#conventionist g

[thepigeonsfanart]

I want to believe that the conventionist G. from les mis is Gauvain from ninety three in some kind of alternative universe. Does it make any sense? Absolutely not. But i am allowed to dream.

[pilferingapples]

in the first part of les mis, in the book, the bishop visits a conventionist and hugo tells us that he's basically been living in exile because everyone hates him. why? did the political atmosphere in this tiny random town change so much that even the townsfolk hated him? i don't understand. did people really want the ancien regime back?

Hello!

Warning: this answer is going to vastly, vastly oversimplify everything about the political climate of late 18/early 19C France, or we'd be here all day.

So here's the thing: support for the Republic was never universal, or even remotely universal, even at the peak of the French Revolution. There was pretty much a civil war going on about it for years! A lot of people were sincerely and , as they saw it, devoutly loyal to the Ancien Regime. Being royalist tended to go along with being very Catholic--for many people, there was still a sense that the king had been chosen by god--and the Revolution, to those people , was a violent blasphemy that brought war and unrest to the country and destroyed the True government.

Given how people in Digne feel about their church and their Bishop, and how they treat people who are openly Bonapartist, it seems like they've always been a royalist town. (Napoleon was noooot exactly carrying on the ideals of the republic, but plenty of people saw them as the same thing) .

So this isn't a shift in attitude, it's just how a lot of places were. If there'd been no support for the monarchy, the Allies would have had a much harder time putting a king back in charge of France. Lots of people wanted the monarchy! as to why...whoo boy that is WAY too long to do justice to here. But yeah! This is very much how a lot of people did continue to see the revolutionaries--even when LM was published, many people were very angry about the Bishop kneeling to G, because they considered him an evil murdering usurper--but those critics are @psalm22-6's research XD

[secretmellowblog]

Les Mis French History Timeline: all the context you need to know to understand Les Mis

Here is a simple timeline of French history as it relates to events in Les Miserables, and to the context of Les Mis's publication! A post like this would’ve really helped me four years ago, when I knew very little about 1830s France or the goals of Les Amis, so I’m making it now that I have the information to share! ^_^

This post will be split into 4 sections: a quick overview of important terms, the history before the novel that’s important to the character's backstories, the history during the novel, and then the history relevant to the 1848-onward circumstances of Hugo’s life and the novel’s publication. 

Part 1: Overview 

The novel takes place in the aftermath of the Battle of Waterloo, during a period called the Restoration. 

The ancient monarchy was overthrown during the French Revolution. After a series of political struggles the revolutionary government was eventually replaced by an empire under Napoleon. Then Napoleon was defeated and sent into exile— but then he briefly came back and seized power for one hundred days—! and then he was defeated yet again for good at the battle of Waterloo in 1815.

After all that political turmoil, kings have been "restored" to the throne of France. The novel begins right as this Restoration begins.

The major political parties important to generally understanding Les Mis (Wildly Oversimplified) are Republicans, Liberals, Bonapartists, and Royalists. It’s worth noting that all these ‘party terms’ changed in meaning/goals over time depending on which type of government was in power. In general though, and just for the sake of reading Les Mis:

 Republicans want a Republic, where people elect their leaders democratically— they’re the very left wing progressive ones, and are heavily outcast/censored/policed. Les Amis are Republicans.

Liberals: we don’t have time to go into it, but I don’t think there are any characters in Les Mis defined by their liberalism.

Bonapartists are followers of Napoleon Bonaparte I, who led the Empire. Many viewed the Emperor as more favorable or progressive to them than a king would be. Georges Pontmercy is a Bonapartist, as is Pere Fauchelevent. 

Royalists believe in the divine right of Kings; they’re conservative. Someone who is extremely royalist to the point of wanting basically no limits on the king’s power at all are called “Ultraroyalists” or “ultra.” Marius’s conservative grandfather Gillenromand is an ultra royalist.  Hugo is also very concerned with criticizing the "Great Man of History," the view that history is pushed forward by the actions of a handful of special great men like kings and emperors. Les Mis aims to focus on the common masses of people who push history forward instead.

Part 2: Timeline of History involved in characters’ Backstories

1789– the March on the bastille/ the beginning of the original French Revolution. A young Myriel, who is then a shallow married aristocrat, flees the country. His family is badly hurt by the Revolution. His wife dies in exile.

1793– Louis XVI is found guilty of committing treason and sentenced to death. The Conventionist G—, the old revolutionary who Myriel talks to, votes against the death of the king. 

1795:  the Directory rules France. Throughout much of the revolution, including this period, the country is undergoing “dechristianization” policies. Fantine is born at this time. Because the church is not in power as a result of dechristianization, Fantine is unbaptized and has no record of a legal given name, instead going by the nickname Fantine (“enfantine,” childlike.)

1795: The Revolutionary government becomes more conservative. Jean Valjean is arrested. 

1804: Napoleon officially crowns himself Emperor of France. the Revolution’s dream of a Republic is dead for a bit.  At this time, Myriel returns from his exile and settles down in the provinces of France to work as a humble priest. Then he visits Paris and makes a snarky comment to Napoleon, and Napoleon finds him so witty that he appoints him Bishop.

Part 3: the novel actually begins 

1815: Napoleon is defeated at the Battle of Waterloo by the allied nations of Britain and Prussia. Read Hugo’s take on that in the Waterloo Digression! He gets a lot of facts wrong, but that’s Hugo for you.

Marius’s father, Baron Pontmercy, nearly dies on the battlefield. Thenardier steals his belongings. 

After Napoleon is defeated, a king is restored to the throne— Louis XVIII, of the House of Bourbon, the ancient royal house that ruled France before the Revolution. In order to ensure that Louis XVIII stays on the throne, the nations of Britian, Prussia, and Russia, send soldiers occupy France. So France is, during the early events of the novel, being occupied by foreign soldiers. This is part of why there are so many references to soldiers on the streets and garrisons and barracks throughout the early portions of the novel. The occupation officially ended in 1818.

1815 (a few months after Waterloo): Jean Valjean is released from prison and walks down the road to Digne, the very same road Napoleon charged down during his last attempt to seize power. Many of the inns he passes by are run by people advertising their connections to Napoleon. Symbolically Valjean is the poor man returning from exile into France, just as Napoleon was the Great Man briefly returning from exile during the 100 days, or King Louis XVIII is the Great King returning from exile to a restored throne.

  1817: The Year 1817, which Hugo has a whole chapter-digression about. Louis XVIII  of the House of Bourbon is on the throne. Fantine, “the nameless child of the Directory,”  is abandoned by Tholomyes. 

1821: Napoleon dies in exile. 

1825:  King Louis XVIII dies. Charles X takes the throne. While Louis XVIII was willing to compromise, Charles X is a far more conservative ultra-royalist. He attempts to bring back something like the Pre-Revolution style of monarchy. 

Underground resistance groups, including Republican groups like Les Amis, plot against him.  

1827-1828: Georges Pontmercy, bonapartist veteran of Waterloo, dies. Marius, who has been growing up with his abusive Ultra-royalist grandfather and mindlessly repeating his ultra-royalist politics, learns how much his father loved him. He becomes a democratic Bonapartist. 

Marius is a little bit late to everything though. He shouts “long live the Emperor!” Even though Napoleon died in 1821 and insults his grandfather by telling him “down with that hog Louis XVIII” even though Louis XVIII has been dead since 1825. He’s a little confused but he’s got the spirit. 

Marius leaves his grandfather to live on his own. 

1830: “The July Revolution,” also known as the “Three Glorious Days” or  “the Second French Revolution.” Rebels built barricades and successfully forced Charles X out of power.

Unfortunately, TL;DR moderate politicians prevented the creation of a Republic and instead installed another more politically progressive king — Louis-Philippe, of the house of Orleans. 

Louis-Philippe was a relative of the royal family, had lived  in poverty for a time, and described himself as “the citizen-king.” Hugo’s take on him is that he was a good man, but being a king is inherently evil; monarchy is a bad system even if a “good” dictator is on the throne.

The shadow of 1830 is important to Les Mis, and there’s even a whole digression about it in “A Few Pages of History,” a digression most people adapting the novel have clearly skipped. Les Amis would’ve probably been involved in it....though interestingly, only Gavroche and maybe Enjolras are explicitly confirmed to have been there, Gavroche telling Enjolras he participated “when we had that dispute with Charles X.”

Sadly we're following Marius (not Les Amis) in 1830. Hugo mentions that Marius is always too busy thinking to actually participate in political movements. He notes that Marius was pleased by 1830 because he thinks it is a sign of progress, but that he was too dreamy to be involved in it. 

1831: in “A Few Pages of History” Hugo describes the various ways Republican groups were plotting what what would later become the June Rebellion– the way resistance groups had underground meetings, spread propaganda with pamphlets, smuggled in gunpowder, etc. 

Spring of 1832: there is a massive pandemic of cholera in Paris that exacerbates existing tensions. Marius is described as too distracted by love to notice all the people dying of cholera. 

June 1st, 1832: General Lamarque, a member of parliament often critical of the monarchy, dies of cholera. 

June 5th and 6th, 1832: the June Rebellion of 1832:

Republicans, students, and workers attempt to overthrow the monarchy, and finally get a democratic Republic For Real This Time. The rebellion is violently crushed by the National Guard.

Enjolras was partially inspired by Charles Jeanne, who led the barricades at Saint-Merry. 

Part 4: the context of Les Mis’s publication 

February 1848: a successful revolution finally overthrows King Louis Philippe. A younger Victor Hugo, who was appointed a peer of France by Louis-Philippe, is then elected as a representative of Paris in the provisional revolutionary government.

June 1848: This is a lot, and it’s a thing even Hugo’s biographers often gloss over, because it’s a horrific moral failure/complexity of Hugo’s that is completely at odds with the sort of politics he later became known for. The short summary is that in June 1848 there was a working-class rebellion against new labor laws/forced conscription, and Victor Hugo was on the “wrong side of the barricades” working with the government to violently suppress the rebels. To quote from this source:

Much to the disappointment of his supporters, in [Victor Hugo’s] first speech in the national assembly he went after the ateliers or national workshops, which had been a major demand of the workers. Two days later the workshops were closed, workers under twenty-five were conscripted and the rest sent to the countryside. It was a “political purge” and a declaration of war on the Parisian working class that set into motion the June Days, or the second revolution of 1848—an uprising lauded by Marx as one of the first workers’ revolutions. As the barricades went up in Paris, Hugo was tragically on the wrong side. On June 24 the national assembly declared a state of siege with Hugo’s support. Hugo would then sink to a new political low. He was chosen as one of sixty representatives “to go and inform the insurgents that a state of siege existed and that Cavaignac [the officer who had led the suppression of the June revolt] was in control.” With an express mission “to stop the spilling of blood,” Hugo took up arms against the workers of Paris. Thus, Hugo, voice of the voiceless and hero of workers, helped to violently suppress a rebellion led by people whom he in many ways supported—and many of whom supported him. With twisted logic and an even more twisted conscience, Hugo fought and risked his life to crush the June insurrection.

There is an otherwise baffling chapter in Les Mis titled "The Charybdis of the Faubourg Saint Antoine and the Scylla of the Fauborg Du Temple," where Hugo goes on a digression about June of 1848. Hugo contrasts June of 1848 with other rebellions, and insists that the June 1848 Rebellion was Wrong and Different. It is a strangely anti-rebellion classist chapter that feels discordant with the rest of the book. This is because it is Hugo's effort to (indirectly) address criticisms people had of his own involvement in June 1848, and to justify why he believed crushing that rebellion with so much force was necessary. The chapter is often misused to say that Hugo was "anti-violent-rebellion all the time" (which he wasn't) or that "rebellion is bad” is the message of Les Mis (which it isn't) ........but in reality the chapter is about Hugo attempting to justify his own past actions to the reader and to himself, actions which many people on his side of the political spectrum considered a betrayal. He couldn't really have written a novel about the politics of barricades without addressing his actions in June 1848, and he addressed them by attempting to justify them, and he attempted to justify them with a lot of deeply questionable rhetoric. 1848 is a lot, and I don't fully understand all the context yet-- but that general context is necessary to understand why the chapter is even in the novel. Late 1848/1849: Quoting from the earlier source again:

In the wake of the revolution, Hugo tried to make sense of the events of 1848. He tried to straddle the growing polarization between, on the one hand, “the party of order,” which coalesced around Napoleon’s nephew Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, who in December 1848 had been elected France’s president under a new constitution, and the “party of movement” (or radical Left) that, in the aftermath of 1848, had made considerable advances. In this climate, as Hugo increasingly spoke out, and faced opposition and repression himself, he was radicalized and turned to the Left for support against the tyranny and “barbarism” he saw in the government of Louis Napoleon. The “point of no return” came in 1849. Hugo became one of the loudest and most prominent voices of opposition to Louis Napoleon. In his final and most famous insult to Napoleon, he asked: “Just because we had Napoleon le Grand [Napoleon the Great], do we have to have Napoleon le petit [Napoleon the small]?” Immune from punishment because of his role in the government, Bonaparte retaliated by shutting down Hugo’s newspaper and arresting both his sons.

Thenardier is possibly meant to be Hugo’s caricature of Louis-Napoleon/Napoleon III. He is “Napoleon the small,” an opportunistic scumbag leeching off the legacy of Waterloo and Napoleon to give himself some respectability. He is a metaphorical ‘graverobber of Waterloo’ who has all of Napoleon’s dictatorial pettiness without any of his redeeming qualities.

It’s also worth noting that Marius is Victor “Marie” Hugo’s self-insert. Hugo’s politics changed wildly over time. Like Marius he was a royalist when was young. And like Marius, he looked up to Napoleon and to Napoleon III, before his views of them were shattered. This is reflected in the way Marius has complicated feelings of loyalty to his father (who’s very connected to the original Napoleon I) and to Thenardier (who’s arguably an analogue for Napoleon IiI.)

1851: 

On December 2, 1851, Louis Napoleon launched his coup, suspending the republic’s constitution he had sworn to uphold. The National Assembly was occupied by troops. Hugo responded by trying to rally people to the barricades to defend Paris against Napoleon’s seizure of power. Protesters were met with brutal repression.  Under increasing threat to his own life, with both of his sons in jail and his death falsely announced, Hugo finally left Paris.  He ultimately ended up on the island of Guernsey where he spent much of the next eighteen years and where he would write the bulk of Les Misérables. It was from here that his most radical and political work was smuggled into France.

Hugo arguably did some of his most important political work after being exiled. In Guernsey, he aided with resistance against the regime of Napoleon III. Hugo’s popularity with the masses also meant that his exile was massive news, and a thing all readers of Les Miserables would’ve been deeply familiar with.

This is why there are so many bits of Les Mis where the narrator nostalgically reflects on how much they wish they were in Paris again —these parts are very political; readers would’ve picked up that this was Victor Hugo reflecting on he cruelty of his own exile.  

1862-1863: Les Mis is published. It is a barely-veiled call to action against the government of Napoleon III, written about the June Rebellion instead of the current regime partially in order to dodge the censorship laws at the time.

Conservatives despise the book and call it the death of civilization and a dangerous rebellious evil godless text that encourages them to feel bad for the stupid evil criminal rebel poors and etc etc etc– (see @psalm22-6 ‘s excellent translations of the ancient conservative reviews)-- but the novel sells very well. Expressing  approval or disapproval of the book is considered inherently political, but fortunately it remains unbanned. 

…And that’s it! An ocean of basic historical context about Les Mis!

If anyone has any corrections  or additions they would like to make, feel free to add them! I have researched to the best of my ability, but I don’t pretend to be perfect. I also recommend listening to the Siecle podcast, which covers the events of the Bourbon Restoration starting at the Battle of Waterloo, if you're interested in learning more about the period!

[bossuet-lesgle]

I know we are only a few days in but I'm really enjoying the pacing of les mis letters. I've read the brick a few times now, but when you read the bishop's entire book in a sitting or two I think you lose the ability to stop and reflect. This chapter in particular hits way harder as a standalone than it does nestled in a quick read between the budget and conventionist G. Victor Hugo says so much in this book that sometimes individual points get lost to the whole - I'm glad for the opportunity to take each as they come.

[hellopuns]

I am glad everyone is on the same page about the Conventionist G Crosses His Arms And Glares At Camera While Calling Out Myriel’s Deviantart Journals chapter of Les Misérables

[oilan]

Fantine, Book 1: "A Good Man"

“I’ve done my duty to the best of my ability and whatever good I was able to do. After which I was pursued, hounded, persecuted, vilified, mocked, decried, cursed, ostracized. For quite some years now, white-haired as I am, I’ve been conscious that a great many people think they have the right to despise me. The poor ignorant mob sees me as damned. And I accept without hating anyone this isolation of hatred. I’m now eighty-six years old. I’m about to die. What is it you want of me?’

‘Your blessing,’ said the bishop. And he knelt down.

When the bishop looked up again the member of the Convention’s expression had become majestic. He had just breathed his last.”

[shitpostingfromthebarricade]

The G— in "Conventionist G—" stands for G-d Send Tweet.

[ueinra]

[mellowdeesthings]

Gonna try my best:

Bishop Myriel, Sister Simplice, Petit Gervais, Jean Valjean, Javert, Fantine, Favourite, Tholemys, Madame Victornein, Fauchelevant, Champatheiu, Sergeant Pontmercy (Marius's dad), M. Thenardier, Madame Thenardier, Azelma, Eponine, Gavroche, Cosette, Marius Pontmercy, Conventionist G., M. Gillenormand, M. Mabuef, Enjolras, Grantaire, Courfeyrac, Combeferre, Bossuet, Bahorel, Feully, Muichetta, Napoleon, Louis-Phillipe, the Infinite (the book is about the infinite I think it counts), Theodule, Montparnasse, Joly, Madame Maglor

with bonus internet points to anyone who actually writes a list:

the definition of A Character is overall yours to determine, within the following parameters:

if a Person is Symbolically Nameless, they must have a known moniker to be considered A Character.

for the purposes of this list, A Concept is not A Character unless this is specifically indicated in the text.

misspellings are accepted and perhaps inevitable.

[alicedrawslesmis]

what kind of a question is THAT

you've ONLY READ TEN CHAPTERS the most dramatic scene in that is when Bishop Myriel lists a bunch of charities as carriage expenses

[pilferingapples]

LM 1.1.10: notes on The Conventionist

Bishop Myriel Bienvenue is inspired by Bishop Miollis; and the Conventionist who expands his worldview here is also largely inspired by a specific real person, the Abbe Henri Grégoire .

Like Hugo's G, he argued against the death penalty for king Louis (though he argued for legal conviction). Grégoire was an abolitionist, an advocate for Jewish citizenship in the Republic, and an advocate for universal sufferage.

As the name Abbe might indicate, he was wildly far from being any kind of atheist; maybe some diehard clergy would have accused him of it, but he never renounced his faith or his office.

He also thought that France needed a universal language, and that that meant all other languages needed to be eliminated. I think this is a particularly interesting note for G's role in Les Mis, given that one of Myriel's best skills is his ability and willingness to use the local languages! The language issue is a debate that will definitely be relevant later, but I'm honestly kind of sad we don't get to see some of it here (yes I want les mis to be longer yes i know this is absurd)

Anyway! Abbe Grégoire's an interesting figure, and well worth looking up! (and if you're checking out The Siecle podcast, you'll definitely here more about him!)

[secretmellowblog]

Bishop Myriel x Conventionist G—, enemies to lovers, 4K words,

[aflamethatneverdies]

@melle93 replied to your post “1.1.9 Not much to say about this chapter, really. I like this chapter...”

He could have meant the ' <i>Décret des biens du clergé mis à la disposition de la Nation</i>'. The National Assembly decided the 'nationalization' of the church property, which was more or less the expropriation of the Catholic Church. The Assambly hoped to stabilize the financial situation of the state. So maybe the "tearing the cloth from the altar" can be interpretet very literally. The church property was called 'bien nationaux' and sold to prevent the national bancruptcy.

That makes sense! Thank you so much for the extra information. 

[everyonewasabird]

Brickclub 5.1.8 “The Gunners Taken Seriously”

Gah, Combeferre is so far in the wrong here? I don’t know if I’d really put together before how much the grapeshot is an immediate existential threat to the barricade that they need to solve NOW, before another shot of it is fired, and the artilleryman is the one about to do that.

Yeah, Combeferre doesn’t like killing, which: very fair! But man, it is not the time for that objection, when it’s the death of this guy vs the fall of the barricade and all their deaths RIGHT NOW. It’s not really the time for that objection in general! They are on a barricade, which he judged to be a worthwhile goal! The government is shooting at them! The two sides of this fight are not equally right and there isn’t some peaceful alternative way of fixing the world! Combeferre you KNEW THE PREMISE.

And he’s a doctor, and he hates killing, and even his fascination with weapons of war seems to be at least in part a compensatory obsession to deal with how much he hates this. I get that he’s coming apart from the stress, and I sympathize, a lot.

But aghhh, his reasons why this guy’s life is worth preserving are. Something.

Combeferre’s arguments:

- He is presumably well-educated and looks like a thinker.

- He “could be [Enjolras’s] brother,” ie he looks like Enjolras, who is Combeferre’s friend.

- That is to say, he’s around twenty-five, handsome, blond, and blue-eyed.

- He probably has parents and may be in love.

His larger point, which does make sense, is this is a human being with a specific history, and also that he really could just be another Ami, if things were different. Combeferre was probably used to trying to recruit people like this guy in more peaceful times. He describes him “charming” and “intrepid” which links him to Enjolras and Prouvaire, the two Amis we’ve seen Combeferre being closest to. He’s seeing a mirror across the barricade, and the people over there don’t look that different.

But wow do I not love “he’s white and has familiar middle-class class advantages!!!” as reasons this guy’s life particularly matters?

Like: yeah! You guys do happen to look a lot like the people you’re fighting! This has as much to do with Hugo being weird about having working class protagonists as it does anything else, given that in actual history this is a working class rebellion! You guys also look a lot like Tholomyes’s whole friend group! This is not an indicator of worth!

Like everything Combeferre says when he’s fraying, it’s not totally wrong--this guy’s life has value, same as everyone else’s. But Enjolras’s sorrowful “he is [my brother]” gets that point much, much better than Combeferre seems to.

And maybe it is worthwhile to remind Enjolras of that. That has been the role of Combeferre and his other friends in his life, and he seems to have gotten the point.

It just feels so unsettling that this moment that kind of disguises itself as a moment of a Myriel-like impulse on the barricade is kind of the opposite of the things Myriel most stood for--that people’s lives and souls matter regardless of their outward appearances, educations, virtues, or prospects.

I keep thinking about the Conventionist’s directive:

“I will weep for the children of kings with you, if you will weep with me for the children of the people."

"I weep for them all," the bishop said.

"Equally," G- exclaimed, "and if the balance tips, let it be on the side of the people: They have suffered longer."

Combeferre knows that, of course. I don’t think he values the life of artillery sergeant less than that of the child who starved to death, at least when he has time to think about it.

He’s just fraying and losing it and losing friends and really fucking done with all the killing.

[fellhellion]

The chapter w Myriel and the conventionist G conversing on his death bed is honestly one of the most critical to Myriel’s character and his flaws and the novel’s wider discussions about mercy and justice god i love the fucking brick