Part I, Book 5, Chapter 1
Story of an Advance in the Manufacture of Black Glass Jewellery
This chapter gives us the “backstory” for what happened in Fantine’s hometown around the time Tholomyès was knocking her up in Paris, but it’s really the sequel to what happened after Jean Valjean’s crisis of self. I can see the timelines converging!
Before we get to that, I did wonder how far away Fantine’s hometown, Montreuil-sur-Mer, was from the Thénardiers in Montfermeil. So I looked it up.
Turns out, it’s 131 miles, which Apple Maps says is close to 3 days of nonstop walking. Oof! No wonder Fantine, who isn’t made of coach-hiring money, isn’t able to visit and check on Cosette.
Anyway. Hugo tells us that the town Fantine came from was the center of a local industry making imitation English jet and German black glass jewelry. I took a brief detour to look up the history of jet jewelry and it’s fascinating, plus it gives you an idea of what the craftspeople of Montreuil-sur-Mer were making.
Anyway, the industry wasn’t all that profitable; the high material costs meant workers weren’t paid well, so Fantine’s town was mired in poverty, which is why she went to Paris to find work, and found the worst man in the world instead. Then, at the end of 1815, a mysterious stranger arrived in town and CHANGED EVERYTHING.
On the day the stranger arrived, looking like a common laborer with little money, a fire broke out in town hall, and said stranger rushed in heroically and saved two children. The children’s dad happened to be the captain of the gendarmerie (the equivalent of the police captain), and in the kerfuffle no one thought to check the hero’s passport. HMM.
The man is called Père Madeleine. Now I have a craving.
Madeleine [cough Jean Valjean cough] is a #disruptor who comes up with two innovations for the black jewelry industry: he substitutes shellac for resin and changes the way they construct the clasps, improving the quality, lowering costs, and increasing profits. Hugo’s description of the benefits reads like a business school case study.
As a result, Madeleine becomes incredibly rich and spreads the wealth around town. It’s a real rags-to-riches story.
Unfortunately Hugo does not provide the backstory answering the questions I have, which are: 1) how did Valjean/Madeleine get involved in the jewelry making business here and where did the shellac idea come from, and 2) how did he choose the name “Madeleine”? When they asked his name, did he quickly flash through the latest challenges from French Week on GBBO? “Macarons, too twee, Paris-Brest, too sexual…uhhh, madeleine it is!”
I don’t know how Valjean/Hugo picked the name, but dammit, someone please send me some madeleines, stat.
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