Part I, Book 5, Chapter 7
Fauchelevent Becomes a Gardener in Paris
This short lil chapter serves, ostensibly, as a follow-up to the previous chapter—letting you know what happens to Fauchey—but it also shows what kind of a man Valjean-as-Madeleine has become, and ties Fantine’s thread into the larger story.
Madeleine sends Fauchey to the hospital that Madeleine himself set up for the factory workers, and gives the man—who hated him!—1000 francs. The money comes with a note: “For the purchase of your horse and cart,” which is a lovely and obviously transparent gesture, as the cart is wrecked and the horse, sadly, is dead. (Not a fan of the horse body count in this novel.)
I just think it’s so poignantly beautiful how Valjean, who knows crushing poverty, seems intent on protecting others—strangers and haters alike—from the hunger and desperation that damned him. Some people, having clawed their way out of that existence, pull the ladder up behind them, but Valjean is someone who stays behind to help as many people up as he can.
One could easily argue that, having saved Fauchey’s life (and trashed the clothes he was wearing in the process, and also probably incurring some real back pain), he doesn’t owe him anything more—the fact that Madeleine gives an eye-popping sum of money (ten antique silver candlesticks’ worth!!!) to a man who hated his guts after saving his life is some Jesus-level generosity of spirit.
On top of that, because Fauchey has a bum knee from the accident, Madeleine gets him a job as a gardener in a Paris convent. (I’m not entirely sure this is the move, given that gardeners have to be on their knees quite a lot, but I’m touched all the same that Madeleine makes sure Fauchey is still able to make a living.) This, of course, has shades of the bishop, who as you may recall got a job for a guy whose political views were the polar opposite of his own.
Shortly after the cart incident, Madeleine is appointed mayor, and Javert is very disturbed. It’s kind of hilarious how Javert’s instinctive suspicion of Madeleine is at war with his unconditional worship of authority. You could not create more cognitive dissonance in this man if you tried.
[touches earpiece, which is playing Act II of Les Misérables the musical] Ah, I’m being told that you can, in fact, create more cognitive dissonance in this man. Well, we haven’t gotten there yet.
We end the chapter with a musing on how the town’s prosperity leads to more efficient tax-collecting (love a bureaucratic approval) and that these are the circumstances in which Fantine returns to her hometown and gets a job…at Madeleine’s jewelry factory! She’s not good at it (I shouldn’t laugh, but it’s so funny that Fantine keeps catching strays), but it pays enough for her to support herself and Cosette, so her problems are solved.
What a great place to end this story! Happy ending for Valjean, happy ending for Fantine—we can just end here, right? Why are there like three inches of book remaining?
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