6.1 Photograph of Paris Sewer
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. . . the
great prodigality of Paris, her marvelous fête, her
Beaujon folly, her orgy, her full-handed outpouring of gold,
her pageant, her luxury, her magnificence, is her sewer.
(Les Miserables; Jean Valjean, Book II, ch1)
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| Hugo's View of the
Sewers of Paris
Victor Hugo saw the sewers of Paris as the "conscience
of the city"; a place where there were no secrets,
where class distinctions became insignificant and society
could be observed in a clear light.
Here, no more false appearance, no possible plastering,
the filth takes off its shirt, absolute nakedness, rout
of illusions and of mirages, nothing more but what it
is . . . The last veil is rent. A sewer is a cynic. It
tells all. (Les Miserables; Jean Valjean, Book
II, ch 2)
Hugo also lamented what he saw as a waste of valuable resources
in the sewers; he advocated the use of sewage as fertilizer.
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6.2 Victor Hugo
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| Paris throws five millions a
year into the sea. And this without metaphor. How, and in
what manner? day and night. With what object? without any
object. With what thought? without thinking of it. For what
return? for nothing. By means of what organ? by means of its
intestine. What is its intestine? its sewer . . . Science,
after long experiment, now knows that the most fertilizing
and the most effective of manures is that of man . . . A sewer
is a mistake. (Les Miserables; Jean Valjean, Book II,
ch 1) |
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The Sewers of Paris
in Les Miserables
Jean Valjean thought that that grating, noticed
by him under the paving-stones, might also be noticed
by the soldiers, and that all depended upon chance.
They also could descend into the well and explore
it. There was not a minute to be lost. He had laid
Marius upon the ground, he gathered him up, this again
being the right word, replaced him upon his shoulders,
and began his journey. He resolutely entered that
obscurity. (Les Miserables; Jean Valjean,
Book III, ch.1)
Thus begins Jean Valjean's journey into
the sewers of Paris.
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6.3 Jean ValJean carrying Marius |
When Jean Valjean descends to the sewers, he is
following what Hugo thought to be a great tradition: "Crime,
intelligence, social protest, liberty of conscience, thought,
theft, all that human laws pursue or have pursued, have hidden
in this hole..." (Les Miserables; Jean Valjean,
Book II, ch 2). Javert recognizes the sewers as a possible means
of escape for the revolutionaries, and lies in wait for Valjean
where it empties into the Seine. Thénardier, who represents
the criminal element in the novel, runs into Valjean in the sewer,
and provides him with the key to the gates out of the sewer.
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