#baptistine

[pureanonofficial]

LES MIS LETTERS IN ADAPTATION - Prudence Counselled to Wisdom, LM 1.2.2 (Les Miserables 1935)

“We say that this house is not safe at all; that if Monseigneur will permit, I will go and tell Paulin Musebois, the locksmith, to come and replace the ancient locks on the doors; we have them, and it is only the work of a moment; for I say that nothing is more terrible than a door which can be opened from the outside with a latch by the first passer-by; and I say that we need bolts, Monseigneur, if only for this night; moreover, Monseigneur has the habit of always saying ‘come in’; and besides, even in the middle of the night, O mon Dieu! there is no need to ask permission.” At that moment there came a tolerably violent knock on the door. “Come in,” said the Bishop.

[lesmisscraper]

The Bishop's Invitation. Volume 1, Book 2, Chapter 3.

Clips from <Il cuore di Cosette>.

[ueinra]

Les Misérables, French Comic by Houy Raymond (1953)

I love how the women look in this comic so much.

[pilferingapples]

LM 1.2.2: Baptistine and Magloire's fashions

 madame Magloire avait l'air d'une paysanne et mademoiselle Baptistine d'une dame

Madame Magloire had the air of a peasant, and Mademoiselle Baptistine that of a lady

..I'm realizing that I get completely difference vibes off "dame" and "lady", but that's down to a century of linguistic drift and it's not Hugo or Hapgood's fault.

Dresses!!

 Madame Magloire avait un bonnet blanc à tuyaux, au cou une jeannette d'or, le seul bijou de femme qu'il y eût dans la maison, un fichu très blanc sortant de la robe de bure noire à manches larges et courtes, un tablier de toile de coton à carreaux rouges et verts, noué à la ceinture d'un ruban vert, avec pièce d'estomac pareille rattachée par deux épingles aux deux coins d'en haut, aux pieds de gros souliers et des bas jaunes comme les femmes de Marseille. Madame Magloire wore a white quilted cap, a gold Jeannette cross on a velvet ribbon upon her neck, the only bit of feminine jewelry that there was in the house, a very white fichu puffing out from a gown of coarse black woollen stuff, with large, short sleeves, an apron of cotton cloth in red and green checks, knotted round the waist with a green ribbon, with a stomacher of the same attached by two pins at the upper corners, coarse shoes on her feet, and yellow stockings, like the women of Marseilles.

I can picture this perfectly, and it sounds like a fun, colorful outfit . And comfortable!

And then there's Baptistine's outfit:

La robe de mademoiselle Baptistine était coupée sur les patrons de 1806, taille courte, fourreau étroit, manches à épaulettes, avec pattes et boutons. Elle cachait ses cheveux gris sous une perruque frisée dite à l'enfant. Hapgood: Mademoiselle Baptistine’s gown was cut on the patterns of 1806, with a short waist, a narrow, sheath-like skirt, puffed sleeves, with flaps and buttons. She concealed her gray hair under a frizzed wig known as the baby wig.

This is an interesting combo! Her 1806 dress sounds like it was very fashionable for its day ( and though obviously that was 9 years ago, it wouldn't be too far from the fashionable silhouette in 1815)

Here's a lovely 1809 gown (arguably puce, even! ) from Victoria and Albert museum

the hair, though? The wig a l'enfant was a style made popular by Marie Antoinette; I'm not sure how many older women would still have been wearing it , but it's a distance away from the then-stylish neoclassical curls that would have been in style with an 1809 dress!

Here's a reenactment l'enfant wig, from Jennylafleur:

It would be quite a distinct combo, I think!

[dolphin1812]

I was struck by two aspects of this chapter: the politics, and the expectations on the women around the bishop:

On politics:

Already, it’s interesting (though not surprising) to note that Mlle Baptistine is corresponding with a noblewoman. She is a childhood friend, so that accounts for how they know each other. However, the fact that Baptistine and Myriel mention her every day, still corresponds with her, and assert their royalist beliefs in the letter says a lot about how even though their lifestyle has changed, their affiliation with the nobility is much murkier. Yes, Myriel has mocked upper-class people before and has sacrificed the trappings of that lifestyle. But he’s definitely not advocating for wholesale change (as a royalist) and they maintain ties with people from their old life (which is understandable, since cutting off everyone from their childhood after already losing lots of connections during the Revolution would be grueling, but also shows some sense of a remaining tie to that class). And Baptistine herself is another story, as she’s given up that life because of her brother. Although we’re told she’s content, she also alludes to discomfort with their life when she mentions that their lodgings are “cramped” and that they are only “almost” comfortable. Although she emphasizes the importance of charity, she could very well miss their old lifestyle with all its material comforts.

On Mlle Baptistine and Mme Magloire:

“the manner in which those two sainted women subordinated their actions, their thoughts, their feminine instincts even, which are easily alarmed, to the habits and purposes of the Bishop, without his even taking the trouble of speaking in order to explain them”

This, frankly, seems cruel. I could understand if the bishop convinced them to acquiesce to his lifestyle and there was simply some resistance/displeasure when it was particularly rough or scary (like when Magloire struggles with the budget or he puts himself in danger), but without even explaining anything to them?

The reference to their “special feminine genius” just made me uncomfortable.

“They served him passively; and if obedience consisted in disappearing, they disappeared.”

This, combined with the description of them being shadows, was honestly disturbing, as it feels as though they’ve sacrificed their personhood (or rather, been made to sacrifice it) because of the bishop’s wishes. The verb “serve” is also telling. The bishop exists to “serve” his community, but he relies on the efforts of these two women to be able to do so, and while he does serve them spiritually as well, he is not as charitable to them as he is to those in the village.

[psalm22-6]

The Queensland Times, 7 July 1928

[queen-of-spoilers-zvonchy]

Madmoseille Baptistine: I would love to have some furniture in the house! Velvet stamped with a rose pattern, and some with mahogany in swan's neck style! Maybe even a sofa!

Also Baptistine: But I LIVE ON 42 FRANCS AND ONLY HAVE 11 CHAIRS! 😤😤😮‍💨😮‍💨 Who is there who has attained his ideal? 😔😔😞

[undead-nothosaur]

I dont know whats wrong with me, this bastard has all of eight lines in the whole show AND YET

Baptistin is everything to me, seeing this snarky bastard holding a bag of groceries made me believe in God again and i can't even tell you why... Also watch Gankutsuou its honestly so good and only 24 episodes

(for the record Bertuccio could also get it but unfortunately Baptistin had the funnier lines and that was enough to sway me)

[gavroche-le-moineau]

I already missed a translation note by a day on day 3 of Les Mis Letters oop

I have a problem with Hapgood's translation of this line in the description of Mademoiselle Baptistine: “...large eyes forever drooping;—a mere pretext for a soul’s remaining on the earth.” In French: “...de grands yeux toujours baissés ; un prétexte pour qu’une âme reste sur la terre.”

The word "drooping" here doesn't seem quite right. I'm following along this year with the FMA translation and it does a much better job with: "...large eyes, always downcast, a pretext for a soul to remain on earth."

The phrase "des yeux baissés" as it appears in the French means "lowered/downcast eyes." I kind of understand what Hapgood means with "forever drooping" but it just sounds to me like Mlle Baptistine is always nodding off or that she has a droopy-eyed look, neither of which are right.

[the-wraxall-illustrations]

[secretmellowblog]

I feel like the scene where Valjean has dinner with Bishop Myriel and his sister has so many echoes of Valjean’s broken relationship with his own sister? It's like Myriel and Baptistine are who Valjean and Jeanne might have been, if they’d had wealth and privilege.

Both Myriel and Valjean’s families were scattered— the Myriels by the French Revolution, the Valjeans by illness/poverty. But after everything fell apart the brother and sister stuck together. They took care of each other. They stayed by each other even in the midst of poverty (although yeah it is important to note that the Myriel household’s poverty is voluntary, and is extremely different from the actual poverty of the Valjean household.) 

  It feels like a commentary on the way the revolutions/Napoleonic wars/upheaval of the past decades affected different classes very differently. You have the Myriel family representing the trauma of the aristocrats, and then the Valjean family representing the trauma of the peasants. 

Both Valjean and Myriel were also in a situation where they lost contact with their family for a while and had to survive by laboring– Valjean during his imprisonment, Myriel during the Revolution. Valjean's family was broken in 1795, Myriel's in 1793.  “Our family was ruined….In ‘93 one had no relatives,” Myriel says to Valjean about his experience. “One had only one’s arms.” He’s trying to reach out to Valjean by implying that he understands something of what he's going through— that the pain aristocrats like him experienced during the revolution has something in common with the pain that peasants like Valjean have experienced as a result of poverty. Myriel’s also been separated from his family, he’s also been exiled from the places where he used to live, and he’s also been forced to labor in order to survive. And If he survived it then there’s hope for Valjean too. 

But because Myriel is an aristocrat and Valjean is a peasant, Myriel’s situation was and is radically different, less painful, and less dire. And Myriel seems to understand that, but it’s still… well, it’s still a thing!  I don’t think Myriel is doing anything “wrong” here, but there are clearly limits to how much he actually understands. He talks about how he had “no relatives” during the Revolution, but a moment before he was talking with his sister about their many many relatives. He talks about laboring and having nothing but his arms— but he’s never been in the galleys; has he really experienced that? Like yes, Myriel’s family has been through terrible trauma. Myriel’s wife died in exile, for reasons we never learn, and his family was scattered/broken in a way that utterly changed him as a person.  But he doesn’t know what it actually means to lose everyone. He doesn’t know what it means to lose everything. Myriel might have felt like he did at one point, but he doesn’t. 

Because Myriel’s sister is still here.

1.2.4 is written from Baptistine’s point of view. She happily describes her brother to one of her friends, and seems content to be living with him. 

But Valjean’s sister is gone. She might be dead, or might as well be dead— he will never see her again. 

I don’t think Myriel is doing anything wrong here at all. He’s being a perfect kind host. He’s doing all he can to help Valjean without being condescending or preachy. He’s talking to him as a friend, and trying to help Valjean talk about his own past without shame by revealing some of the struggles he’s been through. But at the same time…when Valjean says he has nothing, it doesn’t mean “he’s lost a lot” it means he has nothing. When Valjean says he has no family, it doesn’t mean “he has some distant cousins he rarely talks to” it means that literally everyone he has ever loved is dead or gone forever.  

Myriel’s aristocratic family may have lost a lot in the Revolution, but it's not even comparable to what Valjean’s family has lost as a result of poverty and prison. 

Myriel’s original plan was to give Valjean a good night’s sleep and breakfast, then send him on his way to Pontarlier and hope he’ll get hired to work with the cheesemakers there. And that was a great plan! It was probably the best thing he could do in that situation. But like…would the people of Pontarlier have been any less bigoted towards Valjean than the people of Digne? Valjean probably doesn’t have hope that will happen. Again, I think Myriel was doing everything “right”-- it’s just that he’s only one person and doing everything he could might not have been enough. It’s like that earlier scene where the Bishop helped the man who was on Death Row. The Bishop thinks the Death Penalty is a moral evil, but he doesn’t have the power to get rid of it or even the power to rescue someone from it. He does all that he can to help the man on death row, by comforting him…. but it isn’t enough. And Myriel's aware that it isn't enough, that there are limits to how much he can help.

 In 1.2.4 Baptistine praises her brother for treating Valjean as an equal. At the same time, in her own narration, she portrays Valjean in the same pitying kinda-condescending way that she praises her brother for avoiding. 

Valjean spent nineteen years in prison because he was trying to help his sister and his sister’s children.

Myriel calls Valjean his “brother.” Myriel’s sister seems amazed that Myriel treats Valjean as his equal; it’s as if she doesn’t think that anyone could have ever genuinely treated Valjean as their brother.

[pureanonofficial]

LES MIS LETTERS IN ADAPTATION - A Restriction, LM 1.1.11 (Los Miserables 1971)

The fact is that he displeased them. Among other strange things, it is said that he chanced to remark one evening, when he found himself at the house of one of his most notable colleagues: “What beautiful clocks! What beautiful carpets! What beautiful liveries! They must be a great trouble. I would not have all those superfluities, crying incessantly in my ears: ‘There are people who are hungry! There are people who are cold! There are poor people! There are poor people!’” Let us remark, by the way, that the hatred of luxury is not an intelligent hatred. This hatred would involve the hatred of the arts. Nevertheless, in churchmen, luxury is wrong, except in connection with representations and ceremonies. It seems to reveal habits which have very little that is charitable about them. An opulent priest is a contradiction. The priest must keep close to the poor. Now, can one come in contact incessantly night and day with all this distress, all these misfortunes, and this poverty, without having about one’s own person a little of that misery, like the dust of labor? Is it possible to imagine a man near a brazier who is not warm? Can one imagine a workman who is working near a furnace, and who has neither a singed hair, nor blackened nails, nor a drop of sweat, nor a speck of ashes on his face? The first proof of charity in the priest, in the bishop especially, is poverty. This is, no doubt, what the Bishop of D—— thought.

[ofpd]

people love femslash exr but i've never found an eposette fic that gets at the specific idea of them in my head... says a lot about society

[ueinra]

Les Misérables | The Bishop Welcoming Valjean In His Home (Illustrated by Monique Berthoumeyrou, 1963)

[lenievi]

a lot of things just come down to this Spock's comment: I've noticed that about your people, Doctor. You find it easier to understand the death of one than the death of a million.

even Bishop Myriel

[dolphin1812]

I really hope that Mme Magloire and Mlle Baptistine sleep as peacefully as the bishop does, because after being robbed, I don’t think they deserve the scare of waking up at three in the morning just to realize the man who stole from them is right outside their door.