#1.1.9

On politics:

Already, it’s interesting (though not surprising) to note that Mlle Baptistine is corresponding with a noblewoman. She is a childhood friend, so that accounts for how they know each other. However, the fact that Baptistine and Myriel mention her every day, still corresponds with her, and assert their royalist beliefs in the letter says a lot about how even though their lifestyle has changed, their affiliation with the nobility is much murkier. Yes, Myriel has mocked upper-class people before and has sacrificed the trappings of that lifestyle. But he’s definitely not advocating for wholesale change (as a royalist) and they maintain ties with people from their old life (which is understandable, since cutting off everyone from their childhood after already losing lots of connections during the Revolution would be grueling, but also shows some sense of a remaining tie to that class). And Baptistine herself is another story, as she’s given up that life because of her brother. Although we’re told she’s content, she also alludes to discomfort with their life when she mentions that their lodgings are “cramped” and that they are only “almost” comfortable. Although she emphasizes the importance of charity, she could very well miss their old lifestyle with all its material comforts.

On Mlle Baptistine and Mme Magloire:

“the manner in which those two sainted women subordinated their actions, their thoughts, their feminine instincts even, which are easily alarmed, to the habits and purposes of the Bishop, without his even taking the trouble of speaking in order to explain them”

This, frankly, seems cruel. I could understand if the bishop convinced them to acquiesce to his lifestyle and there was simply some resistance/displeasure when it was particularly rough or scary (like when Magloire struggles with the budget or he puts himself in danger), but without even explaining anything to them?

The reference to their “special feminine genius” just made me uncomfortable.

“They served him passively; and if obedience consisted in disappearing, they disappeared.”

1.1.9

Not much to say about this chapter, really. I like this chapter more for the little hints of inner life that Baptistine has been given rather than for anything else. I like that Baptistine has friends to write letters to, although her letter is not as interesting as Mademoiselle Maupin’s letters, but then Baptistine is older and less of a character, the way Hugo has written her.

I do like the bit of detective work Magloire has been up to and the mentions of the table and the paintings, though really someone should buy Magloire that sofa and Baptistine that mahogany table. Still, it is wonderful to see that they are busy and occasionally have children over, I love that little anecdote.  

Everything else about the bishop is something we already knew, so I would have been happier if we had had more insight into Baptistine, instead of the ‘special genius that women have of understanding a man’ line, which just makes me cringe, but eh, I guess that’s what the fanfics are for.

 1.1.10

There is a lot to say for this chapter. One thing straightaway is so interesting to me is that there would be people reading Les Miserables in 1860s who would have memories of the Convention and of having lived through those years, and the introduction seems to be acknowledging that. G seems to be based on a real person, though the details are fudged up.

We go back to the ideas of what is spoken about men is often more important. G is talked about a lot in his little town of Digne and not favourably as can be expected. I also like Hugo’s metaphor about him with the vulture signifying that he supported the death of the king, and also Hugo’s shorthand for not presenting someone favourably is to say they are an atheist, which, is kind of sketchy but we are going to go with this.

We do get another glimpse of the bishop’s weakness, he wants to bring the Conventionist into the fold, like a good shepherd but he also has very strong biases against the conventionist, the black sheep. 

Our bishop is a royalist, he was ruined by the Revolution, so some of it does make sense from his point of view but it is still a lot more bias than he has shown through this story so far through his hesitation, his putting off the visits many times. Hugo, at this time as a supporter of the French Revolution, or as someone at least realising the necessity of it, writes them as flaws, the bishop goes even as far as to think that a member of the convention who had been responsible for killings did not deserve charity, which is pretty harsh coming from him, given what we know of him and also his needing and wanting to be addressed as Monseigneur when he eschewed all forms of formal address.

I love the way the scene is set, the conventionist G smiling, while viewing the dying sun go down- which is also literal, the conventionist is dying himself, the image is simple, out in the countryside, in his wheelchair, looked after by a shepherd boy. I also like the shepherd’s boy who is just there with the conventionist, perhaps because he was kind to him, perhaps out of a natural duty, we will never know.

G’s physical descriptions definitely do seem to show that Hugo is in sympathy with him, his death seems to be something he wishes, relating it to freedom and he is imbued with an aura of brightness and majesty and Hugo does that with characters across his novels.

“I mean man has a tyrant. Ignorance. I voted for the end of that tyrant. That tyrant begot royalty, which is authority falsely understood, while science is authority rightly understood. Man should be governed only by science.”

“And Conscience.’ Added the bishop.

It is the same thing, Conscience is the quantity of innate science we have within us.”

I love this dialogue so much, this sums up the conventionist chapter’s ideas pretty well and also is a nod to Joly and Combeferre and their love of science leading to progress. It also talks about the three things that the book is concerned with, the slavery of men (Valjean making a mistake and then having to atone for it over and over, the society not letting him forget he was a convict), the prostitution of women (Fantine) and the end of benightedness for children (the Thenardier children and also gamin generally).

I wish we had more insight into the bishop’s feelings and thoughts after this episode, but it makes sense that his coming round to at least some of the ideas that the Conventionist mentions would be gradual and take time or may not happen because the bishop is set in his ways, or maybe deliberately not part of active politics, even though he is a Royalist.

I love that the conventionist has a reply to everything that the bishop can come up with and his emphasis on the people and their suffering is good to read, I especially loved the mention of the Huguenots, the Protestants in the 17th Century and a callout against Louis XIV.

There are so many other quotes that I love from this scene as well,

“The brutalities of progress are called revolutions. When they are over, what we recognise is this: that the human race has had a rough time, but it has advanced.” 

I love Hugo giving the conventionist these words especially since he talks about that in detail during the digression on revolutions. Also, the single tear rolling down the face is suitably dramatic, oh Hugo.

I also find it interesting that the Conventionist who Hugo has chosen has not gone towards ruthless progress. He has not been in favour of voting for the death penalty, which given the circumstances would have been justified, but it is interesting that Hugo’s opinions about death penalty and killings are pretty strongly evident here as well as is his opinions about atheism and therefore the conventionist believes in God in a vague sense of believing in the Infinite. 

One question, does the tearing of the cloth from the altar refer to the fact that the church and the Royalty were closely associated in the form of The First Estate, and that going against one was equivalent to going against the other? Or is there more history to it?

The bended knee metaphor towards the end is also wonderful, it shows that the bishop has at least accepted the conventionist G’s words, as @pilferingapples so eloquently mentioned in one of her posts, the symbolisms around the bended knee, so this is very poignant end to their meeting, with the conventionist raised to a sublime figure.

I have been glancing at Kathryn Grossman’s book and she mentioned that Hugo frequently mingles the sacred with the politics and this seems to be a pretty clear example of a place where he does it, although the bishop would not be as deeply affected as to change his entire viewpoint, something has definitely struck him, it seems that he has been changed, he spends more time in contemplation, more time in his method of charity to help as many people as he can.

Grossman also mentions the parallels between Myriel and Conventionist who have both been following the same ideals through different paths and both have been reduced to poverty through that. She even mentions that they might be two sides of the same person working towards the love for his country, which is interesting.  

I do find it interesting that in the very next chapter Hugo specifically says that Myriel is not a philosopher, maybe that means he does not find the ideas of Enlightenment and French Revolution to his liking, though he does try to be even kinder to everyone.  

And after a brief reprieve, we go back to being sad about Mlle Baptistine. She definitely belongs in the Mary Bolkonskaya “please let me get you out of your house and into your own life, somehow, anyhow” club. The Bishop’s not as cruel as old prince Bolkonski, but living with him doesn’t seem that much more fun.

I’m curious how this kind of thing read at the time. I know that Hugo’s weirdness about women is weird even for the period, so I wonder how people reacted to Baptistine and Magloire starving away because the Bishop says they must. Because Hugo certainly thinks they’re virtuous and saintly for it. (Sidenote: I don’t understand why he didn’t just... make Baptistine have her own convictions here. In the first chapter he painted her as saintly and kind in her own right, so it would have been easy for him to draw her as an equal player in the voluntary destitution. And maybe that’s what he thought he was doing, but what he actually did was paint this kind of heartbreaking situation where a good man is doing terrible things to people who love him.)

I’ve always imagined that Baptistine’s friend takes every opportunity to invite her over, sends her carriage and treats Baptistine to a real meal and a nice bed, and then gives her leftovers to share with Magloire. From the tone of the letter it doesn’t sound like they actually see each other that often, but I choose to believe otherwise.

“As can be seen from this letter, with that special genius that women have of understanding a man better than he understands himself these two women were able to conform to the bishop’s ways." There is a note on this sentence from a prior readthrough. It says, in its entirety, “shut up Hugo.” I stand by that statement.

The worst part about the end of this chapter is that the whole bit where the Bishop sometimes does grand and magnificent things without even realizing it? That bit could be beautiful. I want it to be beautiful. The idea of a man doing great things without realizing their magnitude is one that I love and one of the Bishop’s whole points. I should be charmed and slightly swept away by that. But I’m not, because it’s framed with how much those actions negatively impact those closest to him. And maybe, if the whole rest of the chapter hadn’t also been about how the Bishop’s actions have repercussions on the women he lives with, that part wouldn’t have been so bad, would have been more about the awe-inspiring quality of magnificent acts and of God, rather than just another way that the Bishop disregards their feelings.

“The manner in which these two good women subordinated their actions, thoughts, and even their womanly instincts, so liable to disturbance, to the habits and projects of the bishop, so that he had not even to speak, in order to express them...”

...Sigh

This chapter just assures me that I can reimagine whatever characterization I want for the rest of the women in this book and I am guaranteed to be more right than Hugo. And I will do so “with that woman’s tact which understands a man better than he can comprehend himself.” Don’t worry, Hugo! I will do the emotional labor of envisioning Cosette for you since you clearly can’t comprehend women yourself.

Enough salt though. I do enjoy that we see Mlle. Baptistine discussing her own life and her feelings, as much as they are tied to Bienvenu. She describes Bienvenu with more confusion and bemusement than bitterness or resentment and there is a genuine sense of agency in her descriptions. She has friends, family, and acquaintances outside Digne who she is in regular contact with and shares her concerns and circumstances with.

Side note: Sylvanie, you ungrateful child, write to your auntie Baptistine this instant! Don’t make her keep pulling out that Christian guilt.

Also, I’m endlessly amused at the thought of Baptistine and Bienvenu’s titled extended family and friends tutting in good-natured disapproval at the two black sheep of the family that ran off and joined a convent. But still making sure to write them and keep them updated.