Pages 191-275

Right, where the hell was I......?

Javert has been suspicious about Valjean for a while and he finally recognises him as a convict from years ago and he blabs what he knows to the police, HOWEVER!!! Another guy who looks just like Valjean gets arrested for stealing and Javert thinks he's the real Valjean and so he's going to get put back in prison for life, when the actual Valjean hears about all this he's sent into a turmoil about whether he should turn himself in or not. Eventually he does and Javert rearrests him but he escapes once again.

Sadly during all this Fantine dies of what i assume is probably consumption or tuberculosis, the book doesn't actually say what she dies from. Why do you leave important bits of info like that out Mr Hugo? Why.... WHY!!! They were quite vague about that in the musical too actually, in fact the whole character of Fantine in the musical is quite vague, she just shows up, sings a pretty song and then dies. I'm quite glad the character was explained further in the book, it's one of the few backstories that I'm actually interested in.
Just to give you an idea about how much of an asshole Javert is too he totally lets Fantine die without any hope left at all, basically she's on her last legs and Valjean is trying to comfort her by telling her he's gotten Cosette back but he wants to wait until she's better to bring the kid to her and then Javert just totally ruins everything by exposing Valjean for who he really is and telling Fantine everything he's saying is a lie. That's just evil, he couldn't even let this poor woman die with a bit of hope left could he, he had to completely crush her didn't he, this guy is an asshole! Honestly i think that's what killed her, not the illness.

Wait...... are consumption and tuberculosis the same thing? Hang on I'll check..... TO WIKIPEDIA!!!!!.................................... Yep I've just checked and they are the same thing. OK then she probably died from that, everybody seemed to be dying from that back in those days didn't they.

Sorry i went on a bit of a detour there didn't i? Fuck you Victor Hugo you made me do that!

Anyway....I have a couple of issues with these chapters, first of all Javert says he recognises Jean Valjean from his time working in a prison 20 YEARS AGO, can anyone seriously recognise a person they met 20 years ago? I know I couldn't but I'm only 26 though so i think i can be excused for that, but seriously Javerts supposed to be in his 50's isn't he? unless he has a photographic memory i find it very hard to believe that he could remember someone from that long ago.

Secondly, I don't think Jean Valjean should have turned himself in. He spent nearly ten years building up the industry in this small town, helping the poor, setting up schools and hospitals and if he turns himself in all that's going to disappear. It's not just himself that's going to end up suffering there's the entire town that's gonna end up in the shit too, also he promises Fantine that he'll get Cosette back from the Thenardiers, he didn't even think about what would happen to her if he gives himself up, even though it's most likely that she'll starve to death or just live a life full of abuse. Couldn't he have just sent a letter proving that he was the guy they were really looking for instead, by the time they would have received it he could have legged it with Cosette and been 100 miles away by that time.

If it was me in Valjeans situation i wouldn't have said anything, i would have let the other person rot and i probably wouldn't lose a lot of sleep over it either. Yeah i know I'm a horrible person aren't it? Is it really that bad though, do you let one person suffer or do you let an entire town of people suffer? If you've been living a good life for the past ten years helping everyone else and always putting them first why go and ruin it now?

Honestly this part of the book is a little bit slow, i like the stuff with Valjean and Fantine but there's this massive boring bit in between involving the court case of the man everyone thinks is Valjean and It goes on for a bit longer than i would have liked. Anyway it's all OK because i know Cosette's gonna be appearing soon and I like Cosette.