Jul 22, 2025
Round 3, Matchup 48: IV.xiv.5 vs V.ix.2
Which chapter title do you prefer?
The Last Poem of Jean Prouvaire
The Last Flickerings of the Exhausted Lamp
Voting ended onJul 29, 2025
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Round 3, Matchup 48: IV.xiv.5 vs V.ix.2
Which chapter title do you prefer?
The Last Poem of Jean Prouvaire
The Last Flickerings of the Exhausted Lamp
Jean Valjean’s daily efforts to get to Cosette’s house are beautifully compared to the oscillations of a pendulum. The last and shortest swing brought him to a post stone near the house, and he has been confined to his bed ever since.
It appears that Cosette has to be thankful to a kind portress who looked after Valjean during that period. Without her, his decline might have been swifter. It was her who cared to bring him food and water. I think that the gallery of elderly women depicted in the Brick deserves at least an essay Diverse yet remarkable, these women, mostly impoverished, range from gossips to the sympathetic, with some serving as true lifesavers. This portress is one of them, and it’s adorable how she comments on Valjean: “Such a neat old man! He’s as white as a chicken.”
Unfortunately, the doctor summoned by the portress didn't offer much help. Valjean’s health issue is not physical in nature. And people in the nineteenth century believed that one could die due to longing for someone.
LES MIS LETTERS IN ADAPTATION - Marius, LM 4.9.2 (Les Miserables 1925)
Marius fixed his despairing eyes on that dismal house, which was as black and as silent as a tomb and far more empty. He gazed at the stone seat on which he had passed so many adorable hours with Cosette. Then he seated himself on the flight of steps, his heart filled with sweetness and resolution, he blessed his love in the depths of his thought, and he said to himself that, since Cosette was gone, all that there was left for him was to die.
Seeing Valjean fall ill hurts so much, but I love how the portress explains the difference between hunger and thirst to him. There’s care there, and it’s nice to know that someone’s concerned for him at this point.
(The porter, though, sounds cruel, condemning him to death if he’s a poor man who can’t afford a doctor and then saying he’ll die regardless. I can’t tell if it’s a dig at doctors or not, but it just feels harsh. Both of them are aware, though, that sadness is what’s sapped his strength more than physical illness).
I love that the portress looks for a doctor for him anyways. She’s really trying to take care of him.
(And the doctor is aware of his grief, too).
Brickclub 5.9.2 “The Last Flickerings of the Exhausted Lamp”
Valjean’s walks shorten until at last he never leaves his bed; we’re reaching the end. All his interactions this chapter are with his portress.
It’s been a long time since the milieu of this story has been among working class people, and my god is it a breath of fresh air. Gillenormand’s house obviously has a porter, but we’ve never seen him as a character--all our speaking roles have been bourgeois for a while, other than the brief weird glimpse into Mardi Gras. Maybe not coincidentally, this portress is the first straightforwardly caring and kind person we’ve seen in a very long time.
Obviously not everybody who’s working class or misérable is nice, but this placement does feel like a pretty pointed statement of “What the fuck are you trying to protect yourself from by hanging out with Gillenormand all the time?” This world where normal working class people are the main characters is the one Marius fled and has been avoiding.
Anyway, she’s wonderful and I love her. I’m glad Valjean’s last days were spent with somebody kind, who worried about him, and made sure he got a doctor, even if we’re past the point where there’s anything doctors can do.
Round 2, Matchup 106: V.ix.2 vs V.ix.4
Which chapter title do you prefer?
The Last Flickerings of the Exhausted Lamp
A Bottle of Ink Which Serves Only to Whiten
V.ix.2 Dernières palpitations de la lampe sans huile
Which is your favorite translation of this chapter title?
The Last Flickerings of the Exhausted Lamp
The Last Flutterings of the Lamp Without Oil
Last Flickerings of a Lamp Without Oil
The Last Flickerings of the Lamp Without Oil
Last Flickers of a Lamp Without Oil
Last Flickerings of a Lamp with No Oil