Join Host Bree Carlile as she reads the forty-eighth chapter of Les Miserables.

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

what we can find.

Take it chapter by chapter. One

fight M at a time

so many adventures and

mountains we can climb

to give word for word, line by

line, one bite at a time.

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

favorite classics, one byte at a time. my name is

Bre Carlisle and I love to read and wanted to

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>> Brie Carlisle: Today well be continuing.

Les Miserable by Victor Hugo

chapter nine Madame

victorian success

so the monks widow was good for something,

but Monsieur Madeleine had heard nothing of all

this. Life is full of just such

combinations of events. Monsieur

Madeleine was in the habit of almost never entering the womens

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

an elderly spinster whom the priest had

provided for him, and he had full confidence

in the superintendent, a truly

respectable person, firm,

equitable, upright, full of the

charity which consists in giving, but

not having in the same degree that charity which consists

in understanding and in forgiving.

Monsieur, Madeleine relied wholly on her. The

best men are often obliged to delegate their authority.

It was with this full power and the conviction that

she was doing right, that that the superintendent had

instituted the suit, judged, condemned,

and executed Fantine as

regards the 50 francs she had given them from a fund

which Monsieur Madeleine had entrusted to her for charitable

purposes and for giving assistance to the

workwomen, and of which she rendered no account.

Fantine tried to obtain a situation as a servant in the

neighborhood. She went from house to house.

No one would have her. She could not leave

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

debt for her furniture. And what

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

have you arrested as a thief. The

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

young and pretty. You can pay.

She divided the 50 francs between the landlord and the

furniture dealer, returned to the latter. Three

quarters of his goods kept only necessaries,

and found herself without work, without a trade,

with nothing but her bed, and still about 50 francs

in debt. She began to make coarse shirts

for soldiers of the garrison. And earned twelve sous

a day. Her daughter cost her ten.

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

regularly. However, the old woman who lighted her

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

of living in misery. Back of living on

little. There is the living on nothing.

These are the two chambers. The first is

dark. The second is black.

Fantine learned how to live without fire entirely in the

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

farthings worth of millet every two days. How to make

a coverlet of ones petticoat and a

petticoat of ones coverlet. How to save ones

candle by taking ones meals by the light of the opposite

window. No one knows all that certain

feeble creatures. Who have grown old in privation and

honesty. Can, get out of a sue. It

ends by being a talent. Fantine

acquired this sublime talent. And regained a little

courage at this epoch. She said to a

neighbor, I say to

myself, by only sleeping 5 hours.

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

I shall always manage to nearly earn my bread.

And then, when one is sad, one eats less

well. Sufferings, uneasiness. A little

bread on one hand, trouble on the other.

All this will support me. It would have been

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

She thought of having her come. But what

then? Make her share her own destitution?

And then she was in debt to the thenardiers.

How could she pay them? And a journey.

How pay for that? The old woman who had given

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

Was a sainted spinster named Marguerite,

who was pious, with a true piety,

poor and charitable towards the poor

and even towards the rich. Knowing how to write

just sufficiently to sign herself, Marguerite.

And believing in God, which is science,

there are many such virtuous people in this lower world.

Someday they will be in the world above. This

life has a morrow. At first, Fantine

had been so ashamed she, had not dared to go

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

people turned round behind her and pointed at her.

Everyone stared at her, and no one greeted her.

The cold and bitter scorn of the passersby penetrated her

very flesh and soul like a north wind.

It seems as though an unfortunate woman were utterly bare

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

towns in Paris. At least

no one knows you in this obscurity. Its a

garment. Oh, how she would have liked to betake

herself to Paris. Impossible.

She was obliged to accustom herself to

disrepute as, she had accustomed herself to

indigence. Gradually, she decided on her

course. At the expiration of two or three

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

were nothing the matter. It is all the same to

me, she said. She went

and came, baring her head well up with a

bitter smile, and was conscious that she was becoming

brazen faced. Madame

Victorian sometimes saw her passing from her window,

noticed, the distress of that creature

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

place and congratulated herself.

The happiness of the evil minded is black.

Excess of toil wore out fantine, and

the little dry cough which troubled her increased.

She sometimes said to her neighbor Marguerite,

just feel how hot my hands are.

Nevertheless, when she combed her beautiful hair in the morning

with an old broken comb and it flowed about her

like floss silk, she experienced a

moment of happy coquetry.

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

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

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

I hope you come back tomorrow for the next bite

of le miserable.

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

newsletter@biteautimebooks.com, and check

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