LM 1.2.9
Jean Valjean had been dazzled by the idea of liberty. He had believed in a new life. He very quickly saw what kind of liberty it was to which a yellow passport is given.
Turned away even from a night's rest in the local jail B(
Release is not freedom. You are let out of prison, but you continue to serve your sentence.
Seriously. The justice system is broken in many ways, and that's definitely one of them. It's not a process that helps people change for the better, to succeed and do good once they're out. It's no wonder those who have been imprisoned once are so likely to return—they're practically cornered into a situation that encourages it.
1.2.10
Those six sets of silver preyed on him. They were right there. A few paces away.
Man 😔 I knew it
Don't do it... put that miner's candlestick away, I don't trust the pointy end... At least, if you're gonna steal, don't hurt the folks who live here.
1.2.11
He pushed it gently with his finger, with that furtive and circumspect delicacy of a cat that wants to come in.
My cat has never entered a room furtively in her life. She shoves her way in with a loud, announcing meow every time. Sometimes more than one meow, especially if I don't say hi in response.
Thank you sky for parting the clouds and making our sleeping bishop look holy 🙏
What was obvious was that he was emotionally affected and confused. But what was the nature of his emotion? He did not take his eyes off the old man. The only thing clearly evident from his attitude and the expression on his face was a strange indecision. He seemed to be hovering between two abysses – that of perdition and that of salvation. He looked as if he were about to crush that skull or kiss that hand.
Please do not crush that skull please do not crush that skull
Well. He took the silverware (the one thing Myriel was kinda actually attached to that was of good quality 😔 poor guy gonna have to eat with something else...) but I. Well. I kinda figured that may be where this was going. That silverware might as well have been a loaded gun.
1.2.12
‘Monseigneur, Monseigneur!’ she exclaimed. ‘Does Your Highness know where the silverware basket is?’ ‘Yes,’ replied the bishop. ‘Blessed be the Lord Jesus!’ she said. ‘I didn’t know what had become of it.’ The bishop had just found the basket in a flowerbed. He handed it to Madame Magloire. ‘Here it is.’ ‘Well?’ she said. ‘It’s empty! What about the silverware?’ ‘Ah,’ replied the bishop. ‘So it’s the silverware you’re worried about? I don’t know where that is.’
BAHAHAHS HE'S SO CHILL ABOUT IT
I should have expected nothing less from my beloved Bishop Myriel <3
...Oh, the wicked fellow! He’s stolen our silver!’ The bishop remained silent for a moment, then raised his solemn gaze and said quietly to Madame Magloire, ‘Now was that silver ours in the first place?’ Madame Magloire was left speechless. There was another silence, then the bishop went on, ‘Madame Magloire, I’ve been wrongfully keeping that silver for a long time. It belonged to the poor. And what was that man? Obviously one of the poor.’ ‘Dear Jesus!’ said Madame Magloire. ‘It’s not for me, or Mademoiselle. It makes no difference to us. But it’s for Monseigneur. What’s Monseigneur to eat with now?’ The bishop gazed at her with an expression of amazement. ‘Ah, come now! Haven’t we some pewter cutlery?’ Madame Magloire shrugged. ‘Pewter has a smell.’ ‘Tin cutlery, then.’ Madame Magloire gave a meaningful grimace. ‘Tin leaves a taste in your mouth.’ ‘Very well,’ said the bishop, ‘wooden cutlery.’
Oh shoot well that didn't last long they caught Jean already huh
‘Ah! There you are!’ he exclaimed, looking at Jean Valjean. ‘I’m glad to see you. Now, look here, I gave you those candlesticks as well, they’re silver like the rest and you’ll certainly be able to get two hundred francs for them. Why didn’t you take them with your forks and spoons?’ Jean Valjean’s eyes widened, and he stared at the venerable bishop with an expression no human tongue can describe.
ME TOO JEAN IM SITITNG HERE LIKE
Whaaaat what
what!!!!!
Bro..... br o ....
He coulda just let him go normal like..... Like that I'd expect, honestly, but... I didn't even think, like. The extra mile happening here????????
If I were Jean I'd be some combo of
And
because like. What. This guy an angel? A saint? Am I gonna like explode in the next ten seconds or get dragged to some kinda hell for trying to steal from the actual most pure and good human being in the world??? More than ever I think I'd feel like my life is over. Like dang I did that to this guy and yet he gave me more. Forget it man I don't deserve to live peace out
I mean I didn't get Marius' whole debt slavery thing before but I do now. I'd give my entire life over to this man after that. If he'd let me I'd just dedicate myself to whatever the heck help he needs or else the guilt may eat me alive. If he refused me welp. See above paragraph.
Dang. Paragraphs filed under gotta just sit for a minute with it.
The bishop went up to him and said quietly, ‘Don’t forget, never forget, you promised to use this money to become an honest man.’ Jean Valjean, who had no recollection of having made any promise, remained dumbfounded. The bishop had dwelled on these words as he said them. He went on with a kind of solemnity, ‘Jean Valjean, my brother, you’re no longer owned by evil but by good. It’s your soul I’m buying. I’m redeeming it from dark thoughts and the spirit of perdition, and I’m giving it to God.’
Yeah you know what if that's what he asked forget it man that's my life now o7
Dang. Near enough to make a grown man cry
1.2.13
He was prey to a host of new sensations. He felt a kind of rage, he knew not against whom. He would have been unable to say whether he felt touched or humiliated. He was overcome at times with an unfamiliar susceptibility to emotion, which he fought against, resisting it with the hardening of his heart over the last twenty years. Being in this state tired him. He saw with dismay the disintegration within him of that sort of appalling calm that the injustice of his misfortune had bestowed on him. He wondered what would replace it. At times he truly would have preferred to be in prison with the gendarmes, and for things not to have turned out like this. It would have been less disturbing.
I mean honestly, yeah. He had filled himself up with hatred, had become certain that there was no good out there, and then THIS? Comes across and is the direct recipient of all the good that can come from the Goodest man in the world. Completely upends everything. Hardened his heart to protect it and then this? Terrifying.
JEAN COME ON YOU CAN'T NOT GIVE THIS KID HIS COIN BACK AFTER THAT
Bro... c'mon... did you seriously not register the kid was asking for his coin back...? That's a decent chunk of change, he needs that to live B( you better find him and give it back 🫵 or I will be very upset with you
OH GOOD HE'S SEARCHING FOR THE KID
He met a priest on horseback. He went up to him and said, ‘Monsieur le curé, have you seen a child go by?’ ‘No,’ said the priest. ‘One by the name of Petit-Gervais?’ ‘I’ve not seen anyone.’ He drew two five-franc pieces from his purse and handed them to the priest. ‘Monsieur le curé, take this for your poor. Monsieur le curé, he’s a little lad, about ten years old, with a marmot, I think, and a hurdy-gurdy. One of those wandering Savoyards, you know?’ ‘I haven’t seen him.’ ‘Petit-Gervais? He’s not from one of the villages hereabouts? Can you tell me?’ ‘From what you say, my friend, the child’s a little stranger. They pass through. We don’t know them.’ Jean Valjean seized another two five-franc coins and thrust them at the priest. ‘For your poor,’ he said. Then he added wildly, ‘Monsieur l’abbé, have me arrested. I’m a thief.’
Woah dang okay
He has been changed, look at him go
(turns to Marius)
LOOK AT HIM GO LOOK AT HOW BEAUTIFULLY HE'S BLOSSOMING. COUGH COUGH. (But Marius does not hear.)
His legs suddenly gave way beneath him as though all at once some invisible power had crushed him with the weight of his own bad conscience. He collapsed on a large stone, exhausted, with his hands in his hair and his face in his lap, and he cried, ‘I’m a wretch!’ Then his heart burst and he began to weep. It was the first time he had wept in nineteen years.
Bruh 😭
Dang... ngl upset the kid didn't get his coin back B(( but glad he went through so much effort to try.
And with that, I've reached a new book, and will therefore pause here.
