Pages 627-702

Wow, it's all starting to kick off now!

Marius is living next door to the Thenardiers but they're going by a different name so he doesn't know that Mister Thenardier is the one who saved his father, (Les Coincidence!) Thenardier meanwhile has been using his daughters Eponine and Azelma to send out fake letters intending to get money from rich people, one of these letters gets to Valjean and Cosette (who are also going by different names) who come to the Thenardiers out of charity to give them money and blankets and stuff. (Oh and neither of them recognise the Thenardiers, but I'll get to that in a minute) Mr Thenardier does recognise Valjean and Cosette though and he makes a deal with Valjean who has agreed to come back later with money for their rent. Thenardier then gets his mates together to attack Valjean when he comes back but Marius has overheard his plan and goes to inform a policeman who turns out to be.....................JAVERT!!! (LES COINCIDENCE!)

When Valjean returns later that night Marius watches the entire scene unfold through a hole in the wall and he overhears Thenardier use his real name which sends him into turmoil about whether he should help Valjean whose daughter he's in love with or Thenardier who saved his fathers life.
Eventually Javert steps in and arrests everybody except Valjean who manages to escape before he's recognised by him.


This has actually been some of the most entertaining pages in the book for a while, all the characters involved, all the tension and all the drama makes it a fun read as opposed to the history and backstory that I've had to contend with for ages. This book would be so much more awesome if Victor Hugo would stick to telling stories like this more often, this was good stuff, this was entertaining, i cared about what was happening during these pages, I cared about what would happen to Valjean and which choice Marius would make, i even felt a little bit of sympathy for the Thenardiers which was odd for me since i despise them! I even thought it was cool when Javert reappeared, and i don't even like Javert.
This is the kind of thing that makes a good book Mr Hugo, THIS! Stop trying to educate me with history lessons and just entertain me!

There is one thing that bothers me though, i cannot believe that neither Valjean or Cosette recognised the Thenardiers, Valjean can maybe be excused for not knowing who they were initially because he didn't spend a lot of time with them, but Cosette has no excuse! She lived with them for most of her childhood, they abused her every day, surely that kind of thing stays with someone throughout their life, she was terrified of these people and now she doesn't even recognise them after only 8 years. No, I don't believe that for a second. If this book was accurate Cosette should be lying on the floor in a foetal position pissing herself with fear right about now.
And yes I'm sure that there probably wasn't a lot of research going on back then into the after affects of child abuse so Victor Hugo probably didn't consider that kind of thing when he was writing this story, but from my point of view i definitely think that a child would still remember her abusers after a relatively short amount of time.
It's not a big deal really, but it did distract me from an otherwise great part of the book.