Join Host Bree Carlile as she reads the ninetieth chapter of Les Miserables.
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>> Speaker A: Take it chapter by chapter one
Speaker:fight at a time
Speaker:so many adventures and mountains
Speaker:we can climb
Speaker:take it word for word, line by
Speaker:line, one bite at a time.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Welcome to Byte at a time books where we read you your
Speaker:favorite classics one bite at a time. my name is
Speaker:Bre Carlisle and I love to read and wanted to
Speaker:share my passion with listeners like you. If you
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Speaker:youd also like to hear what inspired your favorite classic
Speaker:authors to write their novels and what was going
Speaker:on in the world at the time, check out the bite at a
Speaker:time books behind the story podcast. Wherever
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Speaker:while we try to keep the text as close to the original as
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Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Values today well be
Speaker:continuing.
Speaker:Les miserables by Victor
Speaker:Hugo Book
Speaker:Second the ship Orion
Speaker:chapter one, number
Speaker:24,601
Speaker:becomes number 9430.
Speaker:Jean Valjean had been recaptured.
Speaker:The reader will be grateful to us if we pass rapidly over the
Speaker:sad details. We will confine ourselves to
Speaker:transcribing two paragraphs published by the journals of that
Speaker:day. A few months after the surprising events
Speaker:which had taken place at Imser eb M.
Speaker:These articles are rather summary. It must
Speaker:be remembered that at that epoch the Gazette des
Speaker:Tribuneau was not yet in existence.
Speaker:We borrow the first from the jepu blanc.
Speaker:It bears the date of July 25,
Speaker:1823. An arrondissement of the
Speaker:paste. Calais had just been the theater of an
Speaker:event quite out of the ordinary course.
Speaker:A man who was a stranger in the department
Speaker:and who bore the name of Monsieur Madeleine had
Speaker:Thanks to the new methods resuscitated some years ago
Speaker:in ancient local industry, the manufacture
Speaker:of jet and of black glass trinkets.
Speaker:He had made his fortune in the business, and that
Speaker:of the arrondissement as well. We will admit
Speaker:he had been appointed mayor in recognition of his services,
Speaker:the police discovered that Monsieur Madeleine was no
Speaker:other than an ex convict who had broken his ban.
Speaker:Condemned in 1796 for theft and
Speaker:named Jean Valjean, Jean
Speaker:Valjean has been recommitted to prison.
Speaker:It appears that previous to his arrest, he had
Speaker:succeeded in withdrawing from the hands of Monsieur Lafitte
Speaker:a sum of over half a million which he had lodged
Speaker:there, and which he had, moreover,
Speaker:and by perfectly legitimate means, acquired in his
Speaker:business. No one has been able to
Speaker:discover where Jean Valjean has concealed this money since his
Speaker:return to prison at Toulon. The second
Speaker:article, which enters a little more into detail, is
Speaker:an extract from the Journal de Paris of the same
Speaker:date. A former convict whos been
Speaker:liberated, named Jean Valjean, has just appeared
Speaker:before the court of assizes of the Var. Under
Speaker:circumstances calculated to attract attention.
Speaker:This wretch has succeeded in escaping the vigilance of the
Speaker:police. He has changed his name and had
Speaker:succeeded in getting himself appointed mayor of one of our small
Speaker:northern towns. In this town, he had
Speaker:established a considerable commerce. He has
Speaker:at last been unmasked and arrested.
Speaker:Thanks to the indefatigable zeal of the public
Speaker:prosecutor. He had for his concubine
Speaker:a woman of the town who died of a shock at the moment
Speaker:of his arrest. This scoundrel, who was
Speaker:endowed with herculean strength, found means to
Speaker:escape. But three or four days after his
Speaker:flight, the police laid their hands on him once more in
Speaker:Paris itself, at the very moment when he was
Speaker:entering one of those little vehicles which run between the capital
Speaker:and the village of Montremille. Say note
Speaker:Oys. He is said to have profited,
Speaker:by this interval of three or four days of liberty,
Speaker:to withdraw a considerable sum deposited by him with one
Speaker:of our leading bankers. This sum has
Speaker:been estimated at six or 700,000
Speaker:francs. If the indictment is to be
Speaker:trusted, he has hidden it in some place known to himself
Speaker:alone, and it has not been possible to lay hands on
Speaker:it. However that may be
Speaker:the said Jean Valjean has just been brought before the
Speaker:assizes of the department of Navarre as accused of highway
Speaker:robbery, accompanied with violence, about eight years ago, on
Speaker:the person of one of those honest children, who,
Speaker:as the patriarch of Ferny has said in immortal
Speaker:verse, arrived from Savoy every year,
Speaker:and who, with gentle hands do clear
Speaker:those long canals, choked up with soot,
Speaker:this bandit refused to defend himself.
Speaker:It was proved by the skillful and eloquent
Speaker:representative of the public prosecutor that the
Speaker:theft was committed in complicity with others,
Speaker:and that Jean Valjean was a member of a band of robbers in the
Speaker:southeast. Jean Valjean was pronounced
Speaker:guilty and was condemned to the death penalty. In
Speaker:consequence, this criminal refused
Speaker:to lodge an appeal. The king, in
Speaker:his inexhaustible clemency, has deigned to
Speaker:commute his penalty to that of penal servitude for
Speaker:life. Jean Valjean was immediately
Speaker:taken to the prison at Toulon. The
Speaker:reader has not forgotten that Jean Valjean had
Speaker:religious habits at M. Sur Mh. M. Some
Speaker:papers, among others. The constitutional
Speaker:presented this commutation as a triumph of the priestly
Speaker:party. Jean Valjean changed his number in
Speaker:the galleys. He was called
Speaker:9430,
Speaker:however, and we will mention it at
Speaker:once, in order that we may not be obliged to recur to the
Speaker:subject. The prosperity of M. Sur M? M
Speaker:vanished with Monsieur Madeleine. All that he had
Speaker:foreseen during his night of fever and hesitation was
Speaker:realized. Lacking him, there actually
Speaker:was a soul lacking. After
Speaker:this fall, there took place at m. Sur m? that egotistical
Speaker:division of great existences which have fallen,
Speaker:that fatal dismemberment of flourishing things, which is
Speaker:accomplished every day obscurely in the human
Speaker:community, in which history is noted only
Speaker:once, because it occurred after the death of
Speaker:Alexander. Lieutenants are crowned.
Speaker:Kingsley. Superintendents improvised,
Speaker:manufacturers. Out of themselves, envious
Speaker:rivalries arose. Monsieur Madeleines
Speaker:vast workshops were shut. His
Speaker:buildings fell to ruin. His workmen were
Speaker:scattered. Some of them quitted the country,
Speaker:others, abandoned the trade.
Speaker:Thenceforth, everything was done on a small scale
Speaker:instead of on a grand scale. For Luker, instead of
Speaker:the general good, there was no longer a
Speaker:center. Everywhere there was
Speaker:competition and animosity.
Speaker:Monsieur Madeleine had reigned over all and directed
Speaker:all. No sooner had he
Speaker:fallen than each pulled things to
Speaker:himself. The spirit of combat succeeded to
Speaker:the spirit of organization, bitterness to
Speaker:cordiality, hatred, of one another, to the benevolence
Speaker:of the founder towards all. The threads which
Speaker:Monster Madeleine had set were tangled and
Speaker:broken. The methods were adulterated.
Speaker:The products were debased. Confidence was
Speaker:killed, the market diminished for lack of
Speaker:orders. Salaries were reduced. The
Speaker:workshop stood still. Bankruptcy
Speaker:arrived. And then there was
Speaker:nothing more for the poor. All, had
Speaker:vanished. The state itself
Speaker:perceived that someone had been crushed
Speaker:somewhere less than four years after the
Speaker:judgment of the court of Assizes, establishing the identity of Jean
Speaker:Valjean and Monsieur Madeleine for the benefit of the
Speaker:galleys, the cost of collecting taxes
Speaker:had doubled in the arrondissement of M. Sur M?
Speaker:M. And Monsieur de Villiers called attention
Speaker:to the fact in the rostrum in the month of February
Speaker:1827.
Speaker:Thank you for joining bite at a time books today. While
Speaker:we read a bite of one of your favorite classics
Speaker:again. My name is Brie Carlisle, and
Speaker:I hope you come back tomorrow for the next bite
Speaker:of le miserable.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Dont forget to sign up for our
Speaker:newsletter@biteautotimebooks.com and
Speaker:check out the shop. You can check out the show notes
Speaker:or our website, byteadittimebooks.com,
Speaker:for the rest of the links for our show. wed love to hear from you
Speaker:on social media as well.