Part 4 Book 12 Chapter 2 Preliminary Gayeties 19世纪30年代的法国。富人乘坐马车,用金餐具吃喝。穷人没有工作,没有食物,没有希望——他们是穷苦人,起义一触即发。法国人民还记得1789年的法国大革命。当时,民众在巴黎街头筑起街垒,死去的人数以千计。这样的时刻又要到来了吗? 这是冉阿让的故事。他坐了19年的牢,终于恢复了自由身。可是,他怎么生活,到哪里去找工作呢?像他这样一个人,还有什么希望呢?这也是沙威的故事,他是一个督察,一个残忍的人,一个冷酷的人。他的人生只有一个目标——把冉阿让再次送进大牢。这还是芳汀的故事,芳汀和她的女儿珂赛特。她们的故事是怎样改变了冉阿让的一生?这也是马吕斯的故事。他是巴黎的一名学生,做好了为起义而牺牲的准备——或是为爱情而死。最后,还有伽弗洛什——一个在巴黎街头流浪的孩子,他没有家,没有亲人,没有鞋穿……可他的脸上总是挂着笑容,心中总是有歌儿在欢唱。 不过,我们要先从冉阿让讲起…… France in the 1830s. The rich ride in carriages, and eat from gold plates. The poor have no work, no food, no hope – they are Les Misérables, and rebellion is in the air. France remembers the French Revolution in 1789, when the people built barricades in the streets of Paris, and the dead were counted in thousands. Is that time coming again? This is the story of Jean Valjean. A prisoner for nineteen years, now at last he is a free man. But how can he live, where can he find work? What hope is there for a man like him? It is also the story of Javert, a police inspector, a cruel man, a hard man. He wants one thing in life – to send Valjean back to prison. And it is Fantine’s story too, Fantine and her daughter Cosette. How does their story change Valjean’s life? And it is also Marius’s story. He is a student in Paris, ready to die for the rebellion – or for love. And last, there is Gavroche – a boy of the Paris streets, with no home, no family, no shoes... But a boy with a smile on his face and a song in his heart. But we begin with Jean Valjean...
Laigle de Meaux, as the reader knows, lived more with Joly than elsewhere. He had a lodging, as a bird has one on a branch. The two friends lived together, ate together, slept together. They had everything in common, even Musichetta, to some extent. They were, what the subordinate monks who accompany monks are called, bini. On the morning of the 5th of June, they went to Corinthe to breakfast. Joly, who was all stuffed up, had a catarrh which Laigle was beginning to share. Laigle’s coat was threadbare, but Joly was well dressed.
1
读书笔记
是否公开
我的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
网友的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
-
It was about nine o’clock in the morning, when they opened the door of Corinthe.
2
读书笔记
是否公开
我的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
网友的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
-
They ascended to the first floor.
3
读书笔记
是否公开
我的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
网友的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
-
Matelote and Gibelotte received them.
4
读书笔记
是否公开
我的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
网友的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
-
"Oysters, cheese, and ham," said Laigle.
5
读书笔记
是否公开
我的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
网友的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
-
And they seated themselves at a table.
6
读书笔记
是否公开
我的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
网友的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
-
The wine-shop was empty; there was no one there but themselves.
7
读书笔记
是否公开
我的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
网友的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
-
Gibelotte, knowing Joly and Laigle, set a bottle of wine on the table.
8
读书笔记
是否公开
我的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
网友的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
-
While they were busy with their first oysters, a head appeared at the hatchway of the staircase, and a voice said:--
9
读书笔记
是否公开
我的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
网友的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
-
"I am passing by. I smell from the street a delicious odor of Brie cheese. I enter." It was Grantaire.
10
读书笔记
是否公开
我的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
网友的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
-
Grantaire took a stool and drew up to the table.
11
读书笔记
是否公开
我的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
网友的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
-
At the sight of Grantaire, Gibelotte placed two bottles of wine on the table.
12
读书笔记
是否公开
我的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
网友的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
-
That made three.
13
读书笔记
是否公开
我的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
网友的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
-
"Are you going to drink those two bottles?" Laigle inquired of Grantaire.
14
读书笔记
是否公开
我的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
网友的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
-
Grantaire replied:--
15
读书笔记
是否公开
我的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
网友的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
-
"All are ingenious, thou alone art ingenuous. Two bottles never yet astonished a man."
16
读书笔记
是否公开
我的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
网友的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
-
The others had begun by eating, Grantaire began by drinking. Half a bottle was rapidly gulped down.
17
读书笔记
是否公开
我的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
网友的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
-
"So you have a hole in your stomach?" began Laigle again.
18
读书笔记
是否公开
我的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
网友的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
-
"You have one in your elbow," said Grantaire.
19
读书笔记
是否公开
我的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
网友的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
-
And after having emptied his glass, he added:--
20
读书笔记
是否公开
我的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
网友的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
-
"Ah, by the way, Laigle of the funeral oration, your coat is old."
21
读书笔记
是否公开
我的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
网友的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
-
"I should hope so," retorted Laigle. "That’s why we get on well together, my coat and I. It has acquired all my folds, it does not bind me anywhere, it is moulded on my deformities, it falls in with all my movements, I am only conscious of it because it keeps me warm. Old coats are just like old friends."
22
读书笔记
是否公开
我的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
网友的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
-
"That’s true," ejaculated Joly, striking into the dialogue, "an old goat is an old abi" (ami, friend).
23
读书笔记
是否公开
我的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
网友的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
-
"Especially in the mouth of a man whose head is stuffed up," said Grantaire.
24
读书笔记
是否公开
我的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
网友的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
-
"Grantaire," demanded Laigle, "have you just come from the boulevard?"
25
读书笔记
是否公开
我的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
网友的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
-
"No."
26
读书笔记
是否公开
我的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
网友的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
-
"We have just seen the head of the procession pass, Joly and I."
27
读书笔记
是否公开
我的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
网友的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
-
"It’s a marvellous sight," said Joly.
28
读书笔记
是否公开
我的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
网友的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
-
"How quiet this street is!" exclaimed Laigle. "Who would suspect that Paris was turned upside down? How plainly it is to be seen that in former days there were nothing but convents here! In this neighborhood! Du Breul and Sauval give a list of them, and so does the Abbe Lebeuf. They were all round here, they fairly swarmed, booted and barefooted, shaven, bearded, gray, black, white, Franciscans, Minims, Capuchins, Carmelites, Little Augustines, Great Augustines, old Augustines--there was no end of them."
29
读书笔记
是否公开
我的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
网友的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
-
"Don’t let’s talk of monks," interrupted Grantaire, "it makes one want to scratch one’s self."
30
读书笔记
是否公开
我的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
网友的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
-
Then he exclaimed:--
31
读书笔记
是否公开
我的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
网友的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
-
"Bouh! I’ve just swallowed a bad oyster. Now hypochondria is taking possession of me again. The oysters are spoiled, the servants are ugly. I hate the human race. I just passed through the Rue Richelieu, in front of the big public library. That pile of oyster-shells which is called a library is disgusting even to think of. What paper! What ink! What scrawling! And all that has been written! What rascal was it who said that man was a featherless biped? [51] And then, I met a pretty girl of my acquaintance, who is as beautiful as the spring, worthy to be called Floreal, and who is delighted, enraptured, as happy as the angels, because a wretch yesterday, a frightful banker all spotted with small-pox, deigned to take a fancy to her! Alas! Woman keeps on the watch for a protector as much as for a lover; cats chase mice as well as birds. Two months ago that young woman was virtuous in an attic, she adjusted little brass rings in the eyelet-holes of corsets, what do you call it? She sewed, she had a camp bed, she dwelt beside a pot of flowers, she was contented. Now here she is a bankeress. This transformation took place last night. I met the victim this morning in high spirits. The hideous point about it is, that the jade is as pretty to-day as she was yesterday. Her financier did not show in her face. Roses have this advantage or disadvantage over women, that the traces left upon them by caterpillars are visible. Ah! There is no morality on earth. I call to witness the myrtle, the symbol of love, the laurel, the symbol of air, the olive, that ninny, the symbol of peace, the apple-tree which came nearest rangling Adam with its pips, and the fig-tree, the grandfather of petticoats. As for right, do you know what right is? The Gauls covet Clusium, Rome protects Clusium, and demands what wrong Clusium has done to them. Brennus answers: The wrong that Alba did to you, the wrong that Fidenae did to you, the wrong that the Eques, the Volsci, and the Sabines have done to you. They were your neighbors.The Clusians are ours. We understand neighborliness just as you do. You have stolen Alba, we shall take Clusium.’ Rome said: You shall not take Clusium.’ Brennus took Rome. Then he cried:Vae victis!’ That is what right is. Ah! What beasts of prey there are in this world! What eagles! It makes my flesh creep."
32
读书笔记
是否公开
我的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
网友的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
-
[51] Bipede sans plume: biped without feathers--pen.
33
读书笔记
是否公开
我的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
网友的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
-
He held out his glass to Joly, who filled it, then he drank and went on, having hardly been interrupted by this glass of wine, of which no one, not even himself, had taken any notice:--
34
读书笔记
是否公开
我的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
网友的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
-
"Brennus, who takes Rome, is an eagle; the banker who takes the grisette is an eagle. There is no more modesty in the one case than in the other. So we believe in nothing. There is but one reality: drink. Whatever your opinion may be in favor of the lean cock, like the Canton of Uri, or in favor of the fat cock, like the Canton of Glaris, it matters little, drink. You talk to me of the boulevard, of that procession, et caetera, et caetera. Come now, is there going to be another revolution? This poverty of means on the part of the good God astounds me. He has to keep greasing the groove of events every moment. There is a hitch, it won’t work. Quick, a revolution! The good God has his hands perpetually black with that cart-grease. If I were in his place, I’d be perfectly simple about it, I would not wind up my mechanism every minute, I’d lead the human race in a straightforward way, I’d weave matters mesh by mesh, without breaking the thread, I would have no provisional arrangements, I would have no extraordinary repertory. What the rest of you call progress advances by means of two motors, men and events. But, sad to say, from time to time, the exceptional becomes necessary. The ordinary troupe suffices neither for event nor for men: among men geniuses are required, among events revolutions. Great accidents are the law; the orderof things cannot do without them; and, judging from the apparition of comets, one would be tempted to think that Heaven itself finds actors needed for its performance. At the moment when one expects it the least, God placards a meteor on the wall of the firmament. Some queer star turns up, underlined by an enormous tail. And that causes the death of Caesar. Brutus deals him a blow with a knife, and God a blow with a comet. Crac, and behold an aurora borealis, behold a revolution, behold a great man; ’93 in big letters, Napoleon on guard, the comet of 1811 at the head of the poster. Ah! What a beautiful blue theatre all studded with unexpected flashes! Boum! Boum! Extraordinary show! Raise your eyes, boobies. Everything is in disorder, the star as well as the drama. Good God, it is too much and not enough. These resources, gathered from exception,seem magnificence and poverty.My friends, Providence has come down to expedients. What does a revolution prove? That God is in a quandry. He effects a coup d’etat because he, God, has not been able to make both ends meet. In fact, this confirms me in my conjectures as to Jehovah’s fortune; and when I see so much distress in heaven and on earth, from the bird who has not a grain of millet to myself without a hundred thousand livres of income, when I see human destiny, which is very badly worn, and even royal destiny, which is threadbare, witness the Prince de Conde hung, when I see winter, which is nothing but a rent in the zenith through which the wind blows, when I see so many rags even in the perfectly new purple of the morning on the crests of hills, when I see the drops of dew, those mock pearls, when I see the frost, that paste, when I see humanity ripped apart and events patched up, and so many spots on the sun and so many holes in the moon, when I see so much misery everywhere, I suspect that God is not rich. The appearance exists, it is true, but I feel that he is hard up. He gives a revolution as a tradesman whose money-box is emptygives a ball. God must not be judged from appearances. Beneath the gilding of heaven I perceive a poverty-stricken universe. Creation is bankrupt. That is why I am discontented. Here it is the 4th of June, it is almost night; ever since this morning I have been waiting for daylight to come; it has not come, and I bet that it won’t come all day. This is the inexactness of an ill-paid clerk. Yes, everything is badly arranged, nothing fits anything else, this old world is all warped, I take my stand on the opposition, everything goes awry; the universe is a tease. It’s like children, those who want them have none, and those who don’t want them have them. Total: I’m vexed. Besides, Laigle de Meaux, that bald-head, offends my sight. It humiliates me to think that I am of the same age as that baldy. However, I criticise, but I do not insult. The universe is what it is. I speak here without evil intent and to ease my conscience. Receive, Eternal Father, the assurance of my distinguished consideration. Ah! By all the saints of Olympus and by all the gods of paradise, I was not intended to be a Parisian, that is to say, to rebound forever, like a shuttlecock between two battledores, from the group of the loungers to the group of the roysterers. I was made to be a Turk, watching oriental houris all day long, executing those exquisite Egyptian dances, as sensuous as the dream of a chaste man, or a Beauceron peasant, or a Venetian gentleman surrounded by gentlewoman, or a petty German prince, furnishing the half of a foot-soldier to the Germanic confederation, and occupying his leisure with drying his breeches on his hedge, that is to say, his frontier. Those are the positions for which I was born! Yes, I have said a Turk, and I will not retract. I do not understand how people can habitually take Turks in bad part; Mohammed had his good points; respect for the inventor of seraglios with houris and paradises with odalisques! Let us not insult Mohammedanism, the only religion which is ornamented with a hen-roost! Now, I insist on a drink. The earth is a great piece of stupidity. And it appears that they are going to fight, all those imbeciles, and to break each other’s profiles and to massacre each other in the heart of summer, in the month of June, when they might go off with a creature on their arm, to breathe the immense heaps of new-mown hay in the meadows! Really, people do commit altogether too many follies. An old broken lantern which I have just seen at a bric-a-brac merchant’s suggests a reflection to my mind; it is time to enlighten the human race. Yes, behold me sad again. That’s what comes of swallowing an oyster and a revolution the wrong way! I am growing melancholy once more. Oh! Frightful old world. People strive, turn each other out, prostitute themselves, kill each other, and get used to it!"
35
读书笔记
是否公开
我的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
网友的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
-
And Grantaire, after this fit of eloquence, had a fit of coughing, which was well earned.
36
读书笔记
是否公开
我的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
网友的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
-
"A propos of revolution," said Joly, "it is decidedly abberent that Barius is in lub."
37
读书笔记
是否公开
我的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
网友的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
-
"Does any one know with whom?" demanded Laigle.
38
读书笔记
是否公开
我的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
网友的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
-
"Do."
39
读书笔记
是否公开
我的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
网友的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
-
"No?"
40
读书笔记
是否公开
我的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
网友的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
-
Please sign in to unlock the rest
41
读书笔记
是否公开
我的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
网友的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
-
Please sign in to unlock the rest
42
读书笔记
是否公开
我的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
网友的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
-
Please sign in to unlock the rest
43
读书笔记
是否公开
我的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
网友的读书笔记
仅对会员开放
-
The child unhesitatingly making his choice among the three, addressed himself to Laigle de Meaux.