Part I, Book 5, Chapter 6
Père Fauchelevent
Fauchelevent is a pretty good cat name. It’s also the name of a guy in town who hates Madeleine, so if Javert’s taking sign-ups for his Mayor Madeleine Hater’s Club, Fauchey’s lining right up.
Fauchey hates the mayor because Madeleine arrived in town as a common laborer and ended up becoming Mr. Manager while Fauchey’s own business failed and he went bankrupt, so there’s a lot of resentment there. Should have come up with some ideas involving shellac, Fauchey!
After going bankrupt, Fauchey uses what’s left of his business—a horse and a cart—to make a living as a carter. I feel so bad for the horse, who did not agree to this situation.
Mayor Madeleine is out walking one day when he comes across a commotion: Fauchey’s horse has broken two legs (RIP, horse, I will be filing a horse abuse lawsuit on your behalf) and the heavily laden cart is on its side with Fauchey trapped underneath it, between the wheels. Most of the cart is on his chest, and as the cart sinks deeper into the mud, Fauchey’s ribs are in real danger of being crushed any moment.
This is an iconic scene from the musical, and we all know what happens, right? Valjean immediately lifts the cart, saves the guy, and is a hero.
Nope! Mayor Madeleine stands around for a little while offering money to anyone brave enough to crawl under the cart and lift it up. When no one bites, Madeleine frantically ups the amount like a desperate auctioneer. Wow, money really changes you.
Javert arrives on the scene and says the issue isn’t that the bystanders aren’t willing, it’s that no one is strong enough to lift the cart. In fact, he says, there’s only one man he knows is capable of doing such a feat: a freakishly strong convict from the penal colonies at Toulon. He says this while looking straight at Madeleine, who turns pale.
Madeleine tries, in vain, to get someone else to lift the cart. Still, no one volunteers. Javert just looks him in the eye and repeats, as if daring him, that the only man with that kind of strength is “that convict.”
First of all, Javert, way to be completely unhelpful. You’re the police! You should be doing something! Second of all, I do think this makes way more sense than the version in the musical, where Valjean lifts the cart and then Javert goes, wow, you did a thing only this escaped convict could have done, and you remind me of him, anyway, off to go sentence this other guy who I think is him, because I’m an idiot! Idiot Javert is very funny but Non-Idiot Javert is a lot more compelling. There’s something so tense about Javert looking Madeleine in the eye and daring him to do something only Valjean could do.
Javert and Madeleine’s staring contest is broken when Fauchey cries that he can’t take it anymore, so Madeleine smiles sadly, crawls under the cart, and does the most impressive move I’ve read in a classic novel: he’s completely flat on his stomach under the cart, then draws his elbows in and raises the cart up on his back. This is insane. He basically lifts a fully loaded cart by going into cat pose. [quietly adds this to my “Valjean is a cat” document]
Everyone is so inspired and psyched by this superhero feat that the crowd rushes forward and “the cart was lifted by twenty men.” Wait, why didn’t they just do that to begin with?? Are you all completely useless if your mayor doesn’t personally solve your problems for you?
Fauchey is pulled out and Madeleine gets up, covered in mud with his clothes torn. He has a look of “blissful and heavenly suffering,” which is very reminiscent of how Hugo wrote about the bishop, and Javert is still staring straight at him.
Madeleine has been made! Or has he? We don’t know what Javert concludes, because that’s where the chapter ends.
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