the story to make himself look Worse was not truth-telling, it was slander, and “truth” means the whole truth.

- Which is fodder for my secret not-at-all-thought-out not-quite-headcanon that in-world Marius is the author of this book.

- He also hits upon the symbolic Ecce Homo thing, saying “There is the man,” (”Voilà l’homme”) which is the same Jesus reference Valjean’s name is echoing. “There is the man”also came up explicitly in the text during the Champmathieu trial.

- Maybe unfair, but I feel like the description of Cosette

Cosette, who had only a very confused understanding of all this, redoubled her caresses, as if she wanted to pay Marius's debt.

is kinda-almost poking fun at her ignorance instead of honoring how well she’s rocking the absolutely impossible situation she’s in? She has got to have SO MANY QUESTIONS, and she’s clearly devastated, but she’s bringing the sweetness and cheer that her papa needs her to be right now, in keeping with what their relationship has been for a  long time. She’s doing what the situation needs, in spite of all of this making zero sense or less, and I’ve still heard people (maybe taking a cue from Hugo) calling her shallow for talking about birds and gardens.

She’s incredible, and this is awful, and it’s so awful that there’s no evidence of any later reckoning where she finds out anything more.

- Valjean identifies himself with night several times here--which fits with what we saw after he got out of the sewer, too. The chapter title explains that this is not a bad thing in his case.

- I’ve obviously read it all before, I wasn’t sure it would get me... but it did.

It’s so SAD. :(

[marjorierose]

Et plus de madame, et plus de monsieur Jean, nous sommes en république, tout le monde se dit tu, n'est-ce pas, Marius? Le programme est changé.

(we are in a republic, everyone calls each other tu...the program has changed)

I maybe should have expected to have this many feelings about reaching the end of this novel but I still feel blindsided

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Round 1, Matchup 209: V.ix.5 vs V.ix.6

Propaganda from @zasnena-snovacka for V.ix.5:

A Night Behind Which There Is Day - there are two ways how to interpret this title (or at least two I noticed). Either the night sybolizes death and the day symbolizes the afterlife or, and perhaps more intrestingly, the night symbolizes life, full of suffering and misery, and the day symbolizes the peaceful death, in which person leaves the flawed world of humans and enters the perfect world of God, which would also be on par with the rest of the book's themes. On top of that, it excelently epotomizes the main mesagge of the book, combining its two major focus points - the problems of today and progress, leading to a brighter tomorrow. It shows that it is inevitable, like a literal law of nature, that the darkness will be followed by light, so even though it may currently be night, there is day behind it.

[cliozaur]

This is Hugo’s version of a happy ending: Valjean’s death perfectly illustrates ars moriendi, a peaceful departure with loved ones gathered, bidding farewell and contemplating God and infinity. Yet, this doesn't diminish the emotional pain of reading it, especially with the hope lingering for a reunion with Cosette and a quiet life, making this chapter hard to read with dry eyes.

Despite the overwhelming sadness, it has some parts that are amusing, and some that are adorable. I find it amusing how Valjean praises Marius for his beauty and taste in women’s clothing: “Dost thou know, Cosette, thy husband is very handsome? Ah! what a pretty embroidered collar thou hast on, luckily. I am fond of that pattern. It was thy husband who chose it, was it not?” And this time Valjean claims he is sincere. Valjean’s long monologue contains some of the most adorable memories of young Cosette: making Valjean laugh, throwing straw on the gutter during the rain and watching it flow, playing with a bright shuttlecock, and my favourite: wearing cherries on her ears (I need someone to draw Cosette with those cherries!)

It’s heartening that Valjean paid respect to Bishop Myriel and Fantine. At least Cosette knows the name of her mother and something about her martyrdom. Towards the end, Valjean was willing to talk. And it amazes me how concerned he was about Cosette’s material well-being and her reliance on her dowry. Valjean (and Hugo) seems to believe that money can eventually solve all the Misérables’ problems. That’s a strange conclusion.

Another peculiar aspect of this chapter is the trivialization of the notion of Republic, as Cosette, referring to her household, says, “we are living under a Republic, everybody says thou, don’t they, Marius?” A triumph of the Republic in an isolated household—I wouldn’t call it a satisfying result.

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Hello, I would like to submit propaganda for some chapter titles.

Adventures of the Letter "U" Left To Conjectures - perfect way to describe exactly what's happening in the chapter without actually giving anything away. It immediately entices the reader by promising something exiting through using the word "adventure" and leaves room for speculation (Why U? What are the adventures? What conjectures will be made and why?), making the reader eager for answers.

Return of the Son Prodigal to His Life - a nice subversion of the original parable. Wasting one's life is much more drastic than just wasting money and yet the son himself is not morally condemned by the word. It instead highlights the tragedy of having died in vain, making the sacrifice and the life itself wasted. As opposed to selfishness, he and others who faught at the barricades were motivated by selflessness, reverse of the original prodigal son and it was actually the fact that he had so little regard for himself and his life that made him prodigal. The father and son also switch roles with Gillenormand being the one who had to learn a lesson and change. In addition, the famous "for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again" fits Marius during this and the following scenes pretty well. Through this, it foreshadows that Marius survived. The comparison to the parable also suggests how Gillenormand will react to his return, forgeting all past grudges and just being eternally grateful, and accentuates the depth of their relationship. And now the most interesting thing, which I only noticed while writing this and checking the chapter again, it ends with Jean Valjean also returning home. Could it be hinting at the ending, where Jean Valjean also might be descibed as "prodigal to his life"?

A Night Behind Which There Is Day - there are two ways how to interpret this title (or at least two I noticed). Either the night sybolizes death and the day symbolizes the afterlife or, and perhaps more intrestingly, the night symbolizes life, full of suffering and misery, and the day symbolizes the peaceful death, in which person leaves the flawed world of humans and enters the perfect world of God, which would also be on par with the rest of the book's themes. On top of that, it excelently epotomizes the main mesagge of the book, combining its two major focus points - the problems of today and progress, leading to a brighter tomorrow. It shows that it is inevitable, like a literal law of nature, that the darkness will be followed by light, so even though it may currently be night, there is day behind it.

I hope this makes sense. Also, thank you for organizing this contest. It's so much fun and you deserve tons of appreciation for all the effort that must have gone into it.

Added! Thanks for these great submissions!

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V.ix.5 Nuit derrière laquelle il y a le jour

Night Behind Which Is Dawn: Wilbour, FMA

A Night Behind Which Is Day: Wraxall

A Night Behind Which There Is Day: Hapgood, Gray

Night With Day to Follow: Denny

Night with Day Behind It: Rose

From Darkness Into Light: Donougher