Les Miserables read-a-long 2026 | Deuxième Partie (2)

[Pashazade]

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

I've taken over from AgualusasL0ver in trying to keep us all reading together, but have copied the below over from the first thread.

I'll also be using the Christine Donougher translation (on Kindle) for posting in the main, but it doesn't matter which translation you have, they seem to follow the same breakdown.
It's a bit sprawly in places, some people have entire sections in the appendices, so I've started adding the first line of the chapter to try and lock in exactly where we are for that day, hopefully it helps us all keep together!

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?

A relief that Valjean got away, although he seems to have managed it with so little effort that I probably shouldn’t have been so worried! And Gavroche clearly doesn’t feel the loss of his family very keenly - I love his happy-go-lucky demeanour, he’s a bit Just William in his cheekiness! Though he must be hardened by an awful childhood and covering up a lot of trauma…maybe we’ll see a more nuanced view of him when we come back to the story.

In the meantime, not much to say about today’s chapter - I don’t know much about the July revolution but I’m guessing I’ll know a lot more by the end of this section…

Gavroche is one of my favourites in the musical he’s quite pivotal really so will be interesting to see if it’s the same in the book. Although in the musical he’s not related to the Thenardiers and they only have one daughter.

@Piggywaspushed- thanks for asking the Gavroche question. I’d hadn’t realised he was the Thénardier boy either as there is so much other stuff happening.

Just caught up from the beginning of August. Very exciting! I wonder if Javert realises who got away.

OMG... how did i not make the connection with Gavroche and the Thenardiers! That last chapter makes shitloads more sense.. 🤦‍♀️

Don’t worry @SanFranBear I hadn’t clicked either! As stated earlier I’m good at remembering the shape of a story but not the details 🤦🏻‍♀️

I hadn't realised at all that the name Jondrette had appeared earlier in the book.

Not sure. I was wondering about the detail with the coin - the one that was found in the room after Javert had it swept and examined, and which was cut sideways with sharp edges which JVJ used to cut his ropes.
First, was that really a thing? Did such things exist, or is Hugo just making it up for melodrama? And in the story, will that make Javert think twice about who could have been there?

Basic July Revolution- Louis XVIII dies (brother of Louis XVI executed in 1792); another brother, Charles X, comes to the throne, but is more reactionary than the former and wants to bring back the absolute rule of the Ancien Regime. Makes some decrees that take away rights (free assembly, free press etc) that people had got used to in the Napoleonic years. People don’t like it, Paris up in arms, Charles X runs away. Now what? Solution is found - Louis-Phillipe, cousin of Louis XVI etc, is installed as constitutional monarch. The people love him, the end (until 1848).
Hugo is interesting when he draws parallels with our Civil War. Charles I was an idiot, Charles II more pragmatic and when his line ran out, they sent out for William of Orange. Quite similar.

Reading today's Louis Philippe chapter, I kept thinking of Keir Starmer for some reason!

Thanks for the helpful summary @MotherOfCatBoy ! Much more concise than Hugo 😄

Louis-Philippe sounds quite nice really - I can understand the Starmer comparison @Piggywaspushed !

Louis-Philippe’s daughter Louise was married to Leopold I of Belgium (Queen Victoria’s uncle). I think Queen Victoria was quite fond of her, but it’s a while since I read Becoming Queen by Kate Williams that describes Victoria’s early life (which I like very much).

Initially in the book Leopold comes across fairly sympathetically when he marries Victoria’s cousin Charlotte but after Charlotte’s tragic death the book has a very memorable description of him & his “drizzling machine” (apparently this was very popular at the time as you fed old clothes into it & it produces something like thread or yarn to sell) so he sounds rather less of a catch when he married Louise.

I do find it fascinating that while the 19th century in the UK is just Georgian (Regency then William IV) then the long Victorian Age, the French have an 2 empires, 3 kings & 2 types of monarchy & 2 republics alongside a revolution & a major invasion/war. The UK is so close to France but the 2 countries had very different experiences in that century.

I do wonder if the Civil War had led to a marked reluctance to rock the boat in anyway? It cast a long shadow. Also we actually had a functioning parliament with some teeth and our royal family didn’t have unlimited access to funds any longer so perhaps that’s why our political landscape remained calmer. The government did choose our king when they opted for some random Hanoverian princes!
Also distribution of wealth and the Industrial Revolution may all have had roles to play. I suspect we were a wealthier country over all at the time. Smaller population but increased industry. I’m guessing though it is sometime since I read any 19th c history!

I agree with all above. France only got a parliament as we would recognise it after 1789, and the restoration of 1815 did all it could to go back to pre revolutionary divine right, though they kept a cabinet and advisors… they were still figuring out democracy, so Britain was actually quite a sophisticated version by then, and indeed many French reformers did use Britain’s constitutional monarchy as an example to follow - Louis XVI was briefly constitutional before they eventually decided to get rid of him. By the time Louis Philippe accepted the throne, they thought that could work.

It’s astonishing how small the franchise was though - something like 3% I think, as it was tied to property. Not sure what it was in Britain then for comparison. Interesting that the Reform Act of 1832 extended the franchise (again, not sure from what to what), but it’s just intriguing that it’s happening at the same time as this failed rebellion of 1832 across the Channel.

(Sometimes I think we should have compulsory voting, we forget how many fought for it).

Hugo didn't agree with you on distribution of wealth in Engalnd! [Sic]

The 18th Century wasn’t that calm for the British with all the Jacobite rebellions, but the political landscape was very different in that as well as what has been said earlier, aristocrats & people with money could exercise inflience via Parliament, whereas the French system set up by Louis XIV in the 17th Century was highly authoritarian & designed to limit aristocratic power after the 17th century civil wars. Voltaire certainly thought that England was freer than France in various ways when he wrote about in his Lettres Philosophiques.

I also think that the influence of the Enlightment in France shouldn’t be overlooked, as the work of Rousseau, Voltaire & others meant that there had been a great intellectual debate encompassing amongst many other things democracy, freedom & other aspects of the state which was very different to Britain pre-Civil War.

Oh I certainly don’t think the poor were any better off, but we definitely had an evolving middle class during this period, even if they didn’t have the vote. Money was trickling down, so this perhaps meant things were more stable, rather than the more obvious have and have nots within French society. (To add I have no idea if France had a middle class as such at this time, but I know our society was becoming a thing of more parts).

What has always struck me when reading about Versailles is just how absolutely boring it seems. Beautiful & gilded, certainly, but everyone there was just hanging about waiting for the king. There is interesting things happening in 18th century France especially re the Enlightenment, but that’s so volatile with feuding & drama between different figures.

While Georgian Britain was clearly awful if you were impoverished or in dangerous working class jobs, there just seems to be so much more possibilities for men people to move around in society & achieve things especially with the Industrial Revolution. It just feels like a more stable & balanced society.

France definitely did have a middle class (it where we get the word bourgeois from) but I’m struggling to think of an 18th century novel about one (this might just be me being sleepy) whereas in England writers like Richardson were driving the novel forward.

I think we got there earlier though in terms of power distribution and we also industrialised faster than France.

I’m in the chapter with all the revolutionary mutterings in the wine-shop… it’s very much like ATOTC!

Book One Cont’d……
Mon 17th Aug - Ch6 - Enjolras and his Lieutenants (Around this time)
Book Two - Éponine
Tues 18th Aug - Ch1 - Alouette’s Meadow (Marius was there to see)
Weds 19th Aug - Ch2 - Prison Incubators of Embryonic Crime (Javert’s triumph)
Thurs 20th Aug - Ch3 - Père Mabeuf’s Visitation (Marius no longer visited anyone)
Fri 21st Aug - Ch4 - Marius’s Visitation (One morning a few days after this)
Book Three - The House in Rue Plumet
Sat 22nd Aug - Ch1 - The House with a Secret Entrance (Towards the middle)
Sun 23rd Aug - Ch2 - National Guardsman Jean Valjean (However, strictly speaking)

Really interesting discussion of the political changes in France in the 19th century versus the position in the UK at the same time - it does seem strange that they were so different and that the UK was so settled and peaceful when such chaos was happening across the channel! I suppose France had its settled period during Louis XIV's long reign, when things were more volatile in the UK.

I've found the last few chapters quite hardgoing (I'm ready for a holiday!) but interesting nonetheless, and I like the way today's chapter brings the revolutionary action back to characters we know (and a funny ending!). I'm off on holiday on Wednesday so will end up a bit behind, but will hopefully catch up over the bank holiday weekend!

Peterloo was 1819 and Shelley wrote a really vituperative sonnet about 1819 (a mad, dangerous and dying king , probably a misquote!)so we weren't that peaceful . Just more passive and ordered/ orderly perhaps? There were all sorts of acts to prevent gatherings too.

'Old, mad, blind, despised and dying' in fact!

I think we forget how repressive the upper classes could be to retain their power. Gradual compromises had to be made to contain the constant push of greater enfranchisement and democractisation. I guess Britain just held the pressure cooker down a bit more for a while. As others have said, probably a civil war casts a very long shadow - and the after the Napoleonic wars, people were poor and exhausted.