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Les Miserables - Volume 1 - Book 5 - Chapter 4
Episode 4327th May 2024 • Bite at a Time Books • Bree Carlile
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Join Host Bree Carlile as she reads the forty-third chapter of Les Miserables.

Come with us as we release one bite a day of one of your favorite classic novels, plays & short stories. Bree reads these classics like she reads to her daughter, one chapter a day. If you love books or audiobooks and want something to listen to as you're getting ready, driving to work, or as you're getting ready for bed, check out Bite at a Time Books!

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Transcripts

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>> Speaker A: Take a look, in the book and let's see

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what we can find.

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Take it chapter by chapter. One

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fight M at a time.

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>> Brie Carlisle: So.

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>> Speaker A: Many adventures and mountains

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we can climb

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to give word for word, line by

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line, one bite at a time.

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>> Brie Carlisle: Welcome to bite at a time books where we read you your

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favorite classics one byte at a time. my name is

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Bre Carlisle and I love to read and wanted to

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share my passion with listeners like you. If you

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want to know whats coming next and vote on upcoming

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books, sign up for our

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newsletter@biteattimebooks.com dot.

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Youll also find our new t shirts in the shop,

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including podcast shirts and quote shirts from your

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favorite classic novels. Be sure to follow my

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show on your favorite podcast platform so you get all the new

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episodes. You can find most of our links in the

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show notes, but also our website,

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byteadatimebooks.com includes all of the links for

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our show, including to our patreon to

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support the show, and YouTube, where we have special

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behind the narration of the episodes were part

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of the byte at a Time Books productions network. If

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youd also like to hear what inspired your favorite classic

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authors to write their novels and what was going

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on in the world at the time, check out the bite at a

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time books behind the story podcast. Wherever

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you listen to podcasts, please note,

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while we try to keep the text as close to the original as

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possible, some words have been changed

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to honor the marginalized communities whove identified the

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words as harmful and to stay in alignment

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with Byte at a time books brand.

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>> Brie Carlisle: Values today well be

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continuing Les Miserable by Victor

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Hugo chapter four

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Monsieur Madeleine in mourning

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at the beginning of 1820, the

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newspapers announced the death of Monsieur Mariel, bishop of

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D, surnamed Monsignor Bienvenue,

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who had died in the odor of sanctity at the age of

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82. The bishop of D,

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to supply here a detail which the papers omitted,

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had been blind for many years before his death, and

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content to be blind as his sister was beside him.

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Let us remark by the way that to be blind and to be

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loved is in fact one of the most strangely

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exquisite forms of happiness upon this earth, where nothing

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is complete. To have continually at one side

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a woman, a daughter, a sister, a charming

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being who is there because you need her and because she

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cannot do without you. To know that we are

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indispensable to a person who is necessary to

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us, to be able to incessantly measure ones

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affection by the amount of her presence which she bestows on

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us, and to say to ourselves, since

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she consecrates the whole of her time to me, it is because I

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possess the whole of her heart. To behold her

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thought in lieu of her face. To be able to

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verify the fidelity of one being amid the eclipse of the

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world. To regard the rustle of a gown as

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the sound of wings. To hear her come and

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go, retire, speak,

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return, sing. And to think that one is the center

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of these steps of this speech.

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To manifest at each instant ones personal

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attraction. To feel oneself all the more

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powerful because of ones infirmity. To become

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in ones obscurity. And through ones

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obscurity. The star round which this angel

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gravitates. Few felicities equal.

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This, the supreme happiness of life.

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Consists in the conviction that one is loved.

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Loved for ones own sake, let us

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say, rather loved in spite of oneself.

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This conviction the blind man possesses.

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To be served in distress is to be crassed.

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Does he lack anything? No.

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One does not lose the sight when one has love.

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And what love? A love wholly constituted

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a virtue. There is no blindness where there is

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certainty. Soul, seeks soul

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gropingly. And finds it in this soul,

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found and tested, is a woman. A

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hand sustains you. it is hers. A mouth

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lightly touches your brow. It is her

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mouth. You hear a breath very near you. It is

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hers to have everything of her. From her

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worship to her pity. Never to be left. To have

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that sweet weakness aiding you, to lean upon that immovable

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reed. To touch providence with ones hands. And

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to be able to take it in ones arms. God made

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tangible. What bliss.

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The heart, that obscure celestial flower.

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Undergoes a mysterious blossoming. One would not

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exchange that shadow for all brightness. The

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angel soul is there, uninterruptingly there. If she

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departs, it is but to return again. She

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vanishes like a dream and reappears like reality.

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One feels the warmth approaching. And

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behold, she is there. One overflows

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with serenity, with gaiety, with ecstasy.

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One is a radiance amid the night. And there are a thousand

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little cares nothings which are enormous.

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In that void. The most ineffable accents

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of the feminine voice employed to lull you. And supplying

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the vanished universe to you. One is

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caressed with the soul. One sees nothing. But

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one feels that one is adored. It is

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a paradise of shadows. It was from

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this paradise that Monsignor welcome had passed to the

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other. The announcement of his death was

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reprinted by the local journal of M. Sur M

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m. On the following day, Monsieur Madeleine appeared,

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clad wholly in black and with crepe on his hat.

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This morning was noticed in the town and

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commented on it seemed to throw a light on

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Monsieur Madeleines origin. It was concluded

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that some relationship existed between him and the

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venerable bishop. He has gone into mourning for the

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bishop of D, said the drawing rooms.

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This raised Monsieur Madeleines credit greatly

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and procured for him instantly and at one blow

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a certain consideration. In the noble world of M, Sir

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M. The microscopic faubourg

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Saint Germain of the place meditated, raising the quarantine against

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Monsieur Madeleine, the probable relative of a

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bishop, M. Madeleine perceived the advancement which he had

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obtained by the more numerous courtesies of the old

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women and the more plentiful smiles of the young

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ones. One evening, a ruler in

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that petty great world, who was curious by right of

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seniority, ventured to ask him, Monsieur le

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Maire is doubtless a cousin of the late bishop of D.

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He said, no, madame, but,

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resumed the dowager. You are wearing mourning for

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him, he replied. It is

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because I was a servant in his family in my youth.

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Another thing which was remarked was that every time that he

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encountered in the town a young Saviard who was

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roaming about the country and seeking chimneys to sweep,

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the mayor had him summoned, inquired his name,

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and gave him money. The little Saviards told

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each other about it. A great many of them passed that

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way.

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Thank you for joining bite at a time books today while

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we read a bite of one of your favorite classics.

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Again, my name is Bree Carlisle, and

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I hope you come back tomorrow for the next bite of

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Le Miserable.

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>> Brie Carlisle: Dont forget to sign up for our

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newsletter@byteadatimebooks.com, and check

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out the shop. You can check out the show notes or

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our website, byteadatimebooks.com, for

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the rest of the links for our show. wed love to hear from you on

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social media as well.

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>> Speaker A: Take a look and let's

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see what we can find.

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Take it chapter by chapter. One.

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