Les Miserables read-a-long 2026 | Première Partie (1)

[AgualusasL0ver]

Welcome to the first thread of the Les Miserables Read-a-long.

I'll be using the Christine Donougher translation for posting in the main, but it doesn't matter which translation you have, they seem to follow the same breakdown. I have not seen the film, the musical, and have very little knowledge about the book, but suspect I will be doing all of these Christmas 2026.

The only rules
The plan is to read ONE chapter a day and contribute/follow the thread as you see fit. There are c. 365 chapters, so we plan to take the year to read slowly and really get under the skin. Sometimes we have clustered chapters in past read-a-longs, and people do sometimes read ahead. All fine - but No spoilers until the relevant day.

Notes from previous read-a-longs

• How you manage one a day is entirely up to you, some people prefer to store them and read all the chapters for the week at once, some read each day.
• Sometimes these books can go off on a tangent all their own (looking at Mr Tolstoy), stick with it :-)
• All formats and translations welcome. Sometimes the translation discussions are some of the most interesting conversations.
• You WILL get behind at some point, but don't worry, just catch up when you can.
• Tangents, things you discovered down a rabbit hole, articles, pod casts, clips of epic scenes when we get to them all very welcome on the thread.

Spoiler free summary , courtesy of Chat GPT below. Schmoop has book summaries so I will post those at the relevant points.

**

Les Misérables is a classic novel by Victor Hugo that explores justice, compassion, and the struggle for dignity in 19th-century France.
At its core, the book follows the lives of several interconnected characters from different social classes as they navigate poverty, law, love, and moral choice. Rather than focusing on a single hero or plotline, the novel paints a wide picture of society—showing how personal decisions are shaped by systems like the legal system, economic inequality, and social expectations.
Key themes include:

• Justice vs. mercy — how laws affect people differently, and whether strict punishment leads to fairness
• Redemption and moral growth — the possibility of change, even after hardship
• Poverty and inequality — the daily realities of people living on the margins
• Love and sacrifice — care for others as a powerful force for good
• Social responsibility — how individual actions impact the wider community

The novel is known for:

• Deep character development
• Emotional intensity
• Philosophical reflections on society and humanity
• Detailed descriptions of history and everyday life

Overall, Les Misérables is less about a single storyline and more about asking big questions:
What does it mean to be a good person? How should society treat its most vulnerable? And can compassion change lives?

Re Grisette

Wiki has a whole page
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grisette_(person)

For 1817 however I’m thinking this definition fits the other girls to varying degrees (!) and Fantine has fallen into this kind of social life.

‘….a young working woman who is coquettish and flirtatious.’ (Wiki quote)

Apparently they were “grisettes” because they once wore a lot of grey (Gris) outfits.

I had only come across the term "grisette" in The Merry Widow, where they are cancan dancers at Maxim's.

That Wikipedia article seems to suggest that, in popular culture of the 19th century at least, they were known for being flirtatious and that there was some crossover between cheeky working class girls, young women who had serious and sexual relationships with artists/students and other bohemians outside of marriage, and actual sex workers. I imagine it was quite titillating for (some) male writers to blur those boundaries in their writing and imagine these beautiful, young, up-for-it women just waiting for an intellectual male to impress them.

I think you are right @VikingNorthUtsire

I read online this afternoon that the single, working girls in Paris at this time, mostly in seamstress type jobs, who had no family, often enjoyed relationships with wealthier male students in Paris.

The students would eventually return to parents, careers, thoughts of marriage etc and general responsible commitments in life. As men in this society at this time however “adventures” were tolerated and somewhat expected.

The young women used their sexual power to enjoy some free meals, gifts, fun and attention. It was up to them to maintain their virginity or not… They would usually expect to move on to another flirtation/relationship and would not be expecting serious commitments.

Fantine however is not thinking about the future and has fallen in love.

I wondered that too @Pashazade

Internet says

‘In Les Misérables, Victor Hugo uses the phrase "English poses" to describe a trend of affected, melancholy, and sentimental behavior among French women, inspired by British romantic literature, keepsakes, and fashion of the early 19th century [81, 82]. It signifies a stylized, dramatic, and somewhat artificial moodiness characterized by pensive, droopy, or "melancholy" mannerisms’

I had thought it was the same as when one of my French teachers once explained on a trip to Paris that French boys think English girls are promiscuous 😬🤣

Thank you, @MotherOfCatBoy - I obviously got completely the wrong end of the stick 😁 I guess they're positioned as being a bit more worldly, more understanding of the realities of life than the four men but that would make sense as they're men of a, supposedly, higher class...

I was hoping we'd find out more about what they're up too but looks like another slightly slow burn.

The dictionary says a grisette can also be a type of little grey warbler bird; the meanings we have discussed above are obviously the right ones but the bird connotation adds a little bit of vulnerability as well. (I’m not particularly knowledgeable, I just pick up the references from the dictionary. French often uses words across contexts so the connotations can be really interesting).

I’m loving the descriptions of the parklands outside Paris and the amusements available. Anyone know what these areas are like today? St Cloud, Issy, Passy?

@Neitherherenorthere thank you for the background on the English poses!
Anyone remember Julie, was it, in W&P? Wasn’t she the friend of Marya who liked to mope about and stick things in an album - was that an English fashion?

@Neitherherenorthere thanks for that, I admittedly did only a quick search before posting about it as wanted to remember my query and was in the middle of doing something else!

@MotherOfCatBoy @Pashazade I have a lot of time on my hands at the moment, so I am able to add some research to this thread in the hope that we can all enjoy the book even more?? I hope that’s what’s happening 😬

I wanted to say thank you to you and also all of the posters here who are really helping me to understand and enjoy what I am reading. And to @AgualusasL0ver for starting the thread and steering the ship! 🤣🙏🙏🙏

Schmoop Summary - Part 1, Book 2

The Outcast

• On a cold October evening, a stranger enters the town of Digne and stops by the Town Hall. A local police officer eyes him suspiciously and then goes into the Town Hall to find out what the man wanted.
• A little later, the traveller stops at an inn and asks for a room and some food for the night. The innkeeper says it's all good as long as the dude can pay. So the traveller sits by the stove to warm up and waits for dinner.
• While he's waiting, the innkeeper sends a note to the Town Hall and soon gets a response. When he reads the note, the innkeeper changes his mind about the traveller and tells him to leave the inn immediately. No room at the inn for him tonight.
• The traveler heads down the road and tries another inn, this one cheaper than the first. This innkeeper offers him supper and a bed for a fair price. But as luck would have it, some dude is staying in the inn who remembers seeing the traveller earlier that day. He calls the innkeeper over and whispers something to him. Seconds later, the innkeeper tells the traveller to get out of his inn immediately. No supper and no bed for you, Mr. Traveller.
• Next, the traveler tries a person's house. But the man who answers the door grabs his gun and tells the traveller to go away.
• Now it's time to get a little more desperate. The traveller tries to sleep in a doghouse, but the dog inside it doesn't like to share
• Finally, the traveler lies down on the steps of the town cathedral, shivering. A woman passes him and tells him to try knocking on the door of Bishop Myriel's house.
• Okay, Hugo. We'll bite. Why are people throwing this guy out of their inns?
• When the traveller knocks on Bishop Myriel's door, he expects to be chased away. But instead, the Bishop welcomes him inside, offers him a clean bed, and sits him down as a guest of honor for dinner. How's that for compassion?
• The traveller introduces himself as Jean Valjean. Since the Bishop is being so nice, Valjean decides to come clean. He tells the Bishop that he is an ex-convict just released from a 19-year prison sentence. That's why everyone in town has been turning him out into the street—but Bishop Myriel thinks it's nbd.
• Over dinner, Jean Valjean tells Bishop Myriel how he (Valjean) once worked as a tree pruner and got arrested for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his starving family. He would have only gone to prison for a few years, but he kept getting more time added to his sentence because he tried to escape three times
• Also, Valjean can't help but notice how beautiful and expensive the Bishop's silverware is. Dun dun dun …
• After supper, everyone heads off to sleep. But Jean Valjean isn't used to sleeping on such a nice bed, and he wakes up in the middle of the night.
• As he lies awake and stares at his bedroom ceiling, visions of the Bishop's beautiful silverware dance in his head. He gets out of bed and sneaks into the Bishop's bedroom, grabbing one of the silver candlesticks. It really looks like he's going to bash the guy's head in. He decides not to at the last second, but he does take off with the dude's silverware in a sack.
• While this nail-biting sequence is happening, the author gives us a long account of how Jean Valjean's misfortunes in life eventually turned him from a good guy into a desperate, beastly man who thinks more about his next meal than any kind of morality.
• The next morning, Bishop Myriel goes to sit in his garden. Moments later, his housekeeper runs out and shouts that all the silverware is missing, along with the convict from the night before.
• Without any further fuss, the Bishop goes inside and sits down to breakfast. Then, there's a knock at his door. It's three police officers holding Valjean. They caught him leaving town with all the silverware—very suspicious.
• Does the Bishop rant and rail about Valjean's ungratefulness and betrayal? No, he does not. He totally goes along with Valjean's story and pretends that the cutlery was a gift. In fact, he picks up two silver candlesticks that Valjean apparently "forgot" to take with him. Valjean and the officers are all stunned. But the officers eventually have no choice but to let him go.
• Before letting Valjean leaves, the Bishop makes him promise to use the money from the silverware to become an honest, moral man.
• Jean Valjean hits the road out of town, totally dazed. He sits down along the road to think, and doesn't even notice when a boy passing by drops a coin and watches it roll under Valjean's foot. The boy asks for his coin back, but Valjean is so distracted that he just tells the boy to go away. The boy figures that Valjean is robbing him, so he runs away crying foul.
• Later, Valjean realizes what has happened. But it's too late. The boy is gone.

I am not up to date, again, but have caught up here. Will read the chapters later today.

Next week, then.

Part 1 - Fantine | Book 3 - In the Year 1817 ...

• Monday 2 February: chapter 6 - Chapter in Which Lovers Adore
• Tuesday 3 February: chapter 7 - Tholomyes's Wisdom
• Wednesday 4 February: chapter 8 - Death of a Horse
• Thursday 5 February: chapter 9 - A Merry End to Mirth
• Friday 6 February: Part 1 - Fantine | Book 4 - Entrusting Sometimes Means Giving Away | chapter 1 - One Mother Meets Another
• Saturday 7 February: chapter 2 - First Sketch of Two Shady Characters
• Sunday 8 February: chapter 3 - The Lark

Schmoop for book 3 next week.

Interesting that Schmoop has JV robbing Petit Gervais by mistake.I read it that he definitely did it deliberately, although in a kind of trance - as though bad behaviour was ingrained in him through years of misery and poor treatment during his incarceration.

St Cloud: a very affluent suburb with a historic park: https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Saint-Cloud_(France)

Me too

Agreed, it was almost a reflex action when JV took the coin.

Interesting that Schmoop has JV robbing Petit Gervais by mistake.I read it that he definitely did it deliberately

💯

Today's chapter reminded me the restaurant had a bed in it... what an odd thing, especially as it sounds like there is no room on their table either and people are crammed in left, right and centre. Must be THE place to be seen in gay 1817 Paris..!

Favourite has had a very different kind of summer to Fantine…

She’s moaning about the price and availability of food, moaning about the weather, detests her current boyfriend and has another boyfriend option lined up with one of her neighbours!

I feel like Favourite and her boyfriend both know their relationship is fading. The declarations of “adoring” are very theatrical…

I think the restaurant is actually a ‘tavern’ or pub and they had to accept this room to dine in because it was a busy Sunday and the pub was very busy.

Favourite is disgusted by the bed. I feel like she is very aware of how rooms like that might be used in a pub??

Have I got the wrong idea? 🤣

I've been pleasantly surprised by this section so far - I have no recollection of anything in the book after the stealing of the candlesticks (and it wasn't even actually the candlesticks he stole!!) having read it so many years ago, so when this section started I also got the impression that the girls were prostitutes and it is much nicer to know that they are simply young ladies who work, and who have boyfriends! (The fact that apparently many of such women were seamstresses - thanks for that information @Neitherherenorthere - does remind me of the "seamstresses" in Terry Pratchett's discworld, which is definitely a euphemism for a different line of work...so perhaps there is a slight blurring of the lines for at least some of the grisettes)

The account of the fun day out with the sub-par dinner location is quite relatable - it doesn't sound too different from the bank holiday weekend sessions of my now-distant youth 😁I do feel a bit worried about the promised surprise though - it feels like it's going to be an unpleasant surprise or a trick played on the girls, rather than something nice. Hopefully I'm wrong - about to read today's chapter so will see if we get to the surprise today!

Also - so true that events like the day out can be experienced so differently by different people, like Fantine's absolute happiness compared with Favourite's world-weariness! A combination of age and experience, as well as different personalities. Poor innocent Fantine.

Ok well I've now read today's chapter, and I have just one thing to say, in the grand tradition of Mumsnet: When he tells you who he is, believe him 🙁 (I hope I'm wrong...but Tholomyes is such a twat)

I inadvertently got a bit ahead of myself, so have been waiting to be caught up, but dear lord today’s chapter was so dull! He seems like a crashing boor, so struggling to understand what Fantine sees in him?

Isn’t he? Loves the sound of his own voice. Dear God.