Part I, Book 5, Chapter 4
Monsieur Madeleine in Mourning
NOOOOOOOO. I am distraught. My fave, the bishop, is dead.
(He dies in 1821, which…have we jumped forward? It’s presumably 1818 in Book 4. I’m half-considering drawing out a timeline for this book.)
Bishop Myriel passes away at the age of 82, which is pretty respectable, all the more so when you realize this man was living on milk-dipped bread. He was also blind at the end of his life, still cared for by his sister Baptistine, and Hugo launches into a long rapturous passage about the contentment of being totally dependent on a woman who loves you. It feels so personal that there’s no way it doesn’t come from his own experience, and cheers to the woman (or women) who did the physical and emotional labor irl.
Mayor Madeleine dresses in mourning after the bishop’s death is announced in the newspaper, which raises questions among the people in town, who start gossiping about their mayor’s connection to the venerated bishop. Finally one nosy dowager asks him about it, and he responds that he was once a servant in the bishop’s family.
(My question: is this one of those cover stories where Valjean elides his true connection to the bishop, or is Hugo saying that Valjean actually did go back and spend some time with the bishop when he was seen kneeling at his front door? Certainly the fact that he has a WWBD (What Would Bishop Do) mentality supports the latter.)
The chapter ends with a non sequitur: every time a Savoyard, the kind of roaming child Petit-Gervais was, comes to town, the mayor asks to see him, ask his name, and give him money. It destroys me that all these years afterward, Valjean is still trying to give Petit-Gervais’ coin back. I want this poor man to know some peace.
For now, I will continue to be distraught that the bishop doesn’t somehow live forever.
Leave a Reply