Volume 3/ Books One-Eight: Summary

Volume 3/ Book One: Summary

Volume 3 begins with Hugo’s account of “gamin,” a particular kind of homeless kid in Paris, or a street urchin. Hugo suggests that a gamin is known for their wit, strong spirit, and ability to endure a wretched life with cautious optimism. The Thenardiers have now abandoned their son, Gavroche, and he is now a prime example of the city “gamin.” Meanwhile, nine years have passed since Cosette’s rescue from the Thenardier household.

Now eleven years old, Gavroche had been abandoned by the Thenardiers (who now call themselves Jondrette) when their business plunged. The Thenardiers are now deep in poverty and live in Gorbeau House, the very tenement where Valjean and Cosette had lived. They live in a single dilapidated room with their daughters. Though Gavroche is homeless, he does not seem to detest his parents for having abandoned him. He even visits them from time to time, much to the Thenardiers’ annoyance.

Volume 3/ Book Two: Summary

The narrative focus now shifts to M. Marius Pontmercy, the Thenardiers’ young neighbor. M. Marius had been raised by his grandfather, M. Gillenormand, a staunch supporter of monarchism. Gillenormand is described as a stubborn, philandering aristocrat. He has two daughters, one of whom is a spinster who lives with Gillenormand well into his old age. The other daughter is Marius Pontmercy’s deceased mother. Her husband, Georges Pontmercy, had been one of Napoleon’s main colonels. Despite his significant contributions in the Battle of Waterloo, Georges Pontmercy had not received sufficient funds for comfortable retirement since the French had lost the battle. M. Gillenormand and Georges Pontmercy also had heated, irreconcilable political differences. Later, Georges Pontmercy had agreed to grant his father-in-law custody of Marius.

Volume 3/ Book Three: Summary

Marius is discouraged from his seeing or talking to his father; he is told by his grandfather’s acquaintances that Georges Pontmercy is a dishonorable man. Gillenormand also prevents Georges from seeing his son by threatening to deprive Marius of his inheritance. However, Georges identifies the church Marius attends and watches Marius pray clandestinely. He later shares with Mabeuf, the church warden, the painful details of his life and arrangement with Gillenormand.

Though Georges writes to his son often, M. Gillenormand destroys the letters to prevent the two from forging a bond. As a result, Marius has little regard for his father and is surprised to find out that his father has sent for him from his deathbed. Gillenormand permits Marius to visit his dying father in Vernon, but Georges passes away before Marius’ arrival.

Marius soon finds out that Georges has left a note for him. In it, he asks Marius to find and help a man named Thenardier for having saved Georges’ life. Since Marius had been told that Georges had abandoned him, Marius is surprised at having been asked to visit by his now-deceased father. Later, he finds out from Mabeuf that Georges had loved him and had even watched him pray in church. Marius resolves to travel to Vernon to find out more about Georges, but tells his grandfather that he is going on a hunting expedition.

As the eighteen-year-old Marius gathers details about his father in Vernon, his perspective on history changes dramatically. At the library in Paris, he continues to research more about history and acquires a new outlook about his father and Napoleon’s place in European history. Marius’ intellectual growth distances him from M. Gillenormand and also makes him more fond of his father and Napoleon. A heated argument ensues when he discusses his political views with M. Gillenormand, and Marius decides to leave Paris with just thirty francs to his name.

Volume 3/ Book Four: Summary

In Paris, Marius meets Courfeyrac, a law student who lives in the hotel de la Porte Saint-Jacques. Marius, too, rents a room in the same hotel and the two soon become good friends. Courfeyrac then tells Marius about a secret society named the Friends of the ABC (Friends of the Oppressed) and introduces him to its members. The group meet often and discuss serious political and philosophical issues. Marius feels out of depth in the group at first. He is especially concerned by the members’ dismissive stance toward Napoleon Bonaparte, a figure Marius deeply admires. During one of the meetings, Marius defends Napoleon’s achievements and is met with discomforting silence.

He soon learns that the group are in favor of total democracy, that they regard Napoleon as an autocratic leader. Marius realizes that politics cannot be reduced to polar opposites. He sees that his grandfather’s royalist stance and his father’s Bonapartist stance are not the only ways to approach politics. Nonetheless, he sticks with the Bonapartist approach, since it reminds of his deceased father.

When Marius runs out of money, Courfeyrac offers to lend him some, but Marius refuses. Courfeyrac then agrees to help Marius sell some of his (Marius’) possessions, including his watch, but the money from this sale turns out to be insufficient. Marius receives some money from aunt, but he sends it back immediately. He tells her that he has been able to raise enough money. To support himself, Marius decides to learn German and English in order to qualify as a translator. Soon he runs out of money and decides to move out of the hotel.

Volume 3/ Book Five: Summary

Despite poverty, Marius completes his law degree. Meanwhile, Gillenormand urges Marius’ aunt to continue sending money to her nephew, but Marius refuses to take the money out of principle. By now he has learned enough English and German to take up translation work. Marius is also transformed by his poverty: he acquires dignity, mental fortitude, and a taste for solitude. He wishes to find M. Thenardier in order to repay his father’s debt. Though he prefers solitude, he develops a good friendship with Courfeyrac and Mabeuf nonetheless.

Having moved out of the hotel, Marius now lives in Gorbeau House, the tenement where Valjean and Cosette had lived, and is now neighbors with the Jondrettes. When he finds out that the Jondrettes are on the verge of being evicted for not being able to pay rent, he gives the landlady some of his own money. He also asks her not to tell the Jondrettes that he had given her money. Marius is unaware that the Jondrettes are in fact the Thenardiers.

Though he has earned his degree, Marius is not eager to practice law; he regards it as an exploitative profession and also considers it non-conducive to his preference for solitude. He has two jobs now: in addition to translation, he also works at a local bookshop. When M. Gillenormand admits that he is pained by Marius’ absence and misses him, Marius’ aunt (M. Gillenormand’s daughter) tries to introduce him to Theodule, his grandnephew. Gillenormand, however, is unable to forge any bond with him.

Volume 3/ Book Six: Summary

Marius is now a shy, handsome twenty-something. He prefers taking daily walks in the gardens of Luxembourg, where he often notices an elderly man sitting on a bench with his young daughter. Readers are made aware that the man is Valjean and the girl is Cosette, though Marius is unaware. When Marius does not see the father and daughter for several months, he realizes that he misses them even though he doesn’t know them at all. Meanwhile, Courfeyrac unsuccessfully tries to get Marius interested in women.

When he notices the pair again, he sees that the girl is now a beautiful young woman and falls in love with her. He visits Luxembourg often just to see her, but is hesitant about talking to her or the elderly man. He invents names for the pair: he calls the man M. Leblanc on account of the man’s white hair and since he’d spotted a kerchief on their bench embroidered with the letter “U,” he calls the young woman Ursule.

Unable to resist the woman’s hold over him, Marius finds himself following the pair to find out where they live. He manages to get their address from the porter at their building. When the pair do not show up at the park next week, Marius rushes to their building and gazes up at their window in the hope of seeing them. One evening, he notices no light at the pair’s window, and is dejected to find out from the porter that the man and his daughter no longer live in the building.

Volume 3/ Book Seven: Summary

Book Seven features another digression from Hugo. It focuses on what the author calls “the third lower floor of Paris,” the city’s criminal underbelly, home to its most evil criminals. From 1830 to 1835, this underworld is governed by four criminals: Babet, Montparnasse, Claquesous, and Guelmer. The foursome call themselves the “Patron-Minette,” a slang term in French meaning “morning” and connoting the time of day when they typically conclude their work. Hugo suggests that the only effective way to deal with these criminals is to “light up society from below.”

Volume 3/ Book Eight: Summary

Marius spends months trying to locate Cosette, but is unable to. Meanwhile, the Jondrettes find out that it was Marius who’d helped them with the rent. At once, they decide to send Eponine, their daughter, to try and fetch some more money from Marius. Eponine looks malnourished and feeble, and Marius, feeling sorry for her, gives her all of his meager savings, a paltry five francs. When Eponine tells Marius that she has observed him quite often, it becomes evident to the reader that she likes him. Before leaving, in what could be seen as another attempt to impress him, she also lets him know that she is not illiterate: seemingly at random, she scribbles “the bobbies are coming” (“bobbies” being a slang term for police) on a piece of paper she finds on his desk.

Soon, he notices a small hole in the wall, which lets him observe the Jondrettes next door. He is also able to hear them through the thin tenement walls. Marius is deeply troubled by the scenes he witnesses in the Jondrette household.

One day, while observing the Jondrettes through the hole in the wall, Marius notices an elderly philanthropist and his young daughter in their apartment. At once, Marius recognizes that the man is M. Leblanc and that the girl is Ursule. Though Leblanc offers the family some blankets, clothing, and other essentials, M. Jondrette only seems interested in money. In an attempt to get some money from Leblanc, Jondrette lies about being in dire need of sixty francs to pay the rent. Leblanc assures him that he will return with the money after taking his daughter home. Marius, who now knows that M. Jondrette is a liar, decides to follow Leblanc and Ursule, but he returns to the tenement when he realizes that he doesn’t have the money to hire a cab. When he runs into Eponine, he asks her if she can find out the old man’s address, and she agrees to help him.

In the hope of finding out more about Ursule, Marius continues to observe the Jondrettes through the wall. He is shocked to learn that the Jondrettes had already met the old man and the girl a long time ago. He also finds out about their plan to rob M. Leblanc or torture him to get more money from him. To this end, the Jondrettes have also approached the Patron-Minette for assistance. Shocked by the Jondrettes’ scheme, Marius rushes to the police station and reports the Jondrettes to the inspector who turns out to be Javert.

Javert lends Marius two pistols and urges him to continue monitoring the Jondrettes. He is asked to fire the pistol to alert the police when he knows that the robbery is underway.

When Leblanc returns to the Jondrette household with sixty francs, he is ambushed by members of the Patron-Minette, and M. Jondrette demands one thousand crowns from him. When Leblanc refuses, Jondrette tells him that his real name is Thenardier, hoping that this revelation will shock Leblanc into giving him money. Leblanc, however, tells him that he does not know who Thenardier is. Marius, on the other hand, is stunned upon hearing the name. He realizes that M. Jondrette is the man who might have saved his father’s life. Marius is now deeply conflicted: he is not sure if he should respect his deceased father’s wish by helping Thenardier or if he should help Ursule’s father.

Leblanc, who the Thenardiers recognize as Valjean even though he claims not to know them, is coerced into writing a letter asking his daughter to visit the Jondrette household. Mme. Thenardier leaves to give Cosette the note, and M. Thenardier tells Valjean that they intend to kidnap Cosette in order to extract money from Valjean. Marius is taken aback by the developments, but is still unsure about how to proceed. Since Valjean had given them a false address, Mme. Thenardier is unable to deliver the letter to Cosette. Meanwhile, Valjean burns himself with a hot iron to suggest that the criminals have no hold or control over him.

Enraged, the Thenardiers threaten to slit Valjean’s throat. Marius decides to intervene without altering the police. He attaches the note Eponine had written him (the one saying “the bobbies are coming”) to a piece of plaster and tosses it into the Thenardiers’ apartment. As the Thenardiers prepare to flee, they are arrested by Javert who, having grown concerned and impatient waiting for the warning pistol shot, had been hiding outside the house. He tells them that their daughters have already been arrested and proceeds to handcuff the Jondrettes and the criminals.

Valjean recognizes Javert and does his best to conceal his identity. As Javert prepares to record Valjean’s statement, Valjean escapes swiftly through the window. Javert, who is still unaware that the victim was Valjean, assumes that the elderly man must be a criminal, too. The next day, when Gavroche arrives at the tenement to meet his parents, the landlady informs him that the Jondrettes have been arrested. Gavroche, as always, is calm and unrattled when he hears the news.

Analysis: Volume 3/ Books One to Eight

Though Marius is the only main character to be born in an affluent family, his abandonment by Georges mirrors Cosette’s abandonment by Fantine. Further, Georges is unable to meet Marius even when he later wants to: M. Gillenormand threatens to deprive Marius of his inheritance should Georges try to meet his son.

The similarities between Cosette and Marius end here. Unlike Cosette, Marius is not subjected to neglect and abuse as a child. Though his grandfather actively prevents Marius from seeing Georges, he nonetheless ensures that Marius has a comfortable life. Later, when Marius discovers the truth about his father, he comes across as a man of principles and integrity: finding Gillenormand culpable for his father’s absence, Marius moves out of his grandfather’s home and also refuses to take money from him or his aunt.

Marius also handles poverty well. He becomes a humble, dignified, and contemplative man. His dignified life despite poverty is in stark contrast to the wretched poverty of the Jondrettes, his tenement neighbors. In many ways, Marius’s character resembles Jean Valjean’s: for instance, Marius helps the Jondrettes pay their rent even though he doesn’t have enough money to support himself.

Through Marius’ encounter with the Friends of the ABC, Hugo represents the complex nature of nineteenth-century French politics. Marius goes on to realize that politics cannot be reduced to simplistic polarities. The radical student group widens his outlook toward politics. This section is especially important as it serves as a precursor to the political upheaval depicted in Volume 4, which ends with the June Rebellion of 1832 in Paris.