#gavroche: the Gamin of Paris

[psalm22-6]

Below is the view which made me aware of the silly book above.

Gavroche: The Gamin of Paris. From “Les Miserables” of Victor Hugo. Translated and adapted by M. C. Pyle. Philadelphia: Porter & Coates. Chicago: W. B. Keen & Cooke. Such a book, among the inanities that flood the reviewer, comes to him like a fresh flower or some rare rosebud tossed up out of driftwood. Poor little Gavroche! Noble Jean Valjean! What heart has not grown tender in reading this beautiful episode of their lives in that garden of episodes, “Les Miserables.” Who but loves that wretched little Gavroche, always ragged, sometimes starving, but always bright, ready with a song, a laugh, or a jest, who, when he shivers, shivers gayly, and, when he steals, makes us glad he steals successfully; who drifts forlornly through his guttered career, without father, or mother, or any love that he knows, and yet feels within his unloved little heart a spark of the Divine love, a feeling for his race, restless, helpful, budding out in kind deeds, and little self sacrifices; wonderful in his vagabond-life as a lily blooming in filth and slime! One feels his own humanity inspired by the paternal solicitude of the little fellow, stealing, begging, filching, working hard and honestly when the chance is given to provide for his little family, — two little waifs whom he finds helpless in the maze of Paris, and shelters under his own unsheltered wing, to find them afterwards to be his own brothers. The little hero becomes a tiny soldier of the barricades, “a fly on the wheel of the Revolution,” a Napoleon in rags, giving a hint here, lending a hand there; a spy now, and a savior of the barricade anon; handling a musket much larger than himself; and when the Republicans were failing for want of ammunition, is out in the street, between the barricade and its assailants, exposed to their bullets, filling a hamper with the cartridges of the soldiers dead in the street, crawling from one body to another, writhing, gliding hither and thither, emptying the cartridge-boxes as a monkey opens nuts, and, while doing it, is shot! Whose heart does not fall with him? As Jean Valjean carries the dear, little wounded fellow in his arms, through the sewers, to his home, he carries us with him; and when, at the end, we find Gavroche and Jean Valjean, and the family— his two waif brothers — all united, happy, and secure, in Clairvue, on the shores of the great, blue, bloodless sea, far from perils, we are glad, and thank God for the humanity of the story, which is true, and for the poetry of it, which is true and, more than all, for the truth that we have streets of our own with little Gavroches in them, to whom it is not too late for us to play Jean Valjean.

Source: the Chicago Daily Tribune, 20 December 1872 

[pyromaniacbibliophile]

The Gamins of Paris (their lost leader)

inspired very heavily by this by @lemurious

________________________

After the lady had left, they snuck out. The whistle had drawn some of the older ones, ones who remembered the Lark of Petit-Picpus, and they brought the others too. There must have been over a hundred of them, gathering in the street.

The guards were long left but they knew that wouldn't last long, they'd be back. The group of gamins were silent. No-one said a word but they all knew what they should do. Henri ran off to find Inspector Marcel, an ex-soldier and one of the few decent policemen in Paris. Out of anyone, he was most likely to distract the guards for them.

None of them wanted to look first. They suspected but didn't know who they might see. Hibou, used to the battered outskirts of Paris where dead animals were common, went first.

When they saw the bodies they bowed their heads. Urchins maybe, but they knew how to treat the dead. A few: Charle, Louie, Enri- those who hung around the Pont au Change recognised the first body as the writer who sat on the balustrades and gave them flowers and sous when they scampered past.

Those- Leo, Jean, Claude- from the university streets remembered the tall student with glasses, a philosopher with enough money to buy them pies and meat from one of the more reputable butchers.

Nearly everyone mourned the one who carried bandages and clean water, 'lending' the gangs books on how to patch themselves up. Lucien stopped next to him awhile, salt tears stinging his eyes. This was the man who was teaching him medicine, who thought he could have a career in doctoring if money would allow it. Living as a gamin you learn death early, but none had felt like this, not even his old nan.

Near the end, the girl lying there caused utter, utter silence. All knew her. Victor spoke, voice cracking. Quiet, but as loud as a gunshot in their heads. 'Someone go for Jacques and Charles. They deserve to see this.' Pierre turned and left without a word, heading down the street and running when he was far enough away that his feet wouldn't echo. No matter the group's thoughts on the youngest Thenardier brothers, no-one there would keep them from mourning their sister.

Finally the last body. The one they all had known would be there. It didn't change the impact. All the gamins in Paris know Gavroche, he's the leader. He back-talks policemen, steals as if he was born to it, and never goes home if he can help it. He boasts of working with the Patron-Minette, laughs at a knife to his throat, helps anyone who wants it. They half-expect him to jump up and tease them for believing it.

'They won't mourn him.' Leo says. It's not a question. Monsieur Thenardier and his wife never cared for their son.

'We will.' Louis murmurs.

'There won't be any gang wars on this day. Never again.' This from Jean, keen as anyone for the scraps between the different gamin gangs- Gavroche's friend.

'We won't forget him.' Rio finishes.

They walk away slowly, singing.

Je suis tombé par terre, c'est la faute à Voltaire Le nez dans le ruisseau, c'est la faute à Rousseau Je ne suis pas notaire, c'est la faute à Voltaire Je suis petit oiseau, c'est la faute à Rousseau....

[cliozaur]

"Paris has a child, and the forest has a bird; the bird is called the sparrow; the child is called the gamin."

Yay! We've reached my favourite volume - Volume III!

Gavroche by Victor Hugo

[alicedrawslesmis]

I know I just said I didn't want to just be complaining about everything so I'll try to word this in a more constructive way asdfghjkl

It's hard to be an Eponine fan in a world where the musical -and On My Own specifically- is sooooo mainstream. Because imo as much as On My Own itself is kind of a half-decent, if simplified, encapsulation of Eponine's struggle with her love for Marius if you analise the lyrics in isolation, the musical as a whole, her role in the narrative as the unrequited love diva (I'm also simplifying here. I don't think this is super fair to the anglo musical, but compared to the book there's no question of how they reworked her into a glamorous 80s diva contralto because musical theatre has usually very strict gender roles), did her so dirty. So dirty. And imo often her character is reduced to her pining in fandom as a result. And I don't like that, personally.

I love that girl so much. I love that she is just young enough to still be a child but adult enough to be aware of her social role. She has one foot in the gamin life and one foot in the adult world. I love the tragedy that is the fact that she likes the beauty and pomp of high society girls and wish she could have silk shoes but knowing she can't.

And also being super resigned to her class despite it, she doesn't believe she ever will have any of that. She resents that too, somewhat. The tragedy of her knowing that she couldn't be with Marius because of his social class and her accepting that (angrily? sadly?). I love her self-banishment as his guard dog because of this. I love her drunk sailor voice. I love how manipulative she is and that she isn't Marius's friend at all. He's just her one neighbor who wasn't a total asshole one time. He was, later. But not at first. And she can't be in his head and know he thinks she's kinda despicable because crime because Marius is a judgemental little shithead.

And Eponine isn't an idealist, she's resigned to her position. I understand why she gets paired with grantaire in fics but her canon narrative parallel is Javert, they both believe they are excluded from society from their outcast position and so become the watchdogs for it. Eponine a kind of guardian (in her own words a devil, not an angel) and Javert the same. That's why he's the one person who sees her in the barricade, he's the same as her. Marius saw her but that's only cause he had a use for her in that moment, as soon as she didn't he forgot all about it.

I think also Gavroche, with his ability to be kind of a figure above the narrative, with his gamin skills of being almost omnipresent is something Eponine used to have, but with her age she's starting to lose that. She's starting to grown old enough that she's required to be IN the world and not supercede it. Gavroche is also almost there, if he had been allowed to grow up he would've lost that ability too. They both inhabit this sort of magical surreal world superimposed on our own.

A lot of Les Mis and Notre Dame de Paris can be kinda described as magical realism, I would go so far as calling them urban fantasy. And characters like Babet, Thenardier sometimes, Gavroche, Eponine (and Javert sometimes as well) are inhabiting this magically charged layer. This reality that's imposed Over the real world.

Talking about that One Series Of Wizard Books is a bit passé rn so uh. Doctor Who. Particularly the initial New Who seasons before they got that huge budget. That's a good parallel to what I'm getting at. The real world is still the same but there are certain characters that inhabit this mystical overlayer and are able to transverse from one to the other (Javert can't really because he is stuck forever outside and the second he understands that you CAN'T be an unbiased outsider who only enforces the norm without participating he freaks out and literally dies about it). Eponine is right in the eye of the storm tho. She manipulates reality to get her way, to die with Marius, because that's as close as she can get to being with him. And she manipulates reality to protect him too. Contradictions be damned. She has many contradictory feelings that make her complex and cool and an awesome character whom I love and wish would stop being reduced to the glamurous mysical theatre role with a single black stain on her face and a beautiful actor and a big unrequited love song about a random boy (whose personality was also changed for the musical and I argue is probably the character that was most fucked up by it in the public perception because he's such an weird little self-insert of an even weirder guy. But I get it, the musical is long enough as it is).

Anyway, I wish eponine could be more of a mongrel, a little gremlin. A little rat child that's just beginning to grow into an adult and is self aware of her role in the narrative society. She's a teenage girl which already sucks to go through when you're not constantly starving and cold and being forced by your father to work and do con jobs. Marius is the object she attaches herself to, but it could've been literally anything. Javert did that with the social order, he protects and guards it. She just chose Some Guy instead. Which, we all have that one friend who does that too. Like girl you're too good for him. Come on let's get you sone ice cream. And clean clothes and a roof. Literally anything. Bread.

I think if Eponine had a roof over her head and like, food on the regular she would forget Marius exists. Same as Cosette if she had moved to England. Like he'd be that one intense crush they had as teenagers. Can't say the same for him tho. He would hold onto that for the rest of time.

[tjjamess]

My biggest quarrel with more recent Les Mis soundtracks is the absence of Gavroche’s full version of ‘Little people’ from the 1985 original cast recording.

I think it shows so much of his character and I love how he so easily gathers a crowd of people who are singing the chorus along with him. Obviously I love how Gavroche’s theme is scattered throughout all the other songs but I want him to have his song back. If it isn’t obvious, I love Gavroche and he deserves more screen/show time. He is a representative of all the gamin and children of Les Mis (and of Paris) and that is one of my favourite parts of the musical and the book.

Petition to get the extended version of Little People back sign here -> x…………..

[bread--quest]

just watched my first ever performance of les mis and i'm experiencing every emotion ever and i need to write them all down quickly before i go to sleep so i don't forget them .ok . in some approximate order

the prisoners during look down would each like. look up for their individual line and then whoever was next to them would reach over and pull them back down which i thought was so good

hoogh the staging. the STAGING .

several of the scenes looked (i think very intentionally) like.....religious paintings...??? im sorry i dont have a better way to describe it im not catholic but like. the first one im thinking of is jean valjean and the bishop during the "i have bought your soul for god" scene . there were like definitely Intentional Pauses so you could Admire the Staging and Lighting. which i did

incidentally i wasnt counting the amount of times people crossed themselves in this show but it was A Lot

after "i'll escape now from this world... from the world of JEAN VALJEAAAAAAAAAN" the stage went black and then the words "les miserables" were projected on the screen and my dad (who was next to me) went "OH that was just the PROLOGUE??"

ohhhhh god fantine's death scene hit me like a truck. that was the first moment i cried at and oh god i cried really hard. i had forgotten that it was to the tune of on my own. awuagh

after little cosette sang "she says...cosette, i love you very much..." i distinctly heard someone in the audience GASP and go "ohhhhh...."

madame thenardier was GREAT, she sang every line like she was rolling her eyes. also she made some. Gestures with a baguette during master of the house

beautiful little moment: after jvj gave cosette the doll she gasped, kind of backed away from him in shock, and then paused and ran towards him and hugged him, and then there was a noticeable moment where he sort of didn't know what to do for a second and then hugged her back and scooped her up to carry her away. waugh

look down paris 1832!!!!!!!!! AAAAAAA

i didn't realize until just now that it works so well to have gavroche be singing what's basically the intro to "okay so here's what's happening now. this is paris and it sucks," because gavroche is the character introduced at the start of the 1832 book!!! the gamin expresses paris!! i love that!!!! also gavroche was excellent. adore that boy

marius was such a dork <3

eponine fully Threw his book across the stage and he was like "haha i love the way you..... tease. Hm"

the paris sets were so cool!!!! they were like. whole apartment building sets and actors would pop out of windows and stuff!!! very neat

one of the women had a "vive lamarque" sign hanging out her window lmao. rip

grantaire kept hugging people/flopping on them

enjolras was Very Blond and Very Enjolras-y. when grantaire tried to flop on him he pushed him away and then they made Intense Eye Contact about it

gavroche delivered "general lamarque is dead" surprisingly solemnly and quietly, and there was a moment of silence that i thought really brought in the gravity of the moment well

also he got up on a table to say it and afterwards enjolras patted him on the shoulder (which he did a lot) and then picked him up and lifted him off the table :)

DO YOU HEAR THE PEOPLE SING <3 AAAAAAAAAAA

grantaire kept pulling gavroche back from joining with the rest of the revolutionaries :(

marius actually CLIMBED OVER THE GATES to cosette's house, i was very impressed

ONE DAY MOOOOOORE was sooo good

the thenadiers peered out of one of the really tall windows and had a little periscope (??) to look at the revolutionaries with

the barricade was very striking, if lacking in Symbolic Coffin. very pointy looking though

my dad said "is that javert??" a few minutes after javert appeared at the barricade and his reaction to the reveal was EXCELLENT

gavroche flipped off javert LMAO

little fall of rain was very good but the thing that hurt me the most was that towards the very end gavroche came on stage, saw what was happening, stepped towards her, and was pulled back a bit by grantaire. and then after she died gavroche went forward and picked up her hat and gave it to marius, and then walked away, and when grantaire reached out towards him he just kind of walked past. it was a really really good bit of like. subtle characterization and plot and just AAAAAA

"is your life just one more LIE" in drink with me was very directly addressed to enjolras, who then had another moment of Very Intense Eye Contact with grantaire. then they stormed off to opposite sides of the barricade and gavroche, who was sort of standing between them looking worried, looked back and forth a few times and then went over to grantaire and hugged him :((

the barricaders in general were so good

jvj hit an INSANELY high note at the end of bring him home

THEY DID SOMEHTING VERY CRUEL AND FUCKED UP and had gavroche's song of little people be interrupted by a gunshot and a gasp from the barricade, and THEN he started singing AGAIN, and everyone seemed relieved, and he came back up over the barricade and THEN. GUNSHOT. and. enjolras caught him and held him and then like. passed him down the barricade to grantaire??? in this incredibly lit and really like. again. like it looked like a painting . i am rapidly losing coherency. it hurt so bad man

the one thing i am sad about (WELL. IM SAD ABOUT A LOT. BUT I MEAN SPECIFICALLY ABOUT THE ADAPTATION FROM BOOK TO MUSICAL) is that grantaire and enjolras didn't die holding hands :((

at least they got one more moment of Very Intense Eye Contact in (after gavroche's death...)

oh GOD enjolras in the cart hurt so bad. WITH THE FLAG. i really thought he was evoking some famous painting but i could be wrong

javert knelt down over gavroche's body, shook his head, crossed himself, gently tapped gavroche, and then stood up and pointed at him so the cart guy would take him away

enjolras had like. one hand dangling out of the cart when it came in, but as it was leaving the stage the other hand dropped which was a FANTASTIC acting moment . also damn those actors were great at pretending to be dead

javert's suicide was BRILLIANTLY staged, somehow the actor really made it look like falling while standing up the whole time (possibly being raised somewhat? unsure)

he was also the only character who's death was not shown in illuminating light . which. damn.

turning turning hit me unexpectedly hard. ooooof

and then empty chairs at empty tables was. well. i dont think i need to say more. the lights were a fantastic choice

i think i started crying at "it is the story of those who always loved you" but honestly the entire last song was really blurry. IT OPENED WITH JEAN VALJEAN LIGHTING THE CANDLESTICKS. THE CANDLESTIIIIIICKS

THE BISHOP CAME OUT AND HUGGED JEAN VALJEAN. AUGH

also gavroche was standing between enjolras and grantaire when they first came out which i have to think was intentional

there was basically nothing on stage but the actors for the last song which made it incredible imo . i briefly considered becoming french. a lady offered me a tissue. the end

[dolphin1812]

The weather that Hugo describes feels very indicative of the mood in Paris, with the winds of cholera brewing a storm of popular anger. With respect to Gavroche, though, this is immediately relevant in that it makes him cold (and Magnon’s children are freezing, too). The cold is especially bad since, like his sister, he often goes several days without eating and wears rags.

Watching Gavroche take charge is so cute! He tries to seem so confident in front of the younger kids (saying that having nowhere to sleep isn't a big problem, for instance) even though he’s also suffering. As we saw with Mabeuf earlier, he’s genuinely generous, too. Not only is he helping these children, but he gives his scarf to a poorly clothed girl, demonstrating his general kindness and good nature. The girl’s lack of a response reminds me of the line from before about the Thénardier children not noticing their new siblings because they were too impoverished to be aware of their surroundings. It’s a sad parallel, but it reflects well on Gavroche’s character. And his kindness and confidence work! The kids are soon happier! They’re all still in a horrible situation, but he’s lifted their spirits.

His exchange with Montparnasse is hilarious. He has no respect for him whatsoever. On the one hand, that lack of respect is one of the many gamin traits Hugo listed that Gavroche embodies. On the other, though, it shows his casual familiarity with crime. Montparnasse isn’t scary to Gavroche because he already knows his world, using the same slang and recognizing the people Montparnasse talks about. As for Montparnasse, his ease around Gavroche is a reminder of where he came from. He was a gamin, too, so Gavroche is equally familiar to him. It’s funny to read, but it does indicate that Montparnasse’s life is one of the most likely options for Gavroche’s future if he manages to age out of being a gamin. That Montparnasse seems cool to the young children probably isn’t a good sign for gamins more broadly, either, as he may seem appealing to children with so few options even though he’s horrible.

(And he’s not even that good at crime!)

I love how he warns Gavroche about the officer, though! It’s a kind gesture, and it’s clever! According to Donougher, in the French, there’s assonance with the syllable “deeg” in everything he says (“je te dis,” “ma digue,” “si vous me prodiguez dix gros sous,” “d’y goupiner,” “mardi gras”). 

And we’ve reached the heavily symbolic elephant! Gavroche literally lives in the ruins of empire. Hugo says we can’t know what it means, so in that sense, we should be careful not to overestimate how clear its meanings are, but that he explicitly states that it’s difficult to know also pushes us to search for symbols in it. And it’s not all bad! It’s grand and majestic (maybe even “great!”), like Napoleon I was to Hugo. But it’s also a carcass that’s being worn away by time, and it’s unpleasant to look at for “respectable” people in particular (much like its gamin inhabitants are ignored and looked down on). 

And it’s also been replaced. Hugo frames it as an inevitable change like that of classes, drawing on 19th-century theories of the “natural development” of societies to explain why the elephant’s era ended. The emphasis on ideas over power feels like an indirect criticism of the Napoleons, with the idea of a republic being the progress that their dictatorial power can’t counter. 

That aspect, in general, feels the most significant. Napoleon did some good; his elephant is now a shelter for Gavroche, and his rule inspired many in France by giving them hope that they, too, could advance socially and that their country would be influential. But this is a hollow sort of “good.” The elephant is a shelter, but only because there are homeless children who need it (and, as Hugo points out, it was a real need; the fiction here is based on a real case). France’s empire couldn’t last because it was against republican principles in France and across Europe. If the elephant was in such a bad state so soon after Napoleon I, then, imagine how much worse it would be to bring its idea back with Napoleon III! 

Hugo even says that the good of the elephant came from God, not Napoleon!

Another note: the elephant is for someone that other doors are closed to, once again illustrating the importance of open doors. Gavroche wouldn’t need the elephant if he weren’t a social outcast. His poverty would not be this desperate if people respected him and helped him.

His use of the wire is very creative! But that it’s all from animal enclosures in the Jardin des Plantes drives home that animals have more than he does (and are given more by society). It’s worse than Valjean not having a place to stay when the dog had a house, in a way, because at least the dog was tied to a family in some way, either as a pet or a work animal; the animals of the Jardin des Plantes are there as a spectacle alone, and it’s for that spectacle that they’re given good quality things. His narration is hilarious, but it’s heartbreaking, too.

[lesmisbingo]

prompt list

If you want to know what is on the list before you get a bingo card, here is what I would currently feed the bingo card generator. Characters are about a quarter of the list, I tried to choose words and tropes and au tags etc that would work for as many people as possible within brick fandom and have very few non-gen prompts, but it probably leans towards my preferences heavily still.

-

canon compliant, technically canon compliant, canon divergence, missing scene, crossover, fix-it, time travel / time loop, magic, hijinks, angst, fluff, character death, animals, pov outsider, ghosts, bodyswap, 5 + 1, epistolary, secret identity, mistaken identity, alternate universe, different era, hurt/comfort, character study, action / adventure, trope reversal, happy ending, humour, fake relationship, marriage, friendship, siblings, family, misunderstandings, rarepair, rivalry, developing relationship, established relationship, strangers, Valjean, Cosette, Fantine, Javert, Éponine, Gavroche, Marius, Les Amis de l’ABC, Patron Minette, Montparnasse, Thénardier, Madame Thénardier, Azelma, Favourite, Tholomyes, Myriel, Gillenormand, Enjolras, Combeferre, Prouvaire, Feuilly, Courfeyrac, Bahorel, Lesgle, Joly, Grantaire, Mabeuf, the momes, Baptistine, the nuns / the convent students, Simplice, Fauchelevent, Theodule, Mlle Gillenormand, Georges Pontmercy, the gamins, the grisettes, volume i, volume ii, volume iii, volume iv, volume v, digression, the year 1817, 1832, Montfermeil, Montreuil-sur-mer, Paris, the Gorbeau house, the Rue Plumet, the convent, Digne, the Corinthe, minor character, one-off character, character seldom fanworked, character you have never fanworked, pass the Bechdel Test, ship you have never fanworked, trope you have never fanworked, kiss, first, last, hands, blood, romanticism, symbolism, nature, garden, red, blue, light, dark, window, door, fire, water, science, secrets, truth, food / cooking, sleep, illness, music, beauty, horror, future, past, time, mystery, best laid plans, home, travel, curiosity, argument, fight, party, three wishes, memories, weather

[crackspinewornpages]

Les Misérables 160/365 -Victor Hugo

151

The gamin loves the city all things of interest and souvenirs. Anyone who goes through Paris sees the group of children free and playing, “this constitutes all the earth to those children. They never venture beyond this. They can no more escape from the Parisian atmosphere than fish can escape from water.”p.374 (they are a product of their environment it’s all they know and they can't escape for anywhere else)

152

Stray children are around an estimated 2609 homeless, a disastrous social system. “All crimes of the man begin in the vagabond of the child.”p.374 In any other city a vagabond child is left for itself in Paris they have an almost intact interior. While it doesn’t diminish the anguish to see fractured families. The monarchy didn’t discourage discarding children, it was in sometimes need of them, so they skimmed the streets. Lois XIV had a fleet and a need of galley slaves, so parliament made as many convicts as possible if a street child was fifteen there he went. (this just reminds me of the American prison industrial complex and how the courts are prejudice against the poor and minorities and how convicted felons aren’t allowed to vote so the politicians that allow this stay in power)  

153

The street Arabs in Paris are almost a caste. (yeah that makes sense even the streets have a social order)

154

The police keep an eye on the gamin, in 1830 they cried warnings to each other. The gamin knows all the police and faces of anyone he meets, studying habits. (kid’s got street smarts)

155

The Paris gamin is respectful and insolent, all beliefs are possible to him, he is one that finds amusement because he is unhappy.

156

The gamin today is gone, cured by light, universal education, men make men. Paris is the top of the human race, it accepts everything royally. “All civilizations are there in an abridged form, all barbarians also, Paris would greatly regret it if it had not a guilotine.”p.379 (I think it has some regrets of the guillotine)

157

There is no limit to Paris, it makes law fashion, routine if it’s fit to be stupid the universe it stupid company. Tempered explosions, masterpieces, pedigrees, all forms sublime, though scolding or laughing, Paris shows its teeth, it’s immense and daring, the price of progress and conquests and the prize. “It is necessity, for the sole of the forward march of the human race,”p.380

158

To paint the child is to paint the city, (a country is only as rich as its poorest citizen) suffering and toil, the two faces of man, would you abandon the barefoot and illiterate, can light not penetrate them.  

159

Nine years after the second part of the story people noticed a boy on the Boulevard du Temple, he was about twelve, dressed in rags of charity because his parents didn’t love or think of him. He was better off on the street because he was free. Every few months he went back to the Gorbeau hovel, to Madame Bourgon who let out the space which now housed a family with two daughters. While dismissive of him his mother loved his sisters, the boy was called Little Gavroche. Next to the family’s room was one belonging to M. Marius.

BOOK SECOND THE GREAT BOURGEOIS

160

There are a few old inhabitants who remember a man named M. Gillenormand, in 1831 he was a curiosity simply because he was so old. A bourgeois of the eighteenth century, ninety with all his teeth and claimed to be too poor for women. An old man in good health and still threw into passions on subjects and beat people with his cane and had a daughter in her fifties. His philosophy was nature gives specimens of amusing barbarism so civilization can have a little of everything.

NEXT

[fremedon]

#I'm a 'Humanity and the Infinite' truther#Enjolras is as much a main character as Fantine (like don't even get me started)#and they are both as Main as the portress who tries to help Valjean at the end#if I gotta get granular I'd go with like. Paris and the Sewers and Waterloo#and the Gamin and the Convent#EVEN IF someone wants to boil the Epic out of the Epic#and make it a flat Tom and Jerry 'cop chases criminal' story#Eponine and Gavroche are still SUPER relevant#and the barricade boring as hell if the Amis aren't major characters as a group at LEAST#I have seen adaptations that try to cut the characters listed here#in various combinations#and they SUCK they always SUCK#(I have seen So Many Adaptations#I have developed So Many Opinions)) (opinions from @pilferingapples, who is Correct)

Sorry this is a little messy! I wish I could add more options.

This is inspired by my last poll, asking whether grantaire was a main character. I didn't think he was but wikipedia disagreed. The results so far have been a resounding "no, and some of your other listed mains aren't either."

So in the tags I've gathered that there's disagreement on the main character statuses of Enjolras and Éponine as well. I'm putting Gavroche on the chopping block myself because I think if Enjolras and Éponine are in question he is too.

If you're a "the first character is the infinite, man is the second" truther, think none of them are mains, or if you have a different opinion, select other and put it in the tags. I WANT MY NOTIFICATIONS CLOGGED UP BY THIS. I think it's really interesting :)

[psalm22-6]

Complaints coming to you from 1862

Many of the first reviewers of Les Misérables complained that the title was uncouth, overdramatic, and misleading but in his Étude sur les Misérables de M. V. Hugo, Félix Courtat took it a step further, complaining that the chapter titles themselves offended his sensibilities. He wrote that he reproached Victor Hugo for his choice in chapter titles because:  

They seem calculated to sell books by searching to stimulate the curiosity of buyers rather than coming from an austere writer who only thinks of instructing them. I will only cite two examples among many others. 

1. “Little Gavroche Takes Advantage of Napoleon le Grand.” This means that a gamin of Paris choses to live in the elephant of the place de la Bastille. 

2. “In Which an Agent of the Police Gives Two Punches to a Lawyer.” This means that he gives him two pocket pistol. 

The reason that the second example upsets him is because of the pun on “coups de poing,” the thing that the agent of police is said to give the lawyer. That word can either mean a punch but also a type of gun. Several reviewers I have found disliked Hugo’s use of puns.  You can read Courtat’s meticulous account of everything he disliked in Les Misérables here, or you can read my English translation here.  

[everyonewasabird]

Brickclub 5.1.15 “Gavroche outside”

Brickclub is back and it’s the worst. I don’t know how to analyze this chapter. I don’t WANT to analyze this chapter.

There’s a realistic reading here, of: this is why children shouldn’t be in WAR. He’s brave! He’s so brave! And also, twelve-year-olds don’t understand risk and mortality and shouldn’t be in a war zone!

And reading it there’s this sense of “no dammit don’t go out there” and then “okay, they haven’t seen you yet, you’ve got a few cartridges, come back NOW” and then “okay they’ve SEEN you but they’re not hitting you, run back NOW YOU CAN STILL DO IT” and so on.

And he never does.

But, also, that kind of response feels like a wrong direction to me? Much as I want him to Not, criticizing Gavroche feels very off.

Criticizing the adults is exactly right, though. FUCK these suburban National Guard. We’re reminded they’re from the suburbs several times--which matters, because they don’t have any connection to the people of Paris and don’t mind killing them. That’s no excuse at all for making a game of shooting at a child, but... here we are. We’re told they’re laughing as they do it, because of course they’re laughing as they do it.

And, of course, they don’t have to do this. Gavroche getting the insurgents a few more bullets doesn’t change the outcome of all this. They’re shooting because it’s a sport; unlike the other shooting they’ve been doing, Gavroche can’t hurt them back. They’re shooting at a sparrow, and it won’t do them any good to succeed, it’s just a challenge because he’s so inoffensive and so fast and so small.

Symbolically, what IS this chapter though? I’ve never really known. Gavroche has always been Paris, and right now he’s at his most Paris: the spirit of the gamin incarnate, singing his defiance to cruel and repressive authority, slipping through cracks unscathed that it doesn’t seem like he could possibly manage.

But this book always has an uneasy relationship with it’s own magic system; the magic pervades everything, but we always fall back to reality in the end. For a long, long time we manage to follow the magic rules that make Gavroche invulnerable--and then the magic runs out, and we’re stuck in the realistic ending of all this.

This isn’t fully the end of the magic, or even the end of the magic at the barricade--there’s enough left for OFPD, still.

But it’s the end, I suspect, of a lot of it. We lost a lot of magic with Jean Prouvaire’s death; now we lose most of the rest. The scenes that follow this will be far more brutal than the ones that preceded. Symbolic Paris has been crushed, and the last of our innocence is lost.

If hope comes, when it comes, it will a bright spot in a much bleaker world.

[cliozaur]

10 Reasons Why Volume III is My Favourite:

Gamin digression – a love letter to Paris with a strong political agenda

Patron-Minette digression – mines and miners, education and crime

Enter Gavroche

Éponine at her best

Les Amis are introduced

The handkerchief!

Marius is more or less tolerable

Everyone is alive

The Gorbeau House affair!

"Would you like my hat?" – An updated version of Javert: an action hero with a sense of humour, fearless and relentless, but true to himself, so he begins by arresting the victims.

The best volume!

[alicedrawslesmis]

btw there's one thing I don't understand about Fantine (and I think this is also a problem of Hugo generally having a hard time thinking of women as whole people and not rhetorical devices, but not just): she is an "innocent", she represents a naive tenager/young woman who doesn't understand how society works or doesn't think ahead about money and assumes Tholomyes is gonna be there for her etc. you know. But she's also... an orphan raised on the streets (in Paris).

so I don't understand how she is simultaneously the picture perfect waif while also beeing hardened by the life of a gamin (or the girl equivalent) ? I'm not saying someone who was raised on the street couldn't do all she did I'm talking about how Hugo frames her as this pure little innocent who doesn't know abandonment doesn't seem to know how to survive with very little money without her neighbor to give her tips? Needs to learn how to endure the taunts on the street when presumably she's had plenty given what life with Gavroche was like.

I dunno man. What's going on there

[little-orphan-ant]

hey can we talk about trans!gavroche for a second

the thenardiers forcing him to wear fancy dresses as a kid and him hating it but not knowing why and his parents shunning him for it, being taught how to sit still and sew and be a good Lady and being certain that something's off, the family moving to paris and m. thenardier making bby gav the 'sweet little girl' that makes the bourgeois melt and hand over their pocket money, gav finally having enough and running away the second he can

finding a piece of glass on the side of the road and chopping off all his hair, stealing pants drying in a garden and chucking his skirts in the seine, giving himself a new name and introducing himself to the gamins he meets as gavroche

him wandering the streets of paris for days, finally stumbling across the musain and les amis, them taking him in as their little brother and teaching him everything they know, enjolras as a fellow trans guy taking little gav under his wing, less in a big-brother way and more in a strict-but-lovable-uncle way, and showing him how to pass and have people assume he's cis

after the rebellion m. thenardier going around fake-crying about his poor daughters who died on the barricades, a small plaque being built with the names of all who died, thenardier insisting gav's deadname be used, gav's little brothers trying to find him, coming across the plaque but not recognizing the names, and never knowing what happened to their brother

[geekghoul]

The Éps & Cos Sister Fic

She knew her early childhood was a nightmare. She tried not to linger on it but it really had a bad habit of creeping into her mind. She hadn’t precisely been an unusual case, the poor of France were many and the living conditions of the dregs, ghastly. She knew this but it was still heartbreaking, she had only recently arrived in Paris after spending so many of her formative years in the convent and had become unaccustomed to suffering. Still, there was this grief in her heart that lingered unabated. Giving alms to the poor was one of those gifts in her life that allowed her to feel fulfilled, even if it could only last her a short time. Whatever aid her father had the power to give must make these people’s lives even the slightest bit better. Cosette looked up, she had just walked away from a beggar she had greeted when her sisters crowded either side of her.

“Look how pensive you are, aren’t you just darling?” teased Éponine.

“What’s on your mind?” Azelma replied softly, but she always spoke softly.

Cosette tried a smile but she was sure it came out quite guilty and half-formed, “nothing really,” she tried.

“Pensive indeed,” said Azelma conspiratorially.

“She’s lost in the past again,” Éponine realized, eyes widening. Their father called to them then. He was entering a curtained building to help a woman and her child it seemed. As Cosette spoke to her sisters a young man walked past and saw them.

She was the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen but there was a shout on the street just then and he ran.

Éponine gasped, father was fighting a bunch of men as they left the small building. Then she saw the woman who had followed behind and she felt the air leave her chest as if she had sustained a blow. She grabbed at her sisters’ arms and drew them back. They would not be seen, they could not, not by her or her husband. A policeman barreled into the square shouting for order, as he passed Azlema ripped free from her and ran to Father. She clung to his arm. Éponine could do nothing but hold onto her twin for dear life. She could tell Cosette had put the pieces together as well and was doing her best to hold her composure. They saw as a boy who had been observing the drama attempted to flee the scene. He didn’t make it far before the policeman lifted the gamin up by his lapels. Éponine saw that Cosette looked indignant. As soon as he was set down he ran near their direction so Éponine stopped him.

“Are you alright?” Cosette asked the boy.

“Yeah, the Thénardiers might get it this time though. Not that I care 'bout my no-good parents.” he sounded so flippant but Éponine’s world began careening further.

“What is your name” she demanded.

He scowled but replied “Gavroche”.

Cosette realized then that this was the baby boy she used to take care of as a child; she felt slightly sick. She looked up then to see the policeman, Javert, turn away from her father. Even if their father had never said so outright, all three girls knew he was wary of lawmen and had some complicated past. It broke her heart to see him so anxious, not unlike a trapped animal. She locked eyes with Azelma and motioned that they should go. They could get back home just fine she indicated, whether or not that was strictly true. They had developed some communicative gestures as adolescents that they still were able to use and adapt. Azelma bit her lip but nodded. She asked when they would be home and Éponine replied that they would be home by midnight. Azelma whispered to their father and he seemed almost to say no but then they turned and were gone.

“Gavroche” Cosette invoked, getting his attention. “How well do you know the city?”

“It’s me personal theatre. I run everything, I can get anywhere” he declared.

Cosette looked Éponine in the eye and grinned. Éponine realized then that she was at the mercy of her sister’s mischievous side.

“Would you show us around then?” she cajoled.

Gavroche did show them around, sort of. It was more like they followed as he went on about his day, him occasionally providing commentary. It was fun though, magical even, Éponine wasn’t sure she had ever been this free with Cosette. They were chatting and laughing and running. Their lives at Petit-Picpus had been blessed but also so very contained. There was so little physicality to it, an hour to play a day? But here, in the busy streets, even if they did look respectable and clean they could just, roam. It was so different. Father was a very contained and secretive person and dear Zelma was so passive, she had few opinions and never fought. Cos and she had pretended to be twin sisters during their time at the convent but, at some point, it stopped being an act to keep them safe and just became their reality. Their faces were quite different but they had the same chestnut hair and most people didn’t choose to question it further. Cosette had a wonderful wicked streak, mischievous and raucous for brief moments before remembering her manners and upbringing and returning within herself and becoming quiet and thoughtful. Éponine loved her sister and seeing this freedom grace her she felt alive. So far as she knew, Éponine remembered their childhood better, more vividly than Cosette. She remembered how Mme. Thénardier had pitted them against one another and how cruel she had been in turn. She had a certain lingering guilt about that so she couldn’t help doing whatever she could to make Cosette smile. They had entered an, evidently, wealthier part of the city when Gavroche was flagged down by a group of gamin rushing at him.

Cosette had been so engrossed in the sights of the city and her delight in seeing so many people and interactions and life she hadn’t noticed how late it had gotten, their father would be so fretful. “Éponine, it’s nearly sundown, we really must head home. Gavroche, can you escort us?” Gavroche barely looked at her, just grabbed her hand and started running. Éponine caught up with them moments later and Cosette grabbed her hand. The bustle on the streets paired with the sound of her pounding heart was almost deafening. Everyone was starting to talk. “Éps, are we going the right way?” she shouted.

“I don’t know, I don’t remember” she called back. As dire as this should perhaps have seemed they were both smiling and she couldn’t stifle a giggle even with how out of breath she was quickly becoming from running. 'Ponine burst out laughing then too. They weren’t running too long, fortunately. They seemed to have arrived where Gavroche intended them. They appeared to be in front of some sort of cafe, the name Musain painted on its front. It was emitting bright, warm light and excited chattering and laughing and perhaps some music.

Éponine wasn’t sure this was a good idea, as restraining as it sometimes felt they were still proper young ladies, whatever sort of place this was they almost certainly had no business being within it. Gavroche split with them then, running into the building. She may have had reservations but she also wasn’t about to lose their only guide. She ran after him now dragging Cosette with her. As soon as she started climbing the stairs she realized she had made a mistake. The men in this place were preparing to revolt, they were looking for a revolution. Gavroche started shouting for attention when they were halfway up the steps. Silence befell when they were at the top and Gavroche proclaimed the death of General Lamarque. Cosette gasped and Éponine realized that must have been why the children had accosted Gavroche.

Cosette watched from beside the stairs with Éponine as the men all started talking over one another again. Then a young-looking blonde man raised up his hand and the room went quiet again. He looked momentarily crestfallen but he pushed forward, “Lamarque is dead.” A startling determination came forth on his face then and he shook his head, “Lamarque, his death is the sign we await,” a rallying cry was building up in him and it infected her. She knew that much was broken in this country, in her country. She was a newcomer to Paris but she was aware of the significance of Lamarque, his name was a buzz in the street, an ever-present whisper on the wind. His death would be a tragedy to the powerless of this place. And these men, though many were well dressed and likely from well-to-do families, seemed intent to do whatever it took to bring justice to the people. The apparent leader spoke on though, they planned to use the general’s funeral to stage a protest. Most of the men looked fully enraptured, there was a man on either side of the leader, one tall and serious, the other round and jovial. There were three men talking in the back, one drinking tremendously, staring at the leader, the other two looking vaguely concerned. Many other men were talking or listening, hearts nearly beating as one.

The round man split from the leader’s side then and approached them, “I feel I recognize the pair of you, have we met?” he asked with a broad smile.

Cosette held polite eye contact, “I’m afraid I think not.”

The man looked closer at Éponine’s face then and a spark of recognition alit his eyes “The sisters Lanoire! I remember; the four of you used to sit for hours in the Luxembourg. A friend and I saw you often on strolls, he is not here tonight. You have both grown quite lovely.”

Cosette blushed faintly at having been remembered as such. Éponine picked up the conversation from there, “Thank you for saying so, Monsieur…”

“Courfeyrac, you can just call me Courfeyrac. But what brings you here this night? Were you lost?” His eyes were kind but Cosette was also wary of outsiders.

“We were just walking with Gavroche, he brought us here.”

He seemed to contemplate momentarily before deciding “Seeing as you are friends with little Gav, would you like to stay to observe the meeting? No one here will give you any trouble I can assure you.”

Éponine was wary, she sensed true kindness within this man but how could she truly trust the other men here? She looked to Cosette and saw the yearning plain on her face. “Are you sure Cos?” She nodded and Éponine sighed. She looked Monsieur Courfeyrac in the eye and said “It would be our pleasure.” Cosette beamed and the Monsieur escorted them towards an ill-dressed man with red hair. Éponine let Cosette choose most of her dresses after she had a brief spell of studying all the fashion plates she could find and dedicating herself t understanding the day’s fashions some weeks ago, but even she could tell his outfit was disastrous. He turned out to be immensely wonderful though, called Jehan. He wrote poetry in a little leather-bound book. After her time in the convent, Éponine had become a vociferous reader and the man seemed ecstatic to talk with her about poetry and recommend her some poetry collections and political works. He wrote a little list and tore the page out of his book. She was momentarily surprised he would defile the book as such but he smiled and her heart melted. He flipped to another page and peeled a piece of pressed rosemary from the page and folded it within her page. She didn’t know what to do so she asked him another question about one of the essays he had been praising.

Cosette was wonderfully surprised by how fast Éponine engrossed herself in the conversation with Jehan. She was usually so wary of strangers and generally shy but she hardly noticed when Cosette walked away to talk with some of the other men so she counted it as a win. Courfeyrac introduced her to the tall man, Combeferre, and the leader, Enjolras. They were both perfectly lovely but also too busy to really engage with her. Courfeyrac looked across the room, his eyes landed on the three men she had noticed in the back earlier but he decided against it and led her instead to a broad man in a flashy waistcoat. She was surprised realizing how much older he was than the other men she had met but took it in stride. Courfeyrac made the introductions and excused himself to attend to other matters. Somehow emboldened by his sizable stature she decided to be frank and told him how much she appreciated his waistcoat. He preened somewhat and returned the compliment. She explained her recent escapades into the world of fashion after having lived with nuns for so long. He described his red waistcoat in turn and she began to pepper him with questions about politics, inserting her own observations along the way. At one point when the topic of history and other countries came up a man named Feuilly entered the conversation. She drifted between many of the different men, asking questions and posing different perspectives and hypotheticals. Even Enjolras took some time from his planning to speak with her upon prompting by Courfeyrac who had returned to the conversation. Two of the three men from the back of the room also got curious and made their introductions, Bossuet and Joly. She was thoroughly occupied for at the least, two hours. She regularly checked up on Éponine who had decided to remain seated with Jehan.

Éponine had begun to realize how late it was when the drunk man with dark curly hair she had been wary of sat down at the head of the small table between Éponine and Jehan. He whispered something in Jehan’s ear and he giggled.

“Grantaire, don’t be impolite, introduce yourself to the lovely lady,” he laughed. It seemed this Grantaire fellow might not have been as drunk as he should have been considering all she had seen him consume but he spoke clearly if not entirely logically. He ranted about the fruitlessness of attempting the revolution until the blonde leader, Enjolras, sat down across from him and took up the argument. Cosette sat down beside Éponine and smiled at her.

Éponine laughed, “You’re enjoying this entirely too much, aren’t you?”

“So are you,” Cosette tried to tamp down a laugh but it bubbled up out of her. Courfeyrac took the last seat at the table across from her and smiled at them. Grantaire and Enjolras barely noticed them over their debate. Cosette turned in her seat to face Éponine and began pointing out each individual she had spoken to and what they had seemed interested in and what they had discussed. Éponine listened intently as her sister recalled her different conversations. She was intrigued by the variety of temperaments and interests of the group. They all seemed so in sync towards this one goal, excepting Grantaire she supposed. Her body chose that moment to rebel against her mind and she couldn’t stifle a great yawn from emitting. Jehan giggled again and Cosette patted her arm. Gavroche approached them, appearing from nowhere as children like he tended to do.

“It’s quite late now misses. D’you wanted me to walk ye home?”

Cosette took the initiative to reply “That would be absolutely lovely, thank you Gavroche.”

Éponine huffed a little but rose when Cosette prompted. Enjolras and Grantaire seemed too occupied to notice their departure but both Courfeyrac and Jehan rose to wish them well. Courfeyrac played at charm and chivalry and places a kiss on both their hands. Cosette laughed and Éponine couldn’t help roll her eyes. Cosette bid her farewells to the rest of the Amis and Éponine waved to them.

Cosette noticed that unlike Courfeyrac, Jehan had not yet said his goodbyes and returned to the table they had left. He hovered a short distance behind her sister towards the stairs. When she concluded her goodbyes she prompted Gavroche to lead the way and almost made to follow but instead turned to Éponine and Jehan. If her sister trusted him, which she so clearly did, then she also trusted him. She put on a winning smile and asked if he would also like to accompany them. He beamed and agreed immediately, Éponine blushed. She smiled and quickly caught up to Gavroche. Letting Éponine and Jehan trail behind them. Would never forget this day, she could already tell.

I don’t think I described the table layout that well so have this:

J___C

R |____| E

É, Cos