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Les Miserables - Volume 1 - Book 5 - Chapter 9
Episode 481st June 2024 • Bite at a Time Books • Bree Carlile
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Join Host Bree Carlile as she reads the forty-eighth 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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If you ever wondered what inspired your favorite classic novelist to write their stories, what was happening in their lives or the world at the time, check out Bite at a Time Books Behind the Story wherever you listen to podcasts.

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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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so many adventures and

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mountains 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 time

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books behind the story podcast. Wherever you

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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 values.

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>> Brie Carlisle: Today well be continuing.

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Les Miserable by Victor Hugo

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chapter nine Madame

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victorian success

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so the monks widow was good for something,

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but Monsieur Madeleine had heard nothing of all

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this. Life is full of just such

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combinations of events. Monsieur

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Madeleine was in the habit of almost never entering the womens

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workroom at, ah, the head of this room he had placed

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an elderly spinster whom the priest had

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provided for him, and he had full confidence

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in the superintendent, a truly

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respectable person, firm,

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equitable, upright, full of the

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charity which consists in giving, but

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not having in the same degree that charity which consists

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in understanding and in forgiving.

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Monsieur, Madeleine relied wholly on her. The

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best men are often obliged to delegate their authority.

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It was with this full power and the conviction that

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she was doing right, that that the superintendent had

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instituted the suit, judged, condemned,

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and executed Fantine as

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regards the 50 francs she had given them from a fund

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which Monsieur Madeleine had entrusted to her for charitable

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purposes and for giving assistance to the

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workwomen, and of which she rendered no account.

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Fantine tried to obtain a situation as a servant in the

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neighborhood. She went from house to house.

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No one would have her. She could not leave

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town. The second hand stealer, to whom she was in

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debt for her furniture. And what

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furniture, said to her, if you leave, I will

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have you arrested as a thief. The

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householder whom she owed for her rent, said to her, you are

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young and pretty. You can pay.

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She divided the 50 francs between the landlord and the

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furniture dealer, returned to the latter. Three

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quarters of his goods kept only necessaries,

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and found herself without work, without a trade,

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with nothing but her bed, and still about 50 francs

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in debt. She began to make coarse shirts

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for soldiers of the garrison. And earned twelve sous

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a day. Her daughter cost her ten.

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It was at this point that she began to pay the thenardiers

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regularly. However, the old woman who lighted her

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candle for her when she returned at night. Taught her the art

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of living in misery. Back of living on

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little. There is the living on nothing.

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These are the two chambers. The first is

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dark. The second is black.

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Fantine learned how to live without fire entirely in the

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winter. How to give up a bird which eats a half a

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farthings worth of millet every two days. How to make

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a coverlet of ones petticoat and a

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petticoat of ones coverlet. How to save ones

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candle by taking ones meals by the light of the opposite

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window. No one knows all that certain

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feeble creatures. Who have grown old in privation and

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honesty. Can, get out of a sue. It

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ends by being a talent. Fantine

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acquired this sublime talent. And regained a little

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courage at this epoch. She said to a

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neighbor, I say to

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myself, by only sleeping 5 hours.

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And working all the rest of the time at my sewing,

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I shall always manage to nearly earn my bread.

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And then, when one is sad, one eats less

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well. Sufferings, uneasiness. A little

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bread on one hand, trouble on the other.

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All this will support me. It would have been

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a great happiness to have her little girl with her in this distress.

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She thought of having her come. But what

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then? Make her share her own destitution?

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And then she was in debt to the thenardiers.

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How could she pay them? And a journey.

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How pay for that? The old woman who had given

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her lessons in what may be called the life of indigence.

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Was a sainted spinster named Marguerite,

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who was pious, with a true piety,

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poor and charitable towards the poor

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and even towards the rich. Knowing how to write

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just sufficiently to sign herself, Marguerite.

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And believing in God, which is science,

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there are many such virtuous people in this lower world.

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Someday they will be in the world above. This

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life has a morrow. At first, Fantine

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had been so ashamed she, had not dared to go

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out. When she was in the street. She divined that

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people turned round behind her and pointed at her.

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Everyone stared at her, and no one greeted her.

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The cold and bitter scorn of the passersby penetrated her

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very flesh and soul like a north wind.

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It seems as though an unfortunate woman were utterly bare

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beneath the sarcasm. In the curiosity of all. In small

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towns in Paris. At least

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no one knows you in this obscurity. Its a

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garment. Oh, how she would have liked to betake

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herself to Paris. Impossible.

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She was obliged to accustom herself to

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disrepute as, she had accustomed herself to

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indigence. Gradually, she decided on her

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course. At the expiration of two or three

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months, she shook off her shame and began to go about as though there

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were nothing the matter. It is all the same to

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me, she said. She went

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and came, baring her head well up with a

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bitter smile, and was conscious that she was becoming

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brazen faced. Madame

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Victorian sometimes saw her passing from her window,

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noticed, the distress of that creature

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who, thanks to her, had been put back in her proper

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place and congratulated herself.

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The happiness of the evil minded is black.

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Excess of toil wore out fantine, and

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the little dry cough which troubled her increased.

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She sometimes said to her neighbor Marguerite,

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just feel how hot my hands are.

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Nevertheless, when she combed her beautiful hair in the morning

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with an old broken comb and it flowed about her

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like floss silk, she experienced a

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moment of happy coquetry.

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Thank you for joining bite at a time books today, while we read.

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>> Brie Carlisle: A bite of one of your favorite classics.

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>> Brie Carlisle: Again, my name is Brie Carlisle, and

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I hope you come back tomorrow for the next bite

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of le miserable.

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

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newsletter@biteautimebooks.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 the

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rest of the links for our show. Wed love to hear

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from you on social media as well.

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