Further to this post—humbly offering enrichment to @everyonewasabird's and @fremedon's kickass and just generally clairvoyant meta about the association of street lights (as opposed to other lights) with policing and a perverse un-enlightenment in Les Mis—
For those interested in the conceptual intersection of (1) the imposition of authority and (2) public lighting in the streets of Paris (and other French cities),
may I share a podcast episode I’ve just discovered: Vaincre la nuit : quand la France s'éclairait.
The guest is Sophie Reculin, author of L'invention de l'éclairage public en France: De la nuit illuminée à la nuit éclairée (1697-1789).
In the episode, Reculin gives us a quick overview of the history discussed in her book. The moments that interested me most* were those where Reculin mentions qualities of lamp-lighters that struck me as similar to the qualities of the police force that are hightlighted by the character of Javert—particularly, that this is a class between authority and outcast, with one foot in criminality and the other in policing: a part of society used against itself by the state.
(*wee caveat I am writing this purely from memory after having finished the whole episode)
In the earliest days of street lighting, street lamps were carried by lamp porters whose nominal job was to accompany travelers, lighting their way to help them avoid being mugged. These lamp porters sometimes robbed the travelers they were supposed to protect; sometimes, the lamp porters were police informants.
Later lamp-lighters tended to belong to belong to society’s less respected groups: women, children, and the elderly. They had side jobs to make ends meet, much like the police. And they had a reputation for criminality that came from stealing candles and tallow (which was an important commodity). The term “allumeuse” (literally “female lighter,” but with the connotation of a sexually loose and provocative woman) is mentioned at this point of the episode in connection to the proliferation of female lamp-lighters (working in teams with male colleagues), but no firm etymological link is established.
Public lighting was considered to be such an asset to law and order that the French government decided to impose it on other important cities in addition to Paris. Some of these cities protested, unwilling to shoulder the exorbitant cost of a lighting program. Lanterns were considered a luxury item, less effective in securing the streets than cheaper measures such as a curfew; and the lighting the streets was seen to benefit only the wealthy. These objections were overruled by the central government.
Street lamps definitely embodied a metaphor for the police and state justice, which could be defied or reappropriated. Lamp-breaking was A Thing especially for young men: part game, part expression of virility, part reconquest of the street. (Here an analogy is drawn to breaking security cameras.) Hangings from street lamps represented a popular reappropriation of justice: the cry “à la lanterne!” is a call to execute e.g. an aristocrat. (Also mentioned here is the lamp-lighter from The Little Prince, who is a slave to his orders, even when those orders become patently ridiculous.)
(This initial era of distrust and resentment of lamps and lamp-lighters was later followed a romanticization of lamp-lighters and (as nightlife developed in the newly illuminated night city) a reliance on public lighting.)
