About: Dak reads Les Misérables and recaps it here, so that she may better retain the information. Things not to expect: deep literary analysis. Things to expect: Spoilers. All the spoilers
Marius: Book 2; Where’s Marius? Who is this old dude?
Let us travel back to the past and learn about this ancient old guy named M. Gillenormand. I’m sure he has something to do with something somewhere.
So, this M. Gillenormand is not just your average crotchety old man. He’s one of those old men that’s still bouncing around like a spring chicken, all hale and hearty at 90 + and fearful of living for another 90 years, because…well, it’s France in the 1800s. He’s made it this far through some pretty tumultuous times and at this point he might very well be immortal or have the lifespan of a tortoise with the luck of a thousand four leaf clovers. Who knows? He doesn’t intend to make it to 180, but he’s penciled an even century in his day planner at least.
He doesn’t even dress like a crotchety old guy in the fashions of his heyday. He likes to keep up with the latest trends and goes for a daily shave. Good on him for keeping those old man hairs in check. (You know what I’m talking about). And the only reason he’s not swimming in mistresses right now is because he feels undesirable due to not being rich enough. Don’t get me wrong, he’s not scrounging around in the streets like the rest of the rabble. He’s got a house and everything. Still, he secretly hopes for some kind of windfall so that he could get in on that sweet lady action again.
He had a brother, a priest, once that he lost at a young age (In his seventies. To Gillenormand, that is a young age.) He was in love once with a ballet dancer when he was sixteen, and he’s been married twice, makes a terrible husband but a great lover. His theory is that in order to keep the wives from getting upset about the straying is to give the wife control of the ?????s. He is quick to anger, especially when wrong. He raises his cane at people who disagree with him and calls his servants names. He has a fifty year old unmarried daughter who he thought acted more like an eighty year old person, and would gladly have horsewhipped. Geez, G. What a peach you are!
As for political leanings, this Gillenormand survived “the Terror” Here is the Wiki feel free to engage in further more in depth/accurate research, because History is very interesting and important, but I am not going to tell it all to you here. It is presumed that you know the highlights. In case you didn’t click on the link and don’t know, this was a particularly violent period that took place during that time known as the French Revolution. Let’s just say here that there was a lot of guillotine action happening. Gillenormand likes to tell people that he escaped a good head chopping on his wit and charm alone. You will note that the French Revolution took place in the late 1700s. Valjean was still serving his original and comparatively short five year sentence. It would be around another fifteen years before we would find him wandering around Digne looking for a bite to eat.
Needless to say, as a member of the Bourgeois class and being a fan of the Bourbons, G is not here for Republicans.These Republicans. He will pretty much go into a blackout rage if you talk fondly of the Republic to him.
As for servants, he has two at a time. One man and one woman. The men he rechristens and calls them the name of the province from which they hail. For example, he calls one fellow Basque. As for the ladies, they are all called Nicolette. All of them. They are not called that because he only hires women with the same name. He just calls them that, because that is his whim, and crotchety old bourgeois men with servants can get away with doing that.
Back to the mistresses, our dear old man sometimes has illegitimate babies dropped on his doorstep. Gillenormand does not think it’s unreasonable that his little ancient swimmers can still be fathering babies. Be that as it may, these particular two basket babies that show up on his stoop from a former servant named Nicolette né Magnon, he doesn’t believe are his. He ain’t mad at the babies though.
He does provide Magnon with eighty Francs a month on the provision that she doesn’t keep dropping her newborns on his doorstep. Still, he wants the two he did get to be well taken care of and he even goes to visit them on occasion. This seems quite charitable for a dude that’s likes his Francs and appears to be constantly angry at all the things.
This younger daughter was bright and cheerful…the polar opposite of her half-sister. She had dreams of marrying a hero, and the older Sis had her own fantasies…to marry some old dumb guy who had money and power and connections. These dreams only came to partial fruition.
The younger married the boy of her dreams! Yay!
But she died. Boo.
The older, as we have seen, is now an old maid that lives with her old dad. She did consent to be kissed by her great-nephew once, a lancer named Théodule, though. The mystery of what circumstances led to this shall remain.
Mlle. Gillenormand has never been mean though. She’s just sad now after living a life that never really went anywhere.
Now, Mlle. Gillenormand and her father aren’t the only relations that live there in the house. There is one little boy. The old man has him silently quaking in his boots, for G. never has anything but harsh words for him, sometimes with a little theatrical cane waving.
“He Idolized him” <–directly quoted because I’m not sure if this means the kid idolized his grandpa or the other way around. Damn you, Pronouns! Maybe this is clearer in other translations/French? I mean,the kid seems terrified of the old man, and the old man doesn’t seem all that fond of the kid, so I’m not even sure from the context clues!
If you’re wondering why there is a child running around in the first place, this boy is M. Gillenormand’s grandson. The words are telling me that we will see this kid again. Should I pretend like I don’t know who this child is? Well, I have a feeling there are many loose strings in this plot line that are going to be pulled together in the next chapter. I will see you then!
