Les Miserables continued with volume III: Marius. This volume introduces a new character, Marius Pontmercy, whose father made a cameo appearance in the book “Waterloo” of volume II: Cosette. Volume III is a little over 200 pages long and split into eight books, the usual number. This volume includes page 611, the halfway point of the book. It doesn’t contain as many digressions as volume II, but can still get slow and long winded such as when describing the gamins or young street urchins of Paris including the introduced character Gavroche, Marius’ grandfather, each of the “Friends of the ABC”, Marius’ father’s life, and the changing views of Marius from being a Royalist like his grandfather to believing in the empire like his father to beginning to believe people should be free. There’s much setting up the background. But once it’s set up the story gets more interesting and riveting in the last 75 pages of the volume.
From reading his namesake volume, I got to know Marius Pontmercy. He lives most of his childhood and youth with his maternal grandfather, a Royalist, and has no contact with his Bonaparte-supporting father due to the different political opinion from his grandfather. But after his father’s death, Marius grows to accept, learn of, and eventually idolize his father and reject his grandfather’s Royalist views. Marius inherits a baron title from his father and receives a message to do service for an innkeeper, Thenardier, who saved his father’s life. Marius seeks out Thenardier but finds his inn closed and his family moved away. Ultimately rejected by his grandfather, he falls in with a group of young men, the Friends of the ABC. Pronounced in French, ABC sounds like ah-bay-say that also sounds like the French word abaisse that translates to abased. The friends include Enjolras, their leader; Combeferre; Jean Prouvaire; Feuilly, Coufeyrac who is similar in personality to Felix Tholomyes, Cosette’s father; Bachorel, Lesgle or Laigle or Bossuet; Joly; and Grantaire. Marius wears black in mourning for his father and is poor because he refuses help from his great aunt who lives with his grandfather. When all Marius can afford is a green coat, he only goes out after dark so that the coat appears black.
Most of the main characters from the previous volumes make appearances but often under different names. On his daily walks, Marius sees an old man with white hair with his young daughter in a black dress. Without meeting them, Coufeyrac nicknames them Monsieur LeBlanc (white) and Mademoiselle LaNoire. Marius eventually falls in love with her. Finding a handkerchief left by them with the initials U.F. he guesses her name is Ursula and so refers to her though he never meets her in the volume. He later hears the old man give his name as “Urbain Fabre” though this is likely a pseudonym. Marius’ neighbors are a man and wife with two daughters who seem very familiar. The man writes letters under different names requesting financial support. He uses alias Fabantou and Jondrette among others. All these assumed identities along with Marius’ new admiration and conflicting loyalties set the stages for some riveting scenes.
Along with the main characters’ aliases, the book mentions names familiar to me in other contexts. The royalist salon in which Marius’ grandfather participates includes the Bishop of Mirepoix. Isn’t Mirepoix also a food term meaning celery, onion and carrot all chopped up and ready to use? There are more references to “the Sword of Marengo” (p. 527) and “Marengo” is given as one of the “mighty words which blaze forever.” (p. 568) Well, it does blaze a lot in this book. I eventually researched this name of a street in Pasadena. According to the ever-reliable Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Marengo (retrieved 3/2/2010)): “The Battle of Marengo was fought on 14 June 1800 between French forces under Napoleon Bonaparte and Austrian forces near the city of Alessandria, in Piedmont, Italy. The French defeated Austrian General Michael von Mela’s surprise attack, driving the Austrians out of Italy, and enhancing Napoleon’s political position in Paris.” The Wikipedia article later mentions Chicken Marengo, a famous dish of braised chicken with onions and mushrooms in a wine and tomato sauce. It sounds delicious. The article goes on to say “Local lore says it was cooked up on the battlefield by Napoleon’s personal chef using all the ingredients he could find in those adventurous circumstances.”
This volume mentions names significant to itself. One of Jondrette’s letters asking for financial support is addressed to “Monsieur Pabourgeot, elector, wholesale merchant, milliner, Rue Saint Denis . . .” (p. 618) The fourth and next volume is called “St. Denis.” Are they related? When describing the exploits of Marius’ father, Colonel Pontmercy, the author mentions how the colonel fought at the same place as his uncle, Louis Hugo. Another reference is more significant. After a visit from their elder daughter, Marius starts to notice his neighbors and realizes they are even worse off than he is. “Undoubtedly they seem very depraved, very corrupt, very vile, very hateful even, but those are rare who fall without being degraded; there is a point, moreover, at which the unfortunate and the infamous are associated and confounded in a single word, a fatal word, Les Miserables;” (p. 627)
I learned some new words used in this volume that I had to look up in my Random House dictionary. The Friends of the ABC have conventicles or secret meetings at the Café Musain. One of the ABC, Joly, thinks himself a valetudinarian or an invalid who is excessively concerned about his poor health. Marius passes the bar exam but continues to work for a book binder and doesn’t pettifog. The dictionary describes a pettifogger as “a petty, shifty, and often dishonest lawyer.” So they had just as much respect for lawyers in the 19th century. Complaining of some radical students planning a protest, Marius’ grandfather exclaims, “Virtue of my quean.” I’m not sure what that expression means. A quean is “a shrew or a hussy.”
Like the last volume, Hugo includes some humor in his writing. In the early chapters he describes how the gamin points to a house and says that a cure lives there. A cure is a minor clergy but the Papal Nuncio actually lives in the house. The new landlady at Gorbeau House is another old woman prompting Hugo’s line, “I do not remember what philosopher it was who said ‘there is never any lack of old women.’” (p. 504) While the Friends of the ABC are having another conventicle at the Café Musain, at another table an old man of thirty advises a young man of eighteen. Later Coufeyrac and Bossuet (A.K.A. Laigle) see Marius following Jondrette. Laigle proposes following Marius but Coufeyrac scolds him, “Bossuet . . . you are a prodigious fool (to) follow a man who is following a man.” (p. 654)
Along with the humor Hugo’s writing includes some interesting points that edify. In the section on Gamin, Gavroche is described as “one of those children . . . who have fathers and mothers, and yet are orphans.” (p. 504) Marius’ friend’s servant reads her books out loud because “to read out loud is to assure yourself of what you are reading.” (p. 583) Much of the exciting action in the volume takes place on February 2 that is “Candlemas Day” in 19th century France “whose treacherous sun, the precursor of six weeks of cold, inspired Matthew Laensberg with those two lines . . . Qu’il luise ou qu’il luiserne/ L’ours rentre en sa caverne (Let it gleam or let it glimmer/ The bear returns to his cave.)” (p. 615) That sounds like a version of Groundhog Day. There is the contrast between evil in the city and the forest: “ . . . in the cities, what hides thus is ferocious, unclean, and petty, that is to say, ugly; in forests, what hides is ferocious, savage, and grand, that is to say, beautiful.” (p. 628) Finally there’s Thernardier’s speech about the rich and charitable who “think themselves above us, and come to humiliate us, and to bring us cloths! As they call them! Rags which are not worth four sous, and bread! That is not what I want of the rabble! I want money!” (p. 635)
I used tape flags to mark 26 places in volume III: Marius, possibly a record for a book of any length, and this was just one volume of a book. This volume doesn’t have as much equivalent in the musical that doesn’t give much information about Marius’ life story. Marius seems to be the least miserable of the Miserables, if he can even be categorized as such. But that doesn’t make him any less a complex and interesting character. The 26 tape flags can attest to that.
From reading his namesake volume, I got to know Marius Pontmercy. He lives most of his childhood and youth with his maternal grandfather, a Royalist, and has no contact with his Bonaparte-supporting father due to the different political opinion from his grandfather. But after his father’s death, Marius grows to accept, learn of, and eventually idolize his father and reject his grandfather’s Royalist views. Marius inherits a baron title from his father and receives a message to do service for an innkeeper, Thenardier, who saved his father’s life. Marius seeks out Thenardier but finds his inn closed and his family moved away. Ultimately rejected by his grandfather, he falls in with a group of young men, the Friends of the ABC. Pronounced in French, ABC sounds like ah-bay-say that also sounds like the French word abaisse that translates to abased. The friends include Enjolras, their leader; Combeferre; Jean Prouvaire; Feuilly, Coufeyrac who is similar in personality to Felix Tholomyes, Cosette’s father; Bachorel, Lesgle or Laigle or Bossuet; Joly; and Grantaire. Marius wears black in mourning for his father and is poor because he refuses help from his great aunt who lives with his grandfather. When all Marius can afford is a green coat, he only goes out after dark so that the coat appears black.
Most of the main characters from the previous volumes make appearances but often under different names. On his daily walks, Marius sees an old man with white hair with his young daughter in a black dress. Without meeting them, Coufeyrac nicknames them Monsieur LeBlanc (white) and Mademoiselle LaNoire. Marius eventually falls in love with her. Finding a handkerchief left by them with the initials U.F. he guesses her name is Ursula and so refers to her though he never meets her in the volume. He later hears the old man give his name as “Urbain Fabre” though this is likely a pseudonym. Marius’ neighbors are a man and wife with two daughters who seem very familiar. The man writes letters under different names requesting financial support. He uses alias Fabantou and Jondrette among others. All these assumed identities along with Marius’ new admiration and conflicting loyalties set the stages for some riveting scenes.
Along with the main characters’ aliases, the book mentions names familiar to me in other contexts. The royalist salon in which Marius’ grandfather participates includes the Bishop of Mirepoix. Isn’t Mirepoix also a food term meaning celery, onion and carrot all chopped up and ready to use? There are more references to “the Sword of Marengo” (p. 527) and “Marengo” is given as one of the “mighty words which blaze forever.” (p. 568) Well, it does blaze a lot in this book. I eventually researched this name of a street in Pasadena. According to the ever-reliable Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Marengo (retrieved 3/2/2010)): “The Battle of Marengo was fought on 14 June 1800 between French forces under Napoleon Bonaparte and Austrian forces near the city of Alessandria, in Piedmont, Italy. The French defeated Austrian General Michael von Mela’s surprise attack, driving the Austrians out of Italy, and enhancing Napoleon’s political position in Paris.” The Wikipedia article later mentions Chicken Marengo, a famous dish of braised chicken with onions and mushrooms in a wine and tomato sauce. It sounds delicious. The article goes on to say “Local lore says it was cooked up on the battlefield by Napoleon’s personal chef using all the ingredients he could find in those adventurous circumstances.”
This volume mentions names significant to itself. One of Jondrette’s letters asking for financial support is addressed to “Monsieur Pabourgeot, elector, wholesale merchant, milliner, Rue Saint Denis . . .” (p. 618) The fourth and next volume is called “St. Denis.” Are they related? When describing the exploits of Marius’ father, Colonel Pontmercy, the author mentions how the colonel fought at the same place as his uncle, Louis Hugo. Another reference is more significant. After a visit from their elder daughter, Marius starts to notice his neighbors and realizes they are even worse off than he is. “Undoubtedly they seem very depraved, very corrupt, very vile, very hateful even, but those are rare who fall without being degraded; there is a point, moreover, at which the unfortunate and the infamous are associated and confounded in a single word, a fatal word, Les Miserables;” (p. 627)
I learned some new words used in this volume that I had to look up in my Random House dictionary. The Friends of the ABC have conventicles or secret meetings at the Café Musain. One of the ABC, Joly, thinks himself a valetudinarian or an invalid who is excessively concerned about his poor health. Marius passes the bar exam but continues to work for a book binder and doesn’t pettifog. The dictionary describes a pettifogger as “a petty, shifty, and often dishonest lawyer.” So they had just as much respect for lawyers in the 19th century. Complaining of some radical students planning a protest, Marius’ grandfather exclaims, “Virtue of my quean.” I’m not sure what that expression means. A quean is “a shrew or a hussy.”
Like the last volume, Hugo includes some humor in his writing. In the early chapters he describes how the gamin points to a house and says that a cure lives there. A cure is a minor clergy but the Papal Nuncio actually lives in the house. The new landlady at Gorbeau House is another old woman prompting Hugo’s line, “I do not remember what philosopher it was who said ‘there is never any lack of old women.’” (p. 504) While the Friends of the ABC are having another conventicle at the Café Musain, at another table an old man of thirty advises a young man of eighteen. Later Coufeyrac and Bossuet (A.K.A. Laigle) see Marius following Jondrette. Laigle proposes following Marius but Coufeyrac scolds him, “Bossuet . . . you are a prodigious fool (to) follow a man who is following a man.” (p. 654)
Along with the humor Hugo’s writing includes some interesting points that edify. In the section on Gamin, Gavroche is described as “one of those children . . . who have fathers and mothers, and yet are orphans.” (p. 504) Marius’ friend’s servant reads her books out loud because “to read out loud is to assure yourself of what you are reading.” (p. 583) Much of the exciting action in the volume takes place on February 2 that is “Candlemas Day” in 19th century France “whose treacherous sun, the precursor of six weeks of cold, inspired Matthew Laensberg with those two lines . . . Qu’il luise ou qu’il luiserne/ L’ours rentre en sa caverne (Let it gleam or let it glimmer/ The bear returns to his cave.)” (p. 615) That sounds like a version of Groundhog Day. There is the contrast between evil in the city and the forest: “ . . . in the cities, what hides thus is ferocious, unclean, and petty, that is to say, ugly; in forests, what hides is ferocious, savage, and grand, that is to say, beautiful.” (p. 628) Finally there’s Thernardier’s speech about the rich and charitable who “think themselves above us, and come to humiliate us, and to bring us cloths! As they call them! Rags which are not worth four sous, and bread! That is not what I want of the rabble! I want money!” (p. 635)
I used tape flags to mark 26 places in volume III: Marius, possibly a record for a book of any length, and this was just one volume of a book. This volume doesn’t have as much equivalent in the musical that doesn’t give much information about Marius’ life story. Marius seems to be the least miserable of the Miserables, if he can even be categorized as such. But that doesn’t make him any less a complex and interesting character. The 26 tape flags can attest to that.
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