Les Miserables: Volume 5, Book 7 Summary & Analysis

Chapter 1 On February 17th, Basque opens the door to see Fauchelevent, who asks for the Baron (Marius’s new title, the title of his father). He asks that Basque not mention his name—he wants it to be a surprise. Valjean waits in the drawing room, which is still in disorder from the wedding party. Marius is delighted to see Fauchelevent, and tells him to stay in his chamber here. They’ll all live together, he says.

Valjean interrupts Marius and says he must tell him something: he is an ex-convict. There is nothing the matter with his hand, he says, untying the bandage: he did not want to commit forgery by signing the wrong name to the marriage document. Marius stammers a response, and Valjean calmly states that he was in the galleys for 19 years for theft, then condemned to life for a second offense. Marius retreats in horror, and Valjean, speaking slowly, tells him to believe he is not Cosette’s father but a peasant of Faverolles, whose name is Jean Valjean. Marius looks at him and recognizes his icy sincerity. He says he believes him.

Valjean tells Marius that Cosette was an orphan, and she needed him. He fulfilled this duty while he could, but now she is “Madame Pontmercy,” and he has only to make the 600,000-franc restitution and acquaint Marius with who he really is. Marius is stupefied and asks Valjean why he hasn’t kept this secret, since he apparently is not being pursued—there must be another motive. Valjean slowly answers that it’s a strange motive, one of honesty. It was tempting to embrace this new family and live with the married couple, but he belongs to no family, not even this one. He is left outside, and when he gave Cosette in marriage, all inklings of family ended. He could lie when it was for her, but now that it would be for himself, he cannot. Everything would have been arranged, and no one hurt, if he’d kept the name Fauchelevent (one given to him by Fauchelevent himself out of gratitude)—except his own soul.

Valjean says that there is a silence that lies, a kind of cowardice and treason that would have made their entire existence a lie. He is pursued and denounced, he says—by himself. And now that Marius despises him, he can respect himself as an honest man. He pauses, then says that it is dishonest to take another’s name. While he once stole a loaf of bread to live, today, in order to live, he will not steal a name. Both men are silent. Valjean then asks Marius to imagine if he might continue to conceal his identity, and then one day at the theater a policeman might shout “Jean Valjean,” and his mask would be torn off.

Marius says he will ask his grandfather’s friends to attain Valjean’s pardon, but Valjean says he is supposed to be dead. The only pardon he needs is that of conscience. At that moment, Cosette enters, saying that they must be talking of politics. She prattles on happily, and Marius asks her to leave, as they’re discussing business, but she says she won’t be bored. She asks her father to kiss her, and he does so, looking pale. She sits down and announces that she’ll stay. Marius gravely says that it’s impossible, and finally she marches out of the room.

When the door is shut, Marius shakes his head, saying “Poor Cosette, when she finds out…” Valjean trembles and says he hadn’t thought that he would tell Cosette. He begins to sob. Marius reassures him that he’ll keep his secret. Valjean asks if Marius thinks he should see Cosette any more. Marius answers that it would be better not to. Valjean murmurs agreement, and turns to go. Suddenly, he turns around, livid, and says all he wants is to go to see her—this is why he’s confessed all. If Marius permits it, he’ll come every so often, as rarely as Marius pleases, at night, perhaps, to be safer. Marius says he may come every evening.

Chapter 2 Marius struggles to accept this new knowledge, and wonders if he hasn’t been imprudent. He admits to himself that he never even mentioned the Gorbeau hovel affair to Cosette, nor made any inquiries about the family: he’d only had time for love. He wonders if it would have changed anything had he discovered Valjean was a convict, and he realizes he wouldn’t have loved her any less. Still, Valjean revealed his situation to him, which nothing forced him to do, so his conscience may well be awakening. As Fauchelevent, Marius had distrusted him, but as Valjean, he now seems sincere.

Then Marius asks himself why Valjean came to the barricade, and he recalls Valjean dragging Javert down the street, as well as the pistol shot. Marius asks himself how it was that crime and innocence, in the form of Valjean and Cosette, could have coexisted for so long—the monster shadowing the angel. Marius realizes how little man can know of God’s tools and means. But he continues to return to what he knows: Valjean is a convict, the lowest rung of the social ladder. Marius has not yet questioned this ladder, and so Valjean appears repulsive to him. Marius had not dared to ask him further, probing questions, because he was afraid that this darkness would cast a shadow onto his life with Cosette. So now he shuts his eyes to Valjean. Meanwhile, though, he begins to ask Cosette more about her childhood, and learns that by all accounts, Valjean was nothing but good to her.