#lm 1.8.1

[les-mis-daily-doodles]

:(

[lmchaptertitlebracket]

Round 5, Matchup 3: I.viii.1 vs III.i.10

Which chapter title do you prefer?

The Mirror In Which M. Madeleine Looks At His Hair

Ecce Paris, Ecce Homo

Voting ended onOct 27, 2025

which Beholder shall win....

[cliozaur]

It appears that Hugo deliberately emphasizes the type of mirror Sister Simplice handed to Jean Valjean in the title, wanting the reader to pay attention to it. This serves as another foreshadowing of what will happen in a couple of chapters. The stress, nightmares, and retraumatizing from the previous day and night have taken their toll, and now Valjean's hair has turned white (yet another physiological myth Hugo presents).

The image of Sister Simplice in the laboratory, preparing drugs and phials, remains one of my favourite scenes from the first book. Valjean demonstrates his superpower of moving quietly and without being noticed.

This chapter provides one of the last glimpses of Fantine, who is compared to an angel, "with an indescribable unfolding of wings, all ready to open wide and bear her away." Valjean recalls the first time he saw her in the hospital, “They were both still there in the same attitude—she sleeping, he praying; only now, after the lapse of two months, her hair was grey and his was white.” The narrative comes full circle, focusing on the theme of hair.  Well, almost. Now Fantine is awake and asking about Cosette.

[lesmisletters-daily]

In What Mirror M. Madeleine Contemplates His Hair

Les Mis Letters reading club explores one chapter of Les Misérables every day. Join us on Discord, Substack - or share your thoughts right here on tumblr - today's tag is #lm 1.8.1

The day had begun to dawn. Fantine had passed a sleepless and feverish night, filled with happy visions; at daybreak she fell asleep. Sister Simplice, who had been watching with her, availed herself of this slumber to go and prepare a new potion of chinchona. The worthy sister had been in the laboratory of the infirmary but a few moments, bending over her drugs and phials, and scrutinizing things very closely, on account of the dimness which the half-light of dawn spreads over all objects. Suddenly she raised her head and uttered a faint shriek. M. Madeleine stood before her; he had just entered silently.

“Is it you, Mr. Mayor?” she exclaimed.

He replied in a low voice:—

“How is that poor woman?”

“Not so bad just now; but we have been very uneasy.”

She explained to him what had passed: that Fantine had been very ill the day before, and that she was better now, because she thought that the mayor had gone to Montfermeil to get her child. The sister dared not question the mayor; but she perceived plainly from his air that he had not come from there.

“All that is good,” said he; “you were right not to undeceive her.”

“Yes,” responded the sister; “but now, Mr. Mayor, she will see you and will not see her child. What shall we say to her?”

He reflected for a moment.

“God will inspire us,” said he.

“But we cannot tell a lie,” murmured the sister, half aloud.

It was broad daylight in the room. The light fell full on M. Madeleine’s face. The sister chanced to raise her eyes to it.

“Good God, sir!” she exclaimed; “what has happened to you? Your hair is perfectly white!”

“White!” said he.

Sister Simplice had no mirror. She rummaged in a drawer, and pulled out the little glass which the doctor of the infirmary used to see whether a patient was dead and whether he no longer breathed. M. Madeleine took the mirror, looked at his hair, and said:—

“Well!”

He uttered the word indifferently, and as though his mind were on something else.

The sister felt chilled by something strange of which she caught a glimpse in all this.

He inquired:—

“Can I see her?”

“Is not Monsieur le Maire going to have her child brought back to her?” said the sister, hardly venturing to put the question.

“Of course; but it will take two or three days at least.”

“If she were not to see Monsieur le Maire until that time,” went on the sister, timidly, “she would not know that Monsieur le Maire had returned, and it would be easy to inspire her with patience; and when the child arrived, she would naturally think Monsieur le Maire had just come with the child. We should not have to enact a lie.”

M. Madeleine seemed to reflect for a few moments; then he said with his calm gravity:—

“No, sister, I must see her. I may, perhaps, be in haste.”

The nun did not appear to notice this word “perhaps,” which communicated an obscure and singular sense to the words of the mayor’s speech. She replied, lowering her eyes and her voice respectfully:—

“In that case, she is asleep; but Monsieur le Maire may enter.”

He made some remarks about a door which shut badly, and the noise of which might awaken the sick woman; then he entered Fantine’s chamber, approached the bed and drew aside the curtains. She was asleep. Her breath issued from her breast with that tragic sound which is peculiar to those maladies, and which breaks the hearts of mothers when they are watching through the night beside their sleeping child who is condemned to death. But this painful respiration hardly troubled a sort of ineffable serenity which overspread her countenance, and which transfigured her in her sleep. Her pallor had become whiteness; her cheeks were crimson; her long golden lashes, the only beauty of her youth and her virginity which remained to her, palpitated, though they remained closed and drooping. Her whole person was trembling with an indescribable unfolding of wings, all ready to open wide and bear her away, which could be felt as they rustled, though they could not be seen. To see her thus, one would never have dreamed that she was an invalid whose life was almost despaired of. She resembled rather something on the point of soaring away than something on the point of dying.

The branch trembles when a hand approaches it to pluck a flower, and seems to both withdraw and to offer itself at one and the same time. The human body has something of this tremor when the instant arrives in which the mysterious fingers of Death are about to pluck the soul.

M. Madeleine remained for some time motionless beside that bed, gazing in turn upon the sick woman and the crucifix, as he had done two months before, on the day when he had come for the first time to see her in that asylum. They were both still there in the same attitude—she sleeping, he praying; only now, after the lapse of two months, her hair was gray and his was white.

The sister had not entered with him. He stood beside the bed, with his finger on his lips, as though there were some one in the chamber whom he must enjoin to silence.

She opened her eyes, saw him, and said quietly, with a smile:—

“And Cosette?”

[pureanonofficial]

LES MIS LETTERS IN ADAPTATION - In What Mirror M. Madeleine Contemplates His Hair, LM 1.8.1 ( Les Miserables 1925)

It was broad daylight in the room. The light fell full on M. Madeleine’s face. The sister chanced to raise her eyes to it.

“Good God, sir!” she exclaimed; “what has happened to you? Your hair is perfectly white!”

“White!” said he.

Sister Simplice had no mirror. She rummaged in a drawer, and pulled out the little glass which the doctor of the infirmary used to see whether a patient was dead and whether he no longer breathed. M. Madeleine took the mirror, looked at his hair, and said:—

“Well!”

He uttered the word indifferently, and as though his mind were on something else.

The sister felt chilled by something strange of which she caught a glimpse in all this.

[dolphin1812]

Even though Hugo is now certain we know that Madeleine is Jean Valjean, he continues to use the former as his name even in the chapter’s title (”In What Mirror M. Madeleine Contemplates His Hair”), further emphasizing the distinction between the two in the roles they play. Moreover, Madeleine himself doesn’t really dwell on his hair, making this title a bit unusual. If we consider Sister Simplice’s attention to it, though, it suggests that with the return of “Madeleine” as the name in use, we’re once again returning to an outsider’s perspective as well. Valjean himself may be “indifferent” about his hair, but to her, it’s shocking to see such a sudden change, as well as his apparent distraction that has kept him from noticing it. The emphasis on “In What Mirror” is intriguing as well. Valjean has had a lot to think about outside of his hair color, of course, but the fact that he doesn’t have a chance to look at himself before visiting Fantine stresses how quickly he rushed over (that he, for instance, likely didn’t spend much time attending to his appearance before going to see her).

We also see the contrast between Valjean and Sister Simplice’s ideas of goodness here. Valjean prioritizes seeing Fantine above all else, seeing spending time with her and praying for her as a way to alleviate her suffering. Sister Simplice would normally agree with that, but now that Fantine thinks he’s gone to fetch Cosette, she’s worried about Fantine’s reaction when she sees him without the child. She doesn’t want to lie, but she also doesn’t want to destroy Fantine’s hope when it’s been keeping her alive. Again, I don’t think either one of them is “right” or “wrong” here; perhaps Fantine would get too anxious if Valjean were gone for multiple days when she knows Montfermeil isn’t that far away, and she’ll certainly be upset when she sees he didn’t, in fact, bring Cosette to her. Interestingly, though, Sister Simplice is closer to lying here than Valjean, if only by omitting that he’s passed through.

The descriptions of Fantine as both a dying child and as angelic (”unfolding of wings”) are too sad for me to really analyze at the moment, but some of the language there is beautiful, even if the overall effect is heartbreaking.

[meta-squash]

Brick Club 1.8.1 “The Mirror In Which M. Madeleine Looks At His Hair”

The title of this Book is “Counter-Stroke” or “A Counter Blow” and wow do I love that. A lot of the major action in this novel is because of this back-and-forth between Valjean and Javert. One moves and the other must react; one undermines the other or affects him and he must figure out how to retaliate or survive the blow. They are never on equal footing: one is always socially superior to the other, so everything either of them do always feels offensive to an extreme, either an insubordination or oppression. And so their interaction throughout the book is almost like fencing, lunge and parry, back and forth, a few ripostes in there, but just a constant adjustment of who is advancing and who’s defending (or at least who perceives themselves as being in each position). Here that counter-blow belongs mostly to Javert, whose has been proven right when Madeleine said he was wrong, and now gets to reverse his humiliation and arrest Valjean.

Fantine is Magically Connected to Valjean in such an interesting way. She has nightmares during the night while Valjean is hitting all those obstacles on the way to Arras. She’s “feverish and sleepless” during the night while Valjean is in the courtroom, but falls asleep at daybreak, which is also presumably is around when Valjean was about halfway back to Montreuil-sur-Mer. Her Magical Connection is just so vague; she doesn’t have any prophetic actions or anything (in fact, it’s the opposite), she doesn’t seem to dream about him or have any knowledge about what he’s just been going through, and yet all the same she has nightmares or is feverish when he is at his most distressed, and calms when he isn’t freaking out anymore (or at least isn’t in the thick of it).

Sister Simplice getting scared by Valjean is so...I don’t know...human? I love that little detail because we get this description of her as such an Ideal Nun with Morality and Empathy and imperturbable-ness. And yet she still gets startled enough to cry out when Valjean appears silently in the room.

Ugh I have a lot of Feelings about Valjean not telling people things for their own good. In 1.7.6, Simplice’s inability to lie meant she gave Fantine more hope than she should have. And now, in order to avoid upset, they continue to just let her believe what she wants to. I’m so conflicted about this because of the “if she gets upset, she’ll get worse” factor, which means that letting her believe what she wants for her own health is good for her. But there’s also the “disappointment after deception” factor. Like, if they had just told the truth and told her to just wait a little bit, she might have been able to hold on for a bit longer. The shock of disappointment/betrayal along with the horror of Javert killed her, but if they had told her earlier that it’ll take a little bit longer, that Madeleine had some other things to attend to first but that he was working on it, the disappointment maybe would not have been so sharp. And Valjean continues to do this with Cosette, hiding things from her for “her own good.” He didn’t learn from this. In fact, I feel like it made him hide things even more. Almost like he thought well if I never tell anyone anything, then I never get anyone’s hopes up at all, and then there’s no chance of me hurting anyone with disappointment. Which is just. Not how it works. Because then you’ve got Valjean and Cosette hiding their feelings from each other because they don’t want to hurt each other, and Valjean not explaining his idiosyncrasies so that Cosette just expects weirdness without explanation, and Valjean going away to die all alone.

He reflected for a moment, then said, “God will inspire us.” “But, we cannot lie to her,” the sister said under her breath. Daylight streamed into the room and lit up M. Madeleine’s face. The sister happened to raise her eyes. “O God, monsieur,” she exclaimed. “What has happened to you? Your hair is all white!”

I can’t help but feel like the reveal of Valjean’s white hair and this current conversation are connected in some way? The transition between the two doesn’t seem like a non-sequitur or like a change in subject; it seems like they’re intended to go together, but I can’t figure out quite how.

Hugo being relatively heavy-handed about Valjean’s current ongoing Symbolic Death throes: Simplice hands him a mirror that “the physician used to see whether the breath had left the patient’s body.”

Again, I’m glad I’m reading FMA with Hapgood open because for some reason FMA decided to take some liberties with this section (Which is odd because I feel like they don’t do that very often. So far all the translation weirdness from them has been either a mis-reading mistake or a weird word/phrasing decision.) FMA writes: “M. Madeleine took the mirror, looked at his hair, and said again, “White!” He said the word with a lack of interest, as if thinking of something else.” Hapgood writes: “M. Madeleine took the mirror, looked at his hair, and said:— “Well!” He uttered the word indifferently, and as though his mind were on something else.” Checking against the French, Hapgood is the correct translation. (Valjean says “Tiens!”) I would love to know what possessed FMA to do this weird edit.

Simplice trying desperately to get Valjean to not lie makes me wonder if she realized her mistake earlier of telling the truth through vaguery and how that gave Fantine leeway to create her own narrative and get her own hopes up.

“She looked more likely ready to soar away than to die.” Valjean and Fantine are existing in simultaneous states of suspension; death throes that are invisible to everyone including themselves. Fantine doesn’t get to fight for life later; she is alive, and then she is dead. Her death throes are now, in slumber, looking closer to death now than she will later when she wakes. Madeleine’s death throes are also now, trying to tie up loose ends before he’s taken away and forced to become Jean Valjean again.

[everyonewasabird]

Brickclub 1.8.1 ‘In what mirror M. Madeleine looks at his hair’

A quiet chapter. The title draws attention to the death imagery of looking in that glass which doctors use to check whether a dying person is breathing. It raises the questions: Has Madeleine died? Has Valjean died? Is he still alive? I don’t know whether the chapter answers any of them.

Everyone present knows the glass is going to be used for real any day now.

There are many layers on the description of Fantine. She’s a child being watched by her worried mother, which--I don’t love the child-imagery Hugo uses on her, but I do love the motherhood imagery he’s starting to use on Valjean. And the question of mothers is an interesting one here, since Fantine never had one. She’s also an old woman with gray hair, and she’s still the young woman she was, at least in her eyelashes. Hugo’s description of people dying as flowers about to be plucked both withdrawing and presenting themselves is oddly sexual--I feel like Cosette’s wedding night is going to have the same vibe. I don’t know really what to do with that.

We’ve stopped being delicate about Jean Valjean’s names: he’s M. Madeleine here for convenience’s sake. I stand by my description of the long road to Arras in which he glimpsed all those little worlds passing by--I think he separated from the world on that road, and he’ll never dip with as much innocence and conviction into an identity again. At the same time, he’s become something truer and more real in himself, even if that thing will never fully exist in the world other people live in. We’ve come much closer to the Valjean whose true name is namelessness.

...That’s it, isn’t it? His role now is to die and be reborn over and over again for other people, hence the Ecce Homo, Behold the man, Jean, Voila Jean. Only in that final namelessness can he lay down the burden of it.

I love the hints of Simplice’s workspace and medical laboratory. She inhabits a space we don’t usually get to see women inhabit in Les Mis (possibly because she isn’t one, dammit Hugo). Her commitment to honesty was a little otherworldly before, though far more mixed with human sympathy than Javert’s rules. But in this chapter she has the air of someone out with a friend group that’s about to go do wild things she doesn’t want any part of, but they’re her ride home so all she can do is follow along saying, “Guys, can we please be careful? Guys, can we just...... not?” as the whole endeavor descends further towards lying to Fantine or else breaking her heart. Simplice’s desire to deceive her that Madeleine was here without speaking an actual lie seems like a somewhat tortured response to cognitive dissonance.

She’s not really wrong, though? if Valjean ran straight off to get Cosette, he'd evade Javert longer because I don’t think Javert is likely to catch him in Montfermeil. It seems to be important to Valjean to see Fantine--is that a good and wise impulse? I genuinely don’t know.

There aren’t any good paths anymore. Fantine is dying, and Cosette is a small child, and Valjean is about to be arrested. If Valjean brought Cosette here, Simplice maybe could find something to do with her, but it would be on the level of charity orphans. And the charities are about to lose funding, since the entire economy of Montreuil is about to disintegrate, which Valjean is extremely aware of.

If Cosette was in Simplice’s care, would Valjean find the strength to die symbolically again in the bagne and be reborn free of it and come fetch Cosette from Montreuil? I’m not sure he would. It’s not at all clear how much can be salvaged of this situation, other than giving Fantine that moment of seeing her child before she dies.

Is it wrong that I think what actually happens is a better outcome than that?