Jun 16
victor hugo u gotta tell us these things early on i didn’t remember that he had hair
seen from Russia
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victor hugo u gotta tell us these things early on i didn’t remember that he had hair
Round 2, Matchup 70: III.ii.7 vs V.v.4
Yet again, a switch up in format for lengthier options.
3.2.7: Rule: Receive No One Except in the Evening
5.5.4: Mademoiselle Gillenormand Winds Up Deciding It Is Not Such A Bad Thing That Monsieur Fauchelevent Came With Something Under His Arm
Which chapter title do you prefer?
3.2.7
5.5.4
Round 1, Matchup 137: III.ii.5 vs III.ii.7
Which chapter title do you prefer?
Basque and Nicolette
Rule: Receive No One Except in the Evening
III.ii.7 Règle : Ne recevoir personne que le soir
Which is your favorite translation of this chapter title?
Rule:—Never Recieve Anybody Except in the Evening
Rule: No One Received Until Evening
Rule: Receive No One Except in the Evening
Rule: Never Recieve Any One Except in the Evening
A Golden Rule: Never Recieve Visitors Except in the Evening
Rule: Never Recieve Anybody Except in the Evening
Golden Rule: Only Recieve Visitors in the Evening
Rule: No Visitors Before Evening
Related to the latest @lesmisletters chapter: I love this bit of foreshadowing—
> And, on abandoning society, he had immured himself in his habits. The principal one, and that which was invariable, was to keep his door absolutely closed during the day, and never to receive any one whatever except in the evening. He dined at five o’clock, and after that his door was open. That had been the fashion of his century, and he would not swerve from it. “The day is vulgar,” said he, “and deserves only a closed shutter. Fashionable people only light up their minds when the zenith lights up its stars.” And he barricaded himself against every one, even had it been the king himself.
Gillenormand's habit of only receiving people in the evening becomes an important plot point later on. Marius has to wait until night to visit him and ask his permission to marry Cosette.
And then, after the barricades, Marius's badly injured corpse is taken to Gillenormand's door in the evening. However, because of all the rebellion happening, everyone in the bourgie street has gone to bed early, and Gillenormand is not awake to receive him. To me it’s a moment showcasing how sorta hollow Gillenormand’s principles can be:
The chapter where Marius is returned to his grandfather:
Everyone in the house was asleep. People go to bed betimes in the Marais, especially on days when there is a revolt. This good, old quarter, terrified at the Revolution, takes refuge in slumber, as children, when they hear the Bugaboo coming, hide their heads hastily under their coverlet.
Hugo’s really stressing Gillenormand’s age here, as if to point out that, as old as he is, the ideas he represents haven’t disappeared, either. He was “young” at 74, and even now, his hair is “gray rather than white.” Gray hair is still associated with aging, but the fact that it won’t turn white suggests that he clings to youth in some ways, with his persistent longevity and fixity in his ways resembling the resilience of the monarchy linked to a regime literally called the “old regime.” His “youthfulness” is probably meant to be comical as well, but his energy also feels ominous because of the order he represents. He’s able to enforce his will and beliefs so strongly precisely because he’s aged while remaining in excellent health.
This isn’t to wish bad health on Gillenormand because of his age; most of the elderly men in this novel are caring figures open to change. The bishop, for instance, may not stop being a royalist, but he was still willing to talk to the Conventionist and did learn a bit from his words. Like Gillenormand (and perhaps even more than Gillenormand, as an actual aristocrat), he had good reason to distrust those tied to the French Revolution and resisted engaging with this person because of it, but ultimately, a higher principle won out for him (his religious duties). To Gillenormand, his highest principle is adherence to the “old order,” making him inflexible.
I think this also ties into the way he “barricaded himself against every one.” Characters like Myriel are somewhat dynamic because of their communal ties. The suffering Myriel sees in his community inspires him to communicate and search for solutions, leading him to be an exceptionally compassionate and understanding bishop. Even his visit to the Conventionist was motivated by his sense of duty to his community. Gillenormand rejects community, preferring to isolate himself and the family members that are stuck with him. The image of a barricade also implies that there’s something threatening outside worth barricading against, transforming opportunities for connection and new perspectives into dangers (probably because Gillenormand sees disagreement as threatening; republics make him faint). The comparison is quite ironic as well, given the use of barricades in popular protests that the aristocratically-minded Gillenormand would find abhorrent.
It would be remiss to not acknowledge that there is another major character with a family who isolates himself: Jean Valjean. He does so for more legitimate reasons than seeming “fashionable,” fearing arrest if he is around people, but it still has consequences. He and Cosette may be safe and relatively content in the convent now, but the convent was compared to a prison several times. They’re safe, but they’re also trapped. Of course, Jean Valjean doesn’t reject community as a whole like Gillenormand does; he tried to build it as mayor, even if he didn’t really participate in it himself. But if isolation is a prison with Jean Valjean, who at least respects community in theory, then how bad can it get with Gillenormand, who chooses to avoid it out of adherence to an older social order?
Even in this tiny chapter Hugo cannot limit himself to just one topic. We learn something about M. Gillenormand’s hair: “always dressed in “dog’s ears” – I am trying to visualize this and the image is just too funny. These “dog’s ears” do not quite align with the following claim that “he was venerable in spite of all this.” We also learn his previous address. And this: “He had something of the eighteenth century about him” – well, we have already noticed it and more than once!
There is something very decadent in his habit of not excepting anyone until evening. He himself declares it to be “fashionable” but this is obviously a fashion from the times of Louis XV.
I'm not sure if Hugo intended it as a wicked irony, but the phrase "he barricaded himself against everyone" does have that tone to it.
Brickclub 3.2.7, “Rule: No Visitors Before Evening”
Here I’m mostly going to link to this exchange between @everyonewasabird and @secretmellowblog:
Not opening your doors as a political statement is a bit toothless when Gillenormand does it, but only because Gillenormand doesn’t matter.
But it SURE MATTERS when other people make that choice.
It was a huge, life-changing deal when Myriel opened his door to Valjean, someone he had every possible social excuse to exclude. It was life-changing when Valjean did it for Fantine (or Cosette!), when Courfeyrac did it for Marius, and when Gavroche did it for the momes.
It was life-changing when the houses alongside the barricade didn’t.
The decision of whether or not to open your doors is actually one of the biggest political and interpersonal choices you can make in this text???
“The Dead Are Right and the Living Are Not Wrong” just keeps looming larger and larger, and I don’t know how I’m going to deal when I actually get to it.