Summary of chapters 4.2.3-4.3.5:

Marius no longer visits anyone, although he does occasionally meet Father Mabeuf on his walks. Mabeuf, whose book is not selling, is having a hard time growing and breeding his indigo plants. One night at home, Mabeuf sees an “apparition”—while remarking how he needs to water his garden but struggling to lift the bucket, a young girl (Eponine) appears and waters his entire garden. This girl then asks Mabeuf where Monsieur Marius lives, and Mabeuf tells her the direction in which he lives and that he often goes to the Field of the Lark. Marius, easily distracted from his translation work, goes to the Field of the Lark most days to think about “Her!” One day, Eponine finds him there, saying she has been looking for him since she got out of prison. Eponine tells Marius she has found the address of “the young lady” and can take him there. Marius makes Eponine swear she will not share this information with her father or anyone else, which she does, and she reminds him he promised to give her a reward for this but refuses his money when he offers it. They head toward the house, Marius following Eponine, because she does not know the street or number, but says she knows the house by heart. Hugo tells his readers that in the late 18th century, a president of Parliament in Paris kept a mistress in a house with secret entrances and concealed paths, so that he could visit her without anyone knowing. This house went vacant after the revolutions, with the furniture left behind, and was rented and sold often. In October of 1829, it became known that an older man and a young girl now lived in this house in the Rue Plumet—these are Jean Valjean and Cosette—along with an old servant named Toussaint. Valjean is living under the name of Monsieur Fauchelevent. Hugo then reveals why Valjean and Cosette left the convent of the Petit Picpus: while the pair was very happy there, and while Valjean assumed Cosette would become a nun and they would both grow old and live happily forever there, Valjean got to thinking that he was unjustly robbing Cosette of a life she could know outside the convent and that she might one day regret her present life, thus hating him, which was insupportable to Valjean, thus, they left the convent. When Father Fauchelevent died, Valjean reasons he is now old enough that no one would recognize him, so he leaves the convent under the name of Ultimus Fauchelevent, which he assumed when acting as Fauchelevent’s brother. Valjean found the house in the Rue Plumet, which he purchased along with two other residences in other parts of Paris, in case he needed to escape from police at any point. Technically, Cosette is the only one who occupies the house, as Valjean lives in a sort of lodge behind the house. The house is comfortably and richly furnished, and Cosette is set up as the sole mistress of the house, meaning she manages it and its finances, which she learned while in school at the convent. Valjean and Cosette go out walking daily in the gardens at the Luxembourg, attend weekly mass, give alms at the church, visit the needy and sick, but receive no visitors to their home. Valjean performs his duties as National Guard a few times per year. He does not cultivate the garden, thinking that doing so would draw attention to the house. In a chapter of lovely descriptions, Hugo states that the opposite has happened—because the garden was left to its own natural state, it has become a reflection of the Infinite, is beautiful without trying, is pure without the intervention of man, is the creation of its own beauty, and is reflective of the mystery of the connection of nature to the Divine. And, as the garden is virginal and ready for beauty, so too is Cosette pure of heart and ready for love. When she left the convent school at 14, she was awkward and somewhat homely. Her education, composed of religion, devotion, history, grammar, music, and drawing, was finished, although her soul and mind were not truly formed, because she had no real mother to guide her (the nuns and Valjean not being sufficiently capable, according to Hugo). Cosette was given the garden to tend and to play in, and despite its beauty, the house and garden are a kind of trade in for the isolation of the convent. Cosette loves the father, Valjean, deeply, and spends most of her time with him, and he explains many things to her while they walk at the Luxembourg. Cosette only vaguely remembers her childhood, thinks of the Thénardiers like faces in a dream, and feels that her life was an abyss that Valjean saved her from. She does want to know about her mother, but Valjean will not tell her anything, not even Fantine’s name. One morning, Cosette wakes up, catches a glimpse of herself in her mirror, and is truly startled to see that she is pretty. This realization causes her to spiral into something of an existential crisis, because she has believed herself to be homely (ugly) since childhood, when she was often told so by the Thénardiers and others, despite Valjean always telling her she was not ugly. She sleeps poorly that night, so when she wakes up the next day, her eyes are dark and her skin pale, which makes her think the previous day was a fluke and she is, in fact, homely. After this incident, Cosette stops looking at herself altogether. There are, however, a few moments she doubts her perception—she sees Valjean looking anxiously at her once, she overhears a woman in the Luxembourg talking about a young leady who is pretty but badly dressed, then hears Toussaint remark to Valjean about how pretty she is growing. These things send Cosette back into a fervor, so she goes to look at herself for the first time in about three months and is absolutely dazzled by her own beauty. This turn of events agitates Valjean deeply, who had been seeing Cosette’s beauty grow for some time. Once she understands she is beautiful, the next natural step for Cosette is to become rather vain or coquettish as she becomes very concerned about her clothing. Because Valjean never refuses her anything, Cosette gets all the nice and fashionable clothing she wants, and the two of them go walking every day in the Luxembourg. It is in this time that Marius sees Cosette after the lapse of six months.

Questions for 4.3.5:

1. What do you think about Cosette's sudden realization of her own beauty? Why do you think Valjean is so afraid of this realization?
2. Did you have a favorite line or passage from this chapter? If so, what made it stand out to you?
3. Were there any instances of figurative language you thought added to the narrative of this chapter?
4. Do you have any other comments or questions about this chapter?

Final line:

It was at this period that Marius, after the lapse of six months, saw her again at the Luxembourg.

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