Asexual Enjolras

Ohhhh, it's a pun. The name of their revolutionary group is a pun. Oh, that's good. Alright, that earns my stamp of approval.

"If cliques culminated in heroes" - No one tell the Justice League. Though they might be offended at being called a clique, I suppose. Maybe heroes scoff at the idea of cliques.

"Of which we shall hear more later" - Oh I'm sure. I'm very sure we will.

Is that French Republic map nailed clearly to the meeting room wall going to be their downfall? That would almost be funny. Such a simple thing. I can't tell if the whole "evidence enough to rouse the suspicions of any policeman" is foreshadowing or not.

They belong in some measure to history: Enjolras, Combeferre, Jean Prouvaire, Feuilly, Courfeyrac, Bahorel, Lesgle (or Laigle), Joly, Grantaire.

So strong was their friendship, these young men were a kind of family to each other.

🫵

No longer will Em be able to keep accusing me of not knowing enough. Today, I read. Today, I know. Today, I shall gain everything I need to fight the Bahorel accusations.

Big fan of Hugo immediately saying "They're found family trope btw". That's a good trope.

(Also does anyone wanna tell me how the heck these names are said? Come to think of it, I don't know how Gillenormand is said either. I care less about him though. He deserves to have his name said wrong.) (Also also, any reason everyone but one being from the south is important or meaningful? Or is it just one of those matters of Hugo loving random details?) (Also also also why the heck does one of these guys have two ways to spell his name, that's so weird. And only one of them has a first(?) name????)

This group was remarkable. It has vanished into the invisible depths that lie behind us. At the point we have now reached in this drama it is perhaps worth casting a ray of light on these young individuals before the reader sees them swallowed up into the darkness of a tragic episode.

Another big deep sigh. Yeah. I figured as much. Kind of crazy to just outright tell us, but I suppose if this is like a fictional record of history, it's not like there are "spoilers" for history. It's happened, it's done. If anyone reading understands what they're working towards at this specific time (though have we gotten a year yet?) because it happened semi-recently, I'm sure they already know the whole thing failed or backfired or whatever. That's not news. But boy, describing it as "darkness of a tragic episode" does the opposite of whet my appetite. Dulls it. Not in a bad way, necessarily. This cat with a dull appetite is still curious enough to know how everything goes down, but what's been placed before me to eat is a bowl of dread. That's not appetizing. For some reason, I'm gonna eat it anyway, but it's not appetizing.

Oh boy, here we go with exaggerated depictions of appearance, launching immediately into calling this Enjolras guy an "angelic beauty". Is one of these men going to be a wart-nosed hog, or is that reserved for women?

A grim-faced Antinous. For now, I shall imagine him like this.

Or maybe this one - it looks a bit more grim-faced.

He had fathomless eyes, slightly red eyelids, a full lower lip that was readily disdainful, a high forehead. A good deal of forehead in a face is like a good deal of sky in a landscape.

Oh my god HAHA wowwwwww Hugo is writing this guy the way guy's write women today. Is he gonna flex abdominally his way down the stairs? Alright, time to update my image.

he was extraordinarily youthful, with a girlish bloom, though pale at times.

My bad, lemme fix that.

The more I look at this, the more it looks like he's wearing a shower cap.

He was serious; he seemed unaware that there was on earth a creature called woman. He had only one passion: rightfulness. Only one thought: to remove any obstacle to it.

(Exercising my newfound knowledge of things)

😃🫴🦋

Is this guy ace?

He barely perceived roses, he was oblivious of spring, he did not hear birds sing.

Or maybe as single-minded as Marius.

Aristogeiton, Harmodius...

Okay, is he gay, European, ace, or does he wear metaphorical horse-blinders like Marius does? Tis the question.

"Stern in his delights" has me imagining him drinking a glass of wine with a very stern expression. Reading a book with a very stern expression. I don't actually know what his delights are. Eating bread and cheese (French things???????) with a very stern expression.

Before all but the Republic he chastely lowered his gaze. He was liberty’s marmoreal lover. . . . Woe betide any attempt to make a romantic conquest of him!

Okay so he's ace. Or uh. Republicsexual, at least. Libertysexual? Something like that. Also, assuming last chaper's title was indeed referring to Marius as the marble (starts with m, is a metamorphic rock, he had just been metamorphosed in his beliefs, etc), I wonder if these two are to become parallels of each other. "Marmoreal".

What the heck is a pageboy neck.

that truant-schoolboy face, that pageboy neck, those long fair eyelashes and those blue eyes, that wind-tousled hair, those rosy cheeks, fresh lips, perfect teeth

???? Well, regardless, an update must be made.

His eyes started looking really freaky being the same color as everything else so I made an artistic decision and whitened them. I'm not sure if it's better. I probably should have prefaced all of this with I am not an artist. (His perfect teeth are hidden under his luscious lips.)

Also also, any reason everyone but one being from the south is important or meaningful? Or is it just one of those matters of Hugo loving random details?

it couuuuld be that Hugo just loves his details; it could also be because the South (actually Hugo says the " Midi" ) was a part of France where the tensions between republicans and monarchists had been really intense; it tended to be very conservative but that of course meant the republican types had to be more die hard , and the actual literal fighting between groups was still going on through the lifetimes of everyone we've met in this story so far. In particular, the Second White Terror is very relevant to our new characters. To quote good ol' Wikipedia:

The Second White Terror (French: Terreur blanche de 1815) occurred in France in 1815–1816, following the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo (18 June 1815) and the enthronement of Louis XVIII as King of France after the Hundred Days. Suspected sympathizers of the French Revolution (including former Jacobins), Republicans, Bonapartists and, to a minor degree, Protestants, suffered persecution. Several hundred were killed by angry mobs or executed after a quick trial at a drumhead court-martial.

Historian John B. Wolf argues that Ultra-royalists — many of whom had just returned from exile — were staging a counter-revolution against the French Revolution and also against Napoleon's revolution. " Throughout the Midi — in Provence, Avignon, Languedoc, and many other places — the White Terror raged with unrelenting ferocity. The royalists found in the willingness of the French to desert the king fresh proof of their theory that the nation was honeycombed with traitors, and used every means to seek out and destroy their enemies. The government was powerless or unwilling to intervene." (bolding mine)

We'll see these events referenced more explicitly later! For now, that's the backdrop of republican activists From The Midi; while even the oldest Amis would have been just kids when that went on, the ripples of course lasted considerably longer. It's maybe a bit like saying a bunch of leftists in the 1980s US are From The South, in terms of giving their background a certain tone.

Also also also why the heck does one of these guys have two ways to spell his name, that's so weird

JEAN JEHAN PROUVAIIIIIRE

That's the Romanticism ! The second wave of Romanticism saw a LOT of participants changing their names to sound either more " foreign" (German , Spanish, Scottish and Irish pseuds were all popular) or more " Medieval" , which is what " Jehan" is doing here. I could and WILL go off about this era of French Romanticism but you're doing other posts so I'll save it for then. For now: think Goth Renfair Nerds. For activists like Prouvaire, Socialist Goth Renfair Nerds XD

And only one of them has a first(?) name????)

They all (presumably) have a First Name, but there's this thing Hugo does with Names where the miserablés rarely get more than one permanent fixed name, unless it's Jean-- see. uh. a lot of characters you don't know yet XD But with the arguable exception of Georges, it's pretty consistent. Jean/Jeanne/Jehan seems to get a pass, probably because it sounds close enough to gens, "the people" and well, The Symbolism Conquers All .

If anyone reading understands what they're working towards at this specific time (though have we gotten a year yet?) because it happened semi-recently, I'm sure they already know the whole thing failed or backfired or whatever.

We've been given enough of a time frame that everyone reading this at the time knew what republican activists were heading towards , yeah. This is some "I can't believe the trailers just told us the Titanic was gonna sink!!" kind of foreshadowing. Everyone Knows. But Hugo IS establishing the narrative's feelings about it here ( the activists are fun and sexy and cool and their fate is Tragic, not deserved and right.)