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Les Miserables Novel Chapters
List of most recent chapters published for the Les Miserables novel. A total of 300 chapters have been translated and the release date of the last chapter is Apr 02, 2024
Latest Release: Chapter 1 : Les Miserables.by Victor Hugo.VOLUME I.--FANTINE.PREFACE So long as there shall exist, b
Les Miserables.by Victor Hugo.VOLUME I.--FANTINE.PREFACE So long as there shall exist, by virtue of law and custom, decrees of d.a.m.nation p.r.o.nounced by society, artificially creating h.e.l.ls amid the civilization of earth, and adding the element of
- 1 Les Miserables.by Victor Hugo.VOLUME I.--FANTINE.PREFACE So long as there shall exist, by virtue of law and custom, decrees of d.a.m.nation p.r.o.nounced by society, artificially creating h.e.l.ls amid the civilization of earth, and adding the element of
- 2 The Bishop did not omit his pastoral visits because he had converted his carriage into alms. The diocese of D---- is a fatiguing one. There are very few plains and a great many mountains; hardly any roads, as we have just seen; thirty-two curacies, forty-
- 3 CHAPTER V--MONSEIGNEUR BIENVENU MADE HIS Ca.s.sOCKS LAST TOO LONG The private life of M. Myriel was filled with the same thoughts as his public life. The voluntary poverty in which the Bishop of D---- lived, would have been a solemn and charming sight for
- 4 Then he spoke of something else.He was fond of saying, "There is a bravery of the priest as well as the bravery of a colonel of dragoons,--only," he added, "ours must be tranquil."CHAPTER VII--CRAVATTE It is here that a fact falls natu
- 5 "And you are right," replied the Bishop. "As one makes one's philosophy, so one lies on it. You are on the bed of purple, senator."The senator was encouraged, and went on:-- "Let us be good fellows.""Good devils eve
- 6 And he added, deep in his own mind, "I owe him a visit."But, let us avow it, this idea, which seemed natural at the first blush, appeared to him after a moment's reflection, as strange, impossible, and almost repulsive. For, at bottom, he s
- 7 "Mixed joy," said the Bishop."You may say troubled joy, and to-day, after that fatal return of the past, which is called 1814, joy which has disappeared! Alas! The work was incomplete, I admit: we demolished the ancient regime in deeds; we
- 8 The supreme moment was approaching.The Bishop understood this; time pressed; it was as a priest that he had come: from extreme coldness he had pa.s.sed by degrees to extreme emotion; he gazed at those closed eyes, he took that wrinkled, aged and ice-cold
- 9 "Poor beast! It is not its fault!"Why not mention these almost divinely childish sayings of kindness?Puerile they may be; but these sublime puerilities were peculiar to Saint Francis d'a.s.sisi and of Marcus Aurelius. One day he sprained hi
- 10 "I cannot receive you, sir," said he.The man half rose."What! Are you afraid that I will not pay you? Do you want me to pay you in advance? I have money, I tell you.""It is not that.""What then?""You have money
- 11 "Yes.""I was sent away from the other inn.""And you are to be turned out of this one.""Where would you have me go?""Elsewhere."The man took his stick and his knapsack and departed.As he went out, some chil
- 12 He walked thus for some time, with his head still drooping. When he felt himself far from every human habitation, he raised his eyes and gazed searchingly about him. He was in a field. Before him was one of those low hills covered with close-cut stubble,
- 13 "Yes, Monseigneur. That is how it is. There will be some sort of catastrophe in this town to-night. Every one says so. And withal, the police is so badly regulated" (a useful repet.i.tion). "The idea of living in a mountainous country, and
- 14 "Yes," replied the Bishop, "you are called my brother.""Stop, Monsieur le Cure," exclaimed the man. "I was very hungry when I entered here; but you are so good, that I no longer know what has happened to me."The Bis
- 15 Even at this day it is difficult for us to explain what inspired him at that moment. Did he intend to convey a warning or to throw out a menace?Was he simply obeying a sort of instinctive impulse which was obscure even to himself? He turned abruptly to th
- 16 Whether it was not outrageous for society to treat thus precisely those of its members who were the least well endowed in the division of goods made by chance, and consequently the most deserving of consideration.These questions put and answered, he judge
- 17 Oh, implacable march of human societies! Oh, losses of men and of souls on the way! Ocean into which falls all that the law lets slip!Disastrous absence of help! Oh, moral death!The sea is the inexorable social night into which the penal laws fling their
- 18 The soul of the just contemplates in sleep a mysterious heaven.A reflection of that heaven rested on the Bishop.It was, at the same time, a luminous transparency, for that heaven was within him. That heaven was his conscience.[Ill.u.s.tration: The Fall 1b
- 19 At this word, Jean Valjean, who was dejected and seemed overwhelmed, raised his head with an air of stupefaction."Monseigneur!" he murmured. "So he is not the cure?""Silence!" said the gendarme. "He is Monseigneur the Bi
- 20 Jean Valjean's eyes remained fixed on the earth."My piece of money!" cried the child, "my white piece! my silver!"It seemed as though Jean Valjean did not hear him. The child grasped him by the collar of his blouse and shook him.
- 21 I take it away from the spirit of perversity; I give it to the good G.o.d."This recurred to his mind unceasingly. To this celestial kindness he opposed pride, which is the fortress of evil within us. He was indistinctly conscious that the pardon of t
- 22 Good! some one will exclaim; and Tholomyes? Solomon would reply that love forms a part of wisdom. We will confine ourselves to saying that the love of Fantine was a first love, a sole love, a faithful love.She alone, of all the four, was not called "
- 23 "And the surprise? I claim the surprise.""Patience," replied Tholomyes.CHAPTER V--AT BOMBARDA'S The Russian mountains having been exhausted, they began to think about dinner; and the radiant party of eight, somewhat weary at last,
- 24 "Friends," cried Tholomyes, with the accent of a man who had recovered his empire, "Come to yourselves. This pun which has fallen from the skies must not be received with too much stupor. Everything which falls in that way is not necessaril
- 25 "Quin?""No; Choux."And Tholomyes continued:-- "Honor to Bombarda! He would equal Munophis of Elephanta if he could but get me an Indian dancing-girl, and Thygelion of Chaeronea if he could bring me a Greek courtesan; for, oh, ladi
- 26 "OUR BELOVED:-- "You must know that we have parents. Parents--you do not know much about such things. They are called fathers and mothers by the civil code, which is puerile and honest. Now, these parents groan, these old folks implore us, these
- 27 Charms exist. These two little girls were a charm to this mother.She gazed at them in much emotion. The presence of angels is an announcement of Paradise. She thought that, above this inn, she beheld the mysterious HERE of Providence. These two little cre
- 28 "That's good," said he.The bargain was concluded. The mother pa.s.sed the night at the inn, gave up her money and left her child, fastened her carpet-bag once more, now reduced in volume by the removal of the outfit, and light henceforth an
- 29 And in the meantime, what had become of that mother who according to the people at Montfermeil, seemed to have abandoned her child? Where was she? What was she doing?After leaving her little Cosette with the Thenardiers, she had continued her journey, and
- 30 It was also whispered about that he had "immense" sums deposited with Laffitte, with this peculiar feature, that they were always at his immediate disposal, so that, it was added, M. Madeleine could make his appearance at Laffitte's any mor
- 31 CHAPTER VI--FATHER FAUCHELEVENT One morning M. Madeleine was pa.s.sing through an unpaved alley of M. sur M.; he heard a noise, and saw a group some distance away. He approached.An old man named Father Fauchelevent had just fallen beneath his cart, his ho
- 32 Suddenly the enormous ma.s.s was seen to quiver, the cart rose slowly, the wheels half emerged from the ruts. They heard a stifled voice crying, "Make haste! Help!" It was Madeleine, who had just made a final effort.They rushed forwards. The dev
- 33 She was obliged to accustom herself to disrepute, as she had accustomed herself to indigence. Gradually she decided on her course. At the expiration of two or three months she shook off her shame, and began to go about as though there were nothing the mat
- 34 "They may," said Marguerite.Fantine left the room and went to read her letter once more on the staircase.That evening she went out, and was seen to turn her steps in the direction of the Rue de Paris, where the inns are situated.The next morning
- 35 The woman raised her head; her furious voice suddenly died away. Her eyes were gla.s.sy; she turned pale instead of livid, and she trembled with a quiver of terror. She had recognized Javert.The dandy took advantage of the incident to make his escape.CHAP
- 36 The sound of the latch roused him. He raised his head with an expression of sovereign authority, an expression all the more alarming in proportion as the authority rests on a low level, ferocious in the wild beast, atrocious in the man of no estate."
- 37 M. Madeleine had been there for an hour. He had been waiting for Fantine to awake. He took her hand, felt of her pulse, and replied:-- "How do you feel?""Well, I have slept," she replied; "I think that I am better, It is nothing.&
- 38 M. Madeleine had retained his seat near the fire, pen in hand, his eyes fixed on the docket which he was turning over and annotating, and which contained the trials of the commission on highways for the infraction of police regulations. He did not disturb
- 39 "The jail being in a bad condition, the examining magistrate finds it convenient to transfer Champmathieu to Arras, where the departmental prison is situated. In this prison at Arras there is an ex-convict named Brevet, who is detained for I know not
- 40 He withdrew. M. Madeleine remained thoughtfully listening to the firm, sure step, which died away on the pavement of the corridor.BOOK SEVENTH.--THE CHAMPMATHIEU AFFAIR CHAPTER I--SISTER SIMPLICE The incidents the reader is about to peruse were not all kn
- 41 "In the first place, you will give him half an hour's breathing spell midway of the road; he will eat; and some one must be by while he is eating to prevent the stable boy of the inn from stealing his oats; for I have noticed that in inns the oa
- 42 This cas.h.i.+er occupied a room situated directly under M. Madeleine's chamber. He paid no heed to the portress's words, but went to bed and to sleep. Towards midnight he woke up with a start; in his sleep he had heard a noise above his head. H
- 43 For the first time in eight years, the wretched man had just tasted the bitter savor of an evil thought and of an evil action.He spit it out with disgust.He continued to question himself. He asked himself severely what he had meant by this, "My objec
- 44 All at once his eye fell on the two silver candlesticks, which shone vaguely on the chimney-piece, through the glow."Hold!" he thought; "the whole of Jean Valjean is still in them. They must be destroyed also."He seized the two candles
- 45 "The first chamber was deserted. I entered the second. Behind the door of this chamber a man was standing erect against the wall. I inquired of this man, 'Whose house is this? Where am I?' The man replied not."The house had a garden. I
- 46 The man thus hastening on was the one whom we have just seen struggling in convulsions which are certainly deserving of pity.Whither was he going? He could not have told. Why was he hastening?He did not know. He was driving at random, straight ahead. Whit
- 47 "You are a wheelwright?""Certainly, sir.""Have you not a wheel that you can sell me? Then I could start again at once.""A spare wheel?""Yes.""I have no wheel on hand that would fit your cabriolet. Two
- 48 "Is there any one in this village who lets out teams?""No.""Is there another wheelwright?"The stableman and the wheelwright replied in concert, with a toss of the head."No."He felt an immense joy.It was evident that
- 49 "Why is their bread so bitter here?"The carter was a German and did not understand him.He returned to the stable and remained near the horse.An hour later he had quitted Saint-Pol and was directing his course towards Tinques, which is only five
- 50 Some months before this, at the moment when Fantine had just lost her last modesty, her last shame, and her last joy, she was the shadow of herself; now she was the spectre of herself. Physical suffering had completed the work of moral suffering. This cre
- 51 he will be here to-morrow with Cosette: how far is it from here to Montfermeil?"The sister, who had no idea of distances, replied, "Oh, I think that he will be here to-morrow.""To-morrow! to-morrow!" said Fantine, "I shall se
- 52 It is always a heart-breaking thing to see these congregations of men robed in black, murmuring together in low voices, on the threshold of the halls of justice. It is rare that charity and pity are the outcome of these words. Condemnations p.r.o.nounced
- 53 He crushed the paper in his hand as though those words contained for him a strange and bitter aftertaste.He followed the usher.A few minutes later he found himself alone in a sort of wainscoted cabinet of severe aspect, lighted by two wax candles, placed
- 54 CHAPTER X--THE SYSTEM OF DENIALS The moment for closing the debate had arrived. The President had the accused stand up, and addressed to him the customary question, "Have you anything to add to your defence?"The man did not appear to understand,
- 55 "Brevet! Chenildieu! Cochepaille! look here!"All who heard that voice were chilled, so lamentable and terrible was it; all eyes were turned to the point whence it had proceeded. A man, placed among the privileged spectators who were seated behin
- 56 The day had begun to dawn. Fantine had pa.s.sed a sleepless and feverish night, filled with happy visions; at daybreak she fell asleep. Sister Simplice, who had been watching with her, availed herself of this slumber to go and prepare a new potion of chin
- 57 She interrupted him impetuously:-- "But I am cured! Oh, I tell you that I am cured! What an a.s.s that doctor is! The idea! I want to see my child!""You see," said the doctor, "how excited you become. So long as you are in this st
- 58 It was the visage of a demon who has just found his d.a.m.ned soul.The satisfaction of at last getting hold of Jean Valjean caused all that was in his soul to appear in his countenance. The depths having been stirred up, mounted to the surface. The humili
- 59 He stared intently at Fantine, and added, once more taking into his grasp Jean Valjean's cravat, s.h.i.+rt and collar:-- "I tell you that there is no Monsieur Madeleine and that there is no Monsieur le Maire. There is a thief, a brigand, a convi
- 60 He took a sheet of paper, on which he wrote: "These are the two tips of my iron-shod cudgel and the forty-sou piece stolen from Little Gervais, which I mentioned at the Court of a.s.sizes," and he arranged this piece of paper, the bits of iron,
- 61 [Ill.u.s.tration: t.i.tlepage Volume Two 2t.i.tlepage]VOLUME II.--COSETTE BOOK FIRST.--WATERLOO CHAPTER I--WHAT IS MET WITH ON THE WAY FROM NIVELLES Last year (1861), on a beautiful May morning, a traveller, the person who is telling this story, was comin
- 62 This well has not in front of it that large blue slab which forms the table for all wells in Belgium. The slab has here been replaced by a cross-beam, against which lean five or six shapeless fragments of knotty and petrified wood which resemble huge bone
- 63 After the taking of La Haie-Sainte the battle wavered.There is in this day an obscure interval, from mid-day to four o'clock; the middle portion of this battle is almost indistinct, and partic.i.p.ates in the sombreness of the hand-to-hand conflict.
- 64 Wellington had drawn back.All that remained to do was to complete this retreat by crus.h.i.+ng him.Napoleon turning round abruptly, despatched an express at full speed to Paris to announce that the battle was won.Napoleon was one of those geniuses from wh
- 65 There were a dozen a.s.saults. Ney had four horses killed under him. Half the cuira.s.siers remained on the plateau. This conflict lasted two hours.The English army was profoundly shaken. There is no doubt that, had they not been enfeebled in their first
- 66 If any French reader object to having his susceptibilities offended, one would have to refrain from repeating in his presence what is perhaps the finest reply that a Frenchman ever made. This would enjoin us from consigning something sublime to History.At
- 67 End of the dictators.h.i.+p. A whole European system crumbled away.The Empire sank into a gloom which resembled that of the Roman world as it expired. Again we behold the abyss, as in the days of the barbarians; only the barbarism of 1815, which must be c
- 68 "Well now," said the prowler, "is that dead fellow alive? Let's see."He bent down again, fumbled among the heap, pushed aside everything that was in his way, seized the hand, grasped the arm, freed the head, pulled out the body, a
- 69 However, and we will mention it at once in order that we may not be obliged to recur to the subject, the prosperity of M. sur M. vanished with M. Madeleine; all that he had foreseen during his night of fever and hesitation was realized; lacking him, there
- 70 Every time that immense force is displayed to culminate in an immense feebleness it affords men food for thought, Hence in the ports curious people abound around these marvellous machines of war and of navigation, without being able to explain perfectly t
- 71 He composed the travellers' tariff card in a superior manner, but practised eyes sometimes spied out orthographical errors in it.Thenardier was cunning, greedy, slothful, and clever. He did not disdain his servants, which caused his wife to dispense
- 72 The Thenardier resumed:-- "Mademoiselle Dog-lack-name, go and water that horse.""But, Madame," said Cosette, feebly, "there is no water."The Thenardier threw the street door wide open:-- "Well, go and get some, then!&quo
- 73 In this manner she advanced a dozen paces, but the bucket was full; it was heavy; she was forced to set it on the ground once more. She took breath for an instant, then lifted the handle of the bucket again, and resumed her march, proceeding a little furt
- 74 CHAPTER VII--COSETTE SIDE BY SIDE WITH THE STRANGER IN THE DARK Cosette, as we have said, was not frightened.The man accosted her. He spoke in a voice that was grave and almost ba.s.s."My child, what you are carrying is very heavy for you."Coset
- 75 "What little girls?""Ponine and Zelma."This was the way the child simplified the romantic names so dear to the female Thenardier."Who are Ponine and Zelma?""They are Madame Thenardier's young ladies; her daughters,
- 76 "Forty sous.""Forty sous; agreed.""Very well, then!""Forty sous!" said a carter, in a low tone, to the Thenardier woman; "why, the charge is only twenty sous!""It is forty in his case," retorted
- 77 Eponine and Azelma did not look at Cosette. She was the same as a dog to them. These three little girls did not yet reckon up four and twenty years between them, but they already represented the whole society of man; envy on the one side, disdain on the o
- 78 "You see, sir," she pursued, a.s.suming a sweetish air that was even more repulsive to behold than her fierce mien, "I am willing that the child should play; I do not oppose it, but it is good for once, because you are generous. You see, sh
- 79 "That machine costs at least thirty francs. No nonsense. Down on your belly before that man!"Gross natures have this in common with naive natures, that they possess no transition state."Well, Cosette," said the Thenardier, in a voice t
- 80 Thenardier lied, however. When he had leased this paltry building for the purpose of converting it into a tavern, he had found this chamber decorated in just this manner, and had purchased the furniture and obtained the orange flowers at second hand, with
- 81 The yellow man carried his bundle and his cudgel in his hand."Up so early?" said Madame Thenardier; "is Monsieur leaving us already?"As she spoke thus, she was twisting the bill about in her hands with an embarra.s.sed air, and making
- 82 The stranger gazed intently at him."What child?"Thenardier continued:-- "How strange it is, one grows attached. What money is that? Take back your hundred-sou piece. I adore the child.""Whom do you mean?" demanded the strange
- 83 In truth, when he had pa.s.sed the ponds and had traversed in an oblique direction the large clearing which lies on the right of the Avenue de Bellevue, and reached that turf alley which nearly makes the circuit of the hill, and covers the arch of the anc
- 84 CHAPTER XI--NUMBER 9,430 REAPPEARS, AND COSETTE WINS IT IN THE LOTTERY Jean Valjean was not dead.When he fell into the sea, or rather, when he threw himself into it, he was not ironed, as we have seen. He swam under water until he reached a vessel at anch
- 85 At the top of the stairs he drew from his pocket another key, with which he opened another door. The chamber which he entered, and which he closed again instantly, was a kind of moderately s.p.a.cious attic, furnished with a mattress laid on the floor, a
- 86 This is only a personal opinion; but, to utter our whole thought, at the point where Jean Valjean had arrived when he began to love Cosette, it is by no means clear to us that he did not need this encouragement in order that he might persevere in well-doi
- 87 When darkness came on, he descended and carefully scrutinized both sides of the boulevard. He saw no one. The boulevard appeared to be absolutely deserted. It is true that a person can conceal himself behind trees.He went up stairs again."Come."
- 88 These shadows had their backs turned to the Jardin des Plantes and were on their way to the right bank.These four shadows were the four men.Jean Valjean shuddered like the wild beast which is recaptured.One hope remained to him; it was, that the men had n
- 89 On examining it he found that the door was not a door; it had neither hinges, cross-bars, lock, nor fissure in the middle; the iron bands traversed it from side to side without any break. Through the crevices in the planks he caught a view of unhewn slabs
- 90 Cosette trembled and pressed close to him. They heard the tumultuous noise of the patrol searching the blind alley and the streets; the blows of their gun-stocks against the stones; Javert's appeals to the police spies whom he had posted, and his imp
- 91 He fell back from chimerical terrors to real terrors. He said to himself that Javert and the spies had, perhaps, not taken their departure; that they had, no doubt, left people on the watch in the street; that if this man should discover him in the garden
- 92 "Ah, goodness! there are only women in this house--many young girls. It appears that I should be a dangerous person to meet. The bell gives them warning. When I come, they go.""What house is this?""Come, you know well enough."
- 93 He had again begun to forget this history, when, in the course of March, 1824, he heard of a singular personage who dwelt in the parish of Saint-Medard and who had been surnamed "the mendicant who gives alms."This person, the story ran, was a ma
- 94 If one knew the pa.s.sword, the voice resumed, "Enter on the right."One then perceived on the right, facing the window, a gla.s.s door surmounted by a frame glazed and painted gray. On raising the latch and crossing the threshold, one experience
- 95 Such is the rule of Saint-Benoit, aggravated by Martin Verga.These nuns are not gay, rosy, and fresh, as the daughters of other orders often are. They are pale and grave. Between 1825 and 1830 three of them went mad.CHAPTER III--AUSTERITIES One is a postu
- 96 "Bah! And that one yonder?""She is a cricket.""And that one?""She is a caterpillar.""Really! and yourself?""I am a wood-louse, Monseigneur."Every house of this sort has its own peculiarities. At
- 97 The most esteemed among the vocal mothers were Mother Sainte-Honorine; the treasurer, Mother Sainte-Gertrude, the chief mistress of the novices; Mother-Saint-Ange, the a.s.sistant mistress; Mother Annonciation, the sacristan; Mother Saint-Augustin, the nu
- 98 CHAPTER I--THE CONVENT AS AN ABSTRACT IDEA This book is a drama, whose leading personage is the Infinite.Man is the second.Such being the case, and a convent having happened to be on our road, it has been our duty to enter it. Why? Because the convent, wh
- 99 What does this signify?CHAPTER V--PRAYER They pray.To whom?To G.o.d.To pray to G.o.d,--what is the meaning of these words?Is there an infinite beyond us? Is that infinite there, inherent, permanent; necessarily substantial, since it is infinite; and becau
- 100 A convent is a contradiction. Its object, salvation; its means thereto, sacrifice. The convent is supreme egoism having for its result supreme abnegation.To abdicate with the object of reigning seems to be the device of monasticism.In the cloister, one su