#baptistine

[piierogis]

Baptistine, Magloire and their brick descriptions: Hugo's Two Types Of Woman

baptistine was respectable, gentle, more spirit than human, filled with goodness, transparent, angelic, made of shadow, a soul, etc etc

and magloire was a little fat white old woman.

@lesmisshippingshowdown

[jazzyjuno]

"Everything here is yours. What need have I to know your name?"

messy 2am sketches of book 1-2 since im rereading along with les mis letters ^o^

[lesmisscraper]

The two women who lived with the Bishop. Volume 1, Part 1, Chapter 1.

[thepigeonsart]

Les Mis au where they all live in the same building (The Lore long post™)

This is too niche but if you know me you know I’m obsessed with les mis, and I’ve been binge watching the six seasons of Aquí No Hay Quien Viva (a very famous spanish comedy show from the 2000s) (in which btw Daniel Diges aka spanish Enjolras is in like two episodes) so I had to make it an au. You don’t have to watch the show to understand it because it’s more a “I’m stealing the entire concept and using it for my modern les mis headcanons” than an au, but you have to know that the show is about a building and the people who live in it. This means I’m taking the characters of les mis and putting them all inside a building as if I were playing Tomodachi Life.

In the original the building is called Desengaño 21 (Disappointment 21), so to make it more les mis coded in the au it’ll be called Misery 32. I once said that les mis can be a comedy if you try hard enough and I want to prove it.

I made a doddle to organize in which floor each character would live and with who but this will change as the au advances. This is just how it is at the beginning. I added an extra floor, in the show there are only 3, but les mis has too many characters

Inhabitants of Misery 32, by order of flat:

1ºA: Joly, Musichetta and Bossuet. Musichetta is a middle school teacher, she was Joly’s girlfriend until he caught her having an affair with his friend Bossuet, since then the three of them are happily dating each other in a polycule. Joly is a surgeon and Bossuet works at a videoclub next door to the building. They live in the first floor because Bossuet is clumsy as fuck and they don’t want him to accidentally fall from the balcony and get hurt (it has happened before), and because Joly is a cane user and the elevator of the building is always broken.

1ºB: Valjean, Javert and Cosette: Valjean is an ex convict and Cosette is his adoptive daughter, as in canon. Javert used to be a police inspector but quitted his job after redeeming himself (not entirely, he’s still an asshole with everyone who isn’t Valjean). All of this is kept in secret from their neighbors, they tell them Valjean used to be a factory owner and mayor of a town (which is true at the end of the day). They tell people (even Cosette) that they are just friends as they think they are too old to come out of the closet and Javert is lowkey gay and homophobic, but everyone knows they fuck. Valjean is named president of the community against his will for his past as a mayor, he hates that position, but if it’s what his neighbors want he accepts it. Cosette has a crush on both Marius and Éponine. They live on the first floor because Javert has tried to throw himself from tall places before, better safe than sorry.

2ºA: Magloire, Baptistine and Hucheloup (or how their neighbours call them: The Golden Girls): Baptistine is the sister of the late Bishop Myriel. Magloire and her are two spinsters who may or may not have something sapphic going on. Hucheloup is their friend who started living with them after her husband passed away. She is the owner of the Corinthe, a tavern on that same street. She used to live in the 3ºB when her husband was alive but now rents it to two of her waitresses and a friend of theirs.

2ºB: Enjolras and Combeferre. And they were roommates. Combeferre is a pediatrician and Enjolras is a social worker. They’re best friends and have known each other (and Courfeyrac) since school. Enjolras is the founder of Les Amis and the others join progressively. (Also, amis relevant fact: The Musain isn’t a café, it’s a videoclub (in the show there is a videoclub next to the building and a group of friends who live there have their reunions there, they are called “the wise men council” and they even have a 12 year old too lmao)). At some point Enjolras and Cosette figure out that they are half siblings, which is a scandal in the entire building. The joke of them looking alike got too far💀

3ºA: Éponine and Grantaire. That flat used to be the home to the entire Thènardier family, until the parents got in legal problems. They hid in the basement for a while, until they got caught and sent to jail (this happened before Valjean, Javert and Cosette moved to the buildinghere). Since then Éponine has been living there since she is the only adult of the Thènardier children while her siblings are in foster houses, they visit her very often and she’s trying to adopt them. Grantaire is a friend who’s living with her. He’s a painter with a failure of artistic career and has a big crush on Enjolras, the guy doesn’t seem to notice him tho.

3ºB: Louison (the waitress of the Musain, I'm pretty sure her name was something like that but maybe I just made it up, who knows??), Matelote and Gibelotte: Matelote and Gibelotte are Hucheloup’s waitresses at the Corinthe. Matelote hates Grantaire because he called her ugly once at a neighbors reunion. She and Gibelotte are girlfriends. Lucienne works at the Musain (the videoclub) with Bahorel.

4ºA: Feuilly, Jehan and Montparnasse: Jehan and Montparnasse are dating, no one really knows why, they are so different. Everyone loves Jehan but Montparnasse is a dick who doesn’t beat the vampire allegations, everyone’s scared of him (except for Jehan and Éponine who apparently had a situationship with him). Feuilly is the doorman of the building, he hates his job.

4ºB: Courfeyrac, Marius and Mabeuf: Courfeyrac and Marius met at law school (yeah, law school, but they are only there because their parents (grandfather in Marius’ case) forced them). Courfeyrac used to live alone but when Marius had a big fight with his grandfather he went to live with him. Mabeuf just kind of joined them later, who doesn’t love to have a 60 year old roommate?

I think I forgot about Bahorel 💀

That's it for now!! I'll keep not being normal about this au. It lives rent free in my head

[pureanonofficial]

LES MIS LETTERS IN ADAPTATION - Prudence Counselled to Wisdom, LM 1.2.2 (Les Miserables 1935)

“We say that this house is not safe at all; that if Monseigneur will permit, I will go and tell Paulin Musebois, the locksmith, to come and replace the ancient locks on the doors; we have them, and it is only the work of a moment; for I say that nothing is more terrible than a door which can be opened from the outside with a latch by the first passer-by; and I say that we need bolts, Monseigneur, if only for this night; moreover, Monseigneur has the habit of always saying ‘come in’; and besides, even in the middle of the night, O mon Dieu! there is no need to ask permission.” At that moment there came a tolerably violent knock on the door. “Come in,” said the Bishop.

[pilferingapples]

LM 1.2.2: Baptistine and Magloire's fashions

 madame Magloire avait l'air d'une paysanne et mademoiselle Baptistine d'une dame

Madame Magloire had the air of a peasant, and Mademoiselle Baptistine that of a lady

..I'm realizing that I get completely difference vibes off "dame" and "lady", but that's down to a century of linguistic drift and it's not Hugo or Hapgood's fault.

Dresses!!

 Madame Magloire avait un bonnet blanc à tuyaux, au cou une jeannette d'or, le seul bijou de femme qu'il y eût dans la maison, un fichu très blanc sortant de la robe de bure noire à manches larges et courtes, un tablier de toile de coton à carreaux rouges et verts, noué à la ceinture d'un ruban vert, avec pièce d'estomac pareille rattachée par deux épingles aux deux coins d'en haut, aux pieds de gros souliers et des bas jaunes comme les femmes de Marseille. Madame Magloire wore a white quilted cap, a gold Jeannette cross on a velvet ribbon upon her neck, the only bit of feminine jewelry that there was in the house, a very white fichu puffing out from a gown of coarse black woollen stuff, with large, short sleeves, an apron of cotton cloth in red and green checks, knotted round the waist with a green ribbon, with a stomacher of the same attached by two pins at the upper corners, coarse shoes on her feet, and yellow stockings, like the women of Marseilles.

I can picture this perfectly, and it sounds like a fun, colorful outfit . And comfortable!

And then there's Baptistine's outfit:

La robe de mademoiselle Baptistine était coupée sur les patrons de 1806, taille courte, fourreau étroit, manches à épaulettes, avec pattes et boutons. Elle cachait ses cheveux gris sous une perruque frisée dite à l'enfant. Hapgood: Mademoiselle Baptistine’s gown was cut on the patterns of 1806, with a short waist, a narrow, sheath-like skirt, puffed sleeves, with flaps and buttons. She concealed her gray hair under a frizzed wig known as the baby wig.

This is an interesting combo! Her 1806 dress sounds like it was very fashionable for its day ( and though obviously that was 9 years ago, it wouldn't be too far from the fashionable silhouette in 1815)

Here's a lovely 1809 gown (arguably puce, even! ) from Victoria and Albert museum

the hair, though? The wig a l'enfant was a style made popular by Marie Antoinette; I'm not sure how many older women would still have been wearing it , but it's a distance away from the then-stylish neoclassical curls that would have been in style with an 1809 dress!

Here's a reenactment l'enfant wig, from Jennylafleur:

It would be quite a distinct combo, I think!

[dolphin1812]

I was struck by two aspects of this chapter: the politics, and the expectations on the women around the bishop:

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.”

This, combined with the description of them being shadows, was honestly disturbing, as it feels as though they’ve sacrificed their personhood (or rather, been made to sacrifice it) because of the bishop’s wishes. The verb “serve” is also telling. The bishop exists to “serve” his community, but he relies on the efforts of these two women to be able to do so, and while he does serve them spiritually as well, he is not as charitable to them as he is to those in the village.

[psalm22-6]

The Bishop and the Convict by Frédéric Théodore Lix, circa 1879 [source]

I love the details in this illustration and the light and the bishop looks like Paul Jorge but I will pass on beardless Jean Valjean