Combeferre coming to the barricade with his three guns can be found in the Brick, at: 4.11.4

Marius and the Handkerchief can be found in the brick, at: 3.6.7

It really is very endearing that Marius has no idea how stupidly good-looking he is. Especially because we know that Cosette has recognized that she herself is beautiful. It’s a fitting contrast. “She looked at him steadily, with a sweet and thoughtful look...It seemed to him that she reproached him for having been so long without coming to her, and that she said: ‘It is I who come.’” I want more of this dynamic! (Like, genuinely, not just in Marius’s head)

“He imagined that Monsieur Leblanc was hurling angry looks upon him.” Valjean is more paranoid than a combat veteran. This is almost definitely happening and not just Marius’s imagination.

This is “to be struck to the bone in a moment of breathless delight.” I have to know, what exactly is it about Cosette that attracts Marius so? We know it isn’t simply her looks and it isn’t just the fact that she seems interested in him as well. Otherwise, Marius could have had his pick of women to obsess over before her. We could infer that it’s the particular tinge of melancholy in her presentation, considering Marius probably has a similar aura, but it just isn’t that clear. I suppose that’s part of the nature of love and attraction, but I’m so curious.

“You will not escape from the terrible machine, until, according as you are in the power of a malevolent nature, or a noble heart, you shall be disfigured by shame or transfigured by love.” Unless your name is Marius Pontmercy and then you might be able to get both!

“However he passed before it no more, obeying at once the instinct of timidity and the instinct of prudence, peculiar to lovers. He thought it better not to attract the ‘attention of the father.’” That’s a good instinct, Marius, listen to that voice whispering deep inside. Cosette is launching her barrage of “““feminine wiles””” and Valjean is 150% onto the game.

It’s sweet that Cosette is flirting back but, damn, Marius is taking this, um, courtship to a whole other level. The whole handkerchief thing has to be something that Hugo himself accidentally did in his youth, right? That’s the only explanation for how absurd this situation is.

“I feel her whole soul in it!”

3.6.7

It’s interesting that Marius’ devotion to his father which was a religion for him is replaced by his love. I also don’t really know what to make of the fact that Marius’ devotion to his father is gradually becoming dimmer and occupying less of his time, so he needed something else to focus on. Hugo seems to be going with the love as guided by Providence by adding the detail about religion, but it still feels incredibly weird that Marius’ behaviour gets a pass so easily.  

I also don’t really like the idea of Marius going to Luxemburg Gardens as a form of duty, since it feels very stalkerish. The only thing that makes it better slightly is that Cosette is also flirting with him and likes having him around. Once again Hugo is pretty weird about Cosette’s ‘virginal gaze’ and it being an ancient ploy that Cosette is using here.

The handkerchief should be pretty funny, but I don’t know reading it this time around, I don’t find it particularly amusing that Marius is picking up someone’s handkerchief. It does however tie back to how he was obsessed with his father’s letter, he is obsessed with the handkerchief in much the same way. He started to research his father and the handkerchief is the only clue about the young girl. Except it’s not even hers and she tries to tell him but Marius in his obliviousness does not pick up on the cues.

I don’t know if we’re meant to find Marius’ wooing cute, I am really not finding anything very endearing in this whole thing.  

3.6.8

We get more evidence that Marius really is jealous and while we’re not meant to blame Cosette obviously, somehow, we’re meant to take this as part of Marius’ devotion and him becoming more and more in love, his passion growing.

I don’t like Hugo making light of Marius’ behaviour, sure he’s really trying to show his younger self in a better light, I think the skirt incident did actually happen between Hugo and Adele, but I wish the narrative had not taken Marius’ side, Marius’ anger is not ‘fair and justifiable’ at Cosette.  

He is objectifying Cosette here instead of respecting her like a real person and somehow all this is fine and is treated half like a joke, half like he is becoming more devoted and consumed by his passion. Marius seems more in love with love because he wanted something to occupy his time spent doing nothing, rather than in love with a real person.

I can’t help but think of how better Seigneur Aymer handled his courtship with Diana in Champavert written by Hugo’s contemporary and friend Petrus Borel. Instead of stalking he was very frank with her and respected her decisions. This is where Marius seriously loses any sympathy from me, I don’t find his courtship at all cute or funny.

3.6.9

Marius wanting to know more about ‘Ursule’ follows the same patterns of him discovering his love for his father and wanting to know more about him. Obviously, because it is Marius he turns to stalking. Even though Hugo does say that Marius went too far by following Ursule and therefore his relationship may not be perfect, it's still pretty creepy behaviour which the narrative could have criticised more.

Valjean is understandably spooked out about someone inquiring about him and following him. Marius is asked if he is a spy- and I would rather read a whole novel about him as a spy rather than suffer through more of Marius being in love.

This is the second time (or maybe more?) that Marius has forgotten to eat, driven completely by love and it is interesting that his love obsession is described in terms of hunger. It is meant to be a passion that we’re supposed to take seriously.

Marius doesn’t really understand what he’s doing is wrong, he’s only happy in collecting more information, obsessed with the idea of Cosette rather than her as an individual. He does not think at all of Cosette but treats her like an object still to read about and know about. He also really doesn’t find anything meaningful about her, all he finds is a name and where she lives, nothing of what makes Cosette, Cosette.

In the case of his father it was understandable because he had just lost his father, was grieving and had found that he had been raised on lies about his father all his life. Here, he has no justification whatsoever and he still does not find anything wrong with it. I don’t know whether to blame his upbringing or to blame him or both.

And now, Marius returns to being Marius. He, like Jean Valjean, is so determined not to attract attention that he ends up behaving so weirdly that people can't help but notice him. Cosette, meanwhile, is a normal human person and thus entirely capable of pretending like everything's fine while the weird hot dude she has a crush on is being weird behind trees. Cosette is my favorite. (Although I wish Hugo would stop referring to her as a child. I know she's young, Hugo. You don't have to make a Thing about it. It's weird.)

You know, I can kind of see where Jean Valjean is coming from, in trying to figure out Marius' intentions and testing him like this. Marius is being very weird and very obvious. Sure, Valjean has his own reasons to not want people to take an interest in Cosette, and those reasons are pretty Bad in their own right, but from a completely objective perspective Marius is being deeply, deeply strange. Even someone without Valjean's own issues would probably be kind of creeped out by it, especially since I'm almost positive that Marius is far, far less good at hiding from Valjean than he thinks he is. (Plus, I'm sure that Valjean has a pretty well developed 'someone is watching me' sense, to go along with his other convict superpowers.)

This is also where Marius starts grating on me again. Maybe it's because I know what's coming, maybe it's because we've had several chapters of this by now, but I'm kind of hitting a, 'dude, really? behave' point with him. Which isn't entirely fair -- he can't help being himself, and he certainly was never given any of the tools to learn how to behave like a normal person in normal society -- but even still. If 'raised in horrifying abuse and then in a super isolated convent' Cosette can manage some social skills, so can you.

Marius becomes a little obsessed. Nothing can keep him from his daily walks in the Luxembourg.

He now approaches the bench once again, but he doesn’t walk past it. He is afraid of attracting Monsieur Leblanc’s attention, so he hides behind trees and statues in such a way that Lanoire can see him but Leblanc cannot. She looks at Marius lovingly and passionately while still maintaining her conversations with Leblanc.

Leblanc apparently begins to catch on, and so he starts moving around the garden and sitting in different places. Marius doesn’t realize why Leblanc is doing this, so he follows them. Sometimes Leblanc doesn’t bring Lanoire with him, and so then Marius leaves.

One evening, right after Lanoire and Leblanc leave the park, Marius finds a handkerchief embroidered with the letters U.F. Marius decides that this means Lanoire’s name is actually Ursule. Marius kisses the handkerchief and holds it while he’s falling asleep.

He brings the handkerchief to the park the next few days, kissing it and pressing it against his heart. Lanoire doesn’t understand what he’s doing and communicates this to him.

The infamous handkerchief makeout scene, with bonus Marius-hiding-behind-trees-with-a-book-real-subtle-like.

I’m going to disagree with Hugo on two points: 1) being a dreamy loner “struggling with chastity” is not an ideal preparation for being in love (communication skills might be more helpful), and 2) I can’t speak for all women, but I daresay most women honestly have an inner life that doesn’t revolve around sending secret messages to men. Seriously, M. Hugs the Vickster, it’s not an innate skill on our part: it’s wishful thinking on yours. Considering the foolishness Marius gets up to, I’m not entirely sure this isn’t supposed to be a bit tongue-in-cheek, but the narrative voice seems awfully sure of its pronouncements.

The one with the handkerchief,  just in time for V Day.

I love the fact that Marius concierge pretty much freaks out when he starts dressing up – just how OOC is he acting to get such a reaction? I bet modern AU Marius would be one of those people who'd just hang around in pyjamas until lunchtime.

To no one's surprise, Marius's also the worst spy ever. Sneaking towards the object of your obsession love while pretending to read a book? Suuure, honey, whatever works. And then Cosette gets impatient and ends up walking towards him instead. ILY, Cosette.

Lovestuck Marius getting excited about everything and being exuberant with his friends is such a sweet adorkable thing and I really wish it had lasted! Between Jehan's initial description and his comment here I get an impression that for him, being love-drunk is a semi-permanent state of existence. Also the paragraph on Marius daddy worship becoming a habitual part of his subconscious until he needed a new fandom to get excited by – why oh why does this sound so familiar?