secretmellowblog

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I love how Javert’s beadle disguise is handled in the 1925 silent film adaptation, where Javert is so bundled up in layers of coat and cloth that he's just waddling around. I gueSS he doesn't look "like Javert" but he also looks like someone who is obviously Disguised. It's very powerful

Also obsessed with his quick change where he comedically flings off his hat and coat

Master of disguise, that one

#les mis #les mis letters #lm 2.4.5 #XD

[secretmellowblog]

Jean Valjean blowing out the candle is supposed to just be part of a larger moment of tension as he tries to figure out what’s going on, but after learning that there’s a specific way convicts blow out candles earlier in the book, I really just want to know how he blew it out.

#AJKSKDKD #les mis letters

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The one, in which Veljean’s and Cosette’s idyll is shattered, and it is Javert who torments them. The moment of recognition is so vividly depicted that it sends shivers down my spine: “He experienced the same impression that one would have on finding one’s self, all of a sudden, face to face, in the dark, with a tiger. He recoiled, terrified, petrified, daring neither to breathe, to speak, to remain, nor to flee, staring at the beggar who had dropped his head, which was enveloped in a rag, and no longer appeared to know that he was there.” Despite this stark realization, Valjean deceives himself into believing it is impossible: “He hardly dared to confess, even to himself, that the face which he thought he had seen was the face of Javert.” It’s understandable why he clings to this denial — he doesn’t want his peaceful life with Cosette to be abruptly interrupted by this impossible intrusion.

And he continues to deceive himself, as he hears an unfamiliar presence in the Gorbeau house. Valjean’s reaction to this unwanted presence is to remain silent and invisible in the darkness. Cosette, obedient as ever, falls silent and heads to bed without question. This obedience reflects her past life, where compliance was likely a survival mechanism.

Javert’s presence and surveillance in the Grobeau house are marked by the light of the candle which “formed a sort of sinister star” through the keyhole. It’s such a powerful and terrifying image! As soon as we hear that in the morning Valjean sees the man “of lofty stature” through the keyhole, we can be sure that it is Javert. This pattern of a mysterious man turning out to be Valjean and a man “of lofty stature” turning out to be Javert is consistent throughout the narrative.

As Valjean’s worse suspicions are confirmed, he takes Cosette and leaves the Gorbeau house, not to return there in the next seven years or so.

#!!!! #Les mis #les mis letters #javert is so spooky in this chapter

[secretmellowblog]

I want to do a version of Les Mis where everyone's songs are replaced with that Gavroche introduction.

Big "My name is BLANK and I'm here to say" energy, is what I'm going for

(LOOK DOWN orchestral intro swells then suddenly cuts out)

'OW DO YA DO, MY NAME'S JAVERT I'M A POLICEMAN, YOU'RE A THIEF YOU MAY NOW BE ON PAROLE BUT NO-ONE CAN CHANGE, THAT'S MY BELIEF

(immediate reply)

'OW DO YA DO, MY NAME'S VALJEAN I ONLY STOLE A LOAF OF BREAD PAY ATTENTION TO HOW I LIFT THE KNOWLEDGE WILL STAND YOU IN GOOD STEAD

and it would just go on like that for, like, 2 hours of shouty vaguely-cockney-accented exposition (granted, i feel like it'd be a bit unbearable by 2 minutes... but still)

#this is so true and beautiful #les mis

[secretmellowblog]

She also noticed that there were all sorts of things in the pockets. Not only the needles, thread, and scissors which she had seen, but a big pocket-book, a very large knife, and—a suspicious circumstance—several wigs of various colors. Each pocket of this coat had the air of being in a manner provided against unexpected accidents.

me, with all sorts of toiletries, gadgets, and stationery in my backpack for only a 9 to 5 office job: he's just like me fr

#les mis letters #ASDFSS

[secretmellowblog]

wait I just realized

It’s Wig Pocket Wednesday 🎉

Happy Wig Pocket day to everyone following @lesmisletters!

She also noticed that there were all sorts of things in the pockets [of Valjean’s coat.] Not only the needles, thread, and scissors which she had seen, but a big pocket-book, a very large knife, and—a suspicious circumstance—several wigs of various colors. Each pocket of this coat had the air of being in a manner provided against unexpected accidents.

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fashionistas cosette and courfeyrac and their sad little loser boyfriend marius <3

#AHHHHH #beautiful #powerful #so in character #I love courfeyrac and cosette’s fashion and their little poses/sparkles

[secretmellowblog]

Happy Wig Pocket day to everyone following @lesmisletters!

She also noticed that there were all sorts of things in the pockets [of Valjean’s coat.] Not only the needles, thread, and scissors which she had seen, but a big pocket-book, a very large knife, and—a suspicious circumstance—several wigs of various colors. Each pocket of this coat had the air of being in a manner provided against unexpected accidents.

#packrat Valjean #Les mis #Les mis letters #lm 2.4.4

[secretmellowblog]

Les Mis Letters 2024 Informational Masterpost

Les Mis Letters is a Dracula-Daily-inspired email subscription that sends you a chapter of Les Misérables once a day for a year.

There are 365 chapters in Les Mis, most of which are short, and 365 days in a year— so this email subscription is a great way to make it through the Brick! We begin on January 1st and end on December 31st.

Subscribe to Les Mis letters at our Substack here.

You can also join the discussion in our “book club” discord server here.

The email schedule for the upcoming year can be found here. Because 2024 is a Leap Year, the dates will be slightly different from 2023.

Finally, we’re very active on Tumblr! Here are some optional Les Mis Letters Tumblr Tips, based on what worked well last year:

Read what you can and post what you can! You don't need to be completely "caught up" to add your thoughts on the current chapters.

Tag your posts with #Les Mis and #Les Mis Letters.

Tag specific chapters with “lm” and then the volume number, book number, and chapter number. For example, Les Mis Volume 1 Book 2 Chapter 1 is “#lm 1.2.1.” Les Mis Volume 5 Book 4 Chapter 1 is "#lm 5.4.1." This makes it easy for people to find your posts about specific chapters!

Feel free to reply to older meta posts with new thoughts.

@ this blog if you see a great post related to the current chapters that we’ve overlooked!

Any other questions? Check out our FAQ or send us an ask here.

Les Mis Letters was created by Rachel but has now been passed on to Mellow. You can talk Mellow on this blog, at @secretmellowblog on Tumblr, or in the Les Mis Letters discord server.

Thank you for following along!

-mod Mellow

#<333

[secretmellowblog]

So true, completely accurate

favorite thing about the Les Mis Letters server this year has been the growing certainty that the TRUE villain of Les Mis is Geometry

#Les mis #Les mis letters #so true !! #we are correct

[secretmellowblog]

At times, she grew serious and looked thoughtfully at her little black dress. Cosette was no longer in rags; she was in mourning. She was issuing from utter poverty and was entering on life.

(Vol. II, Book IV, III: “Two misfortunes equal one happiness”)

i love the shift here, from “in rags” to “in mourning”. when your sole focus is survival, to the point where it is your only purpose, things like mourning do not exist. it’s completely inaccessible to you. the full spectrum of human experience was denied cosette by keeping her basic needs unmet.

#I love this take ;-;; #Les mis #lm 2.4.3

[secretmellowblog]

I’m thinking again about how Valjean didn’t just save Cosette— she also saved him, and the two of them saved each other.

He loved and grew strong again. Alas! he walked with no less indecision than Cosette. He protected her, and she strengthened him. Thanks to him, she could walk through life; thanks to her, he could continue in virtue. He was that child’s stay, and she was his prop.

I mentioned before how both of them are terrified of the Thenardier’s for similar reasons— Cosette because they can abuse her, Valjean because they keep coming close to suspecting he’s a criminal on the run; Cosette because Madame Thenardier might whip her, and Valjean because he knows they can send him back to prison where he’ll be under the lash again.

And I’ve also written about how they both enter a similar state of terror when they’re alone in the wilderness, like they both have a deep subconscious fear of their own isolation—- Valjean is terrified at the empty black landscape when he leaves Digne, Cosette is terrified of the empty black landscape the moment she leaves Montfermeil for the woods.

And then, as I wrote about here, they both have similar “panic attacks” from the lingering effects of trauma on them even after they’ve been “freed.”

Neither of them have ever had the opportunity to love anyone before, and so both of their lives are changed entirely when they come together to love each other, help each other and give each other reasons to live.

#self rb!! #because we’re here in letters

[secretmellowblog]

Cosette was no longer in rags; she was in mourning. She had emerged from misery, and she was entering into life. LM II.IV.III

i was never my father's daughter.

that's a consequence, you see, of my coming out after he died: he was otherwise occupied being ashes on a mountainside, and therefore was not exactly around to witness my entrance into a fuller life.

our relationship was difficult––for many reasons, few of which are relevant to this reflection or the chapter at hand––and so, necessarily, my mourning of him included mourning the things we were not up to the challenge of processing while he was alive. that he missed out on the privilege of knowing me as his daughter is irretrievably among them.

so there i found myself, restored to my place as a daughter, who seemed to have mysteriously misplaced a parent to be a daughter to. that strange conundrum of being a daughter without the parent is precisely, and to my great surprise, where cosette finds herself in the garret.

cosette, who has suffered and died in a manmade hell, is reborn, “becoming another being,” coming into herself as a daughter instead of a servant, taking off the rags of unlovedness and putting on the mantle of daughterhood. because she certainly is a daughter…

only, fantine is dead.

cosette is forced to negotiate becoming a daughter who has no mother to be a daughter to. in other words, to twist ts eliot: she has the meaning, but misses the experience––and is altogether too young to find her way through it alone.

enter valjean, who provides the experience.

as if driven by instinct, he who has never raised a child buys cosette mourning clothes. he tells her stories of her mother, has her pray. and through these rituals he devises, he makes a place for cosette in this new and full life. he anoints her as a daughter in much the same way fantine anointed him to be a mother, whose labors in the intervening months entailed his own symbolic death.

after all, who else can so fittingly be a parent to a reborn daughter, than one who has himself seen death?

an odd pair they make, the daughter with no mother and the loveless, childless man who must become both parents; "oh, unfathomable and divine mystery of the balances of destiny!" together they mourn, and together they enter new life.

#;-;;;;; #i appreciate the personal connection! #and yeah the way both Jean Valjean and Cosette die/are reborn here ;-;

[secretmellowblog]

One week 'til J/B/M week 2024!!

Writers ready your keyboards, artists ready your pens, from April 21st to 27th 2024 we will dedicate each and every day to our favourite Les Mis polycule: Joly/Bossuet/Musichetta. Here's how you can get ready:

- mark your calendars: April 21st - 27th 2024

- follow @jbm-week

- follow the hashtag #jbm week 2024

- start creating 💕

Guidelines

All types of fanworks are welcome, but please refrain from using Al

NSFW is allowed and we will tag anything that's NSFW properly when reblogging it, along with any other large triggers: eg. blood, etc.

Prompts

We will have optional prompts/themes for each day for added inspiration and for anyone who wants to follow along daily! Keep an eye out for the prompt list coming later this week 👀

#how exciting !!!

[secretmellowblog]

Other fandoms: celebrate their characters' birthdays

Les Mis fandom: celebrate their characters' massacre

#oh!!! #that’s 7 weeks!

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Valvert designs <3

#they’re so shaped!!!! #what a Cubed javert #I love how Jean Valjean is a short king who also looks like he could do feats of super strength #les mis

[secretmellowblog]

For a long time, both Valjean and Cosette lacked anyone or anything to love, and they were not loved by anyone in return. Cosette would eventually become everything to Valjean, a circumstance that would ultimately have consequences. But for now, he is learning how to love her: “When he saw Cosette, when he had taken possession of her, carried her off, and delivered her, he felt his heart moved within him… Poor old man, with a perfectly new heart!”

Cosette, still a child, is more adaptable, but it's heartbreaking how her attempts to love those around her were often met with rejection. “She had loved the dog, and he had died, after which nothing and nobody would have anything to do with her.” So, she sincerely loved Valjean. It’s such good luck (destiny, Hugo says) that they found each other.

They have their happy moments — Cosette doing her things, singing, playing, laughing, and Valjean looks at her with adoration, kisses her “tiny red hand, all cracked with chilblains.” (Uh, no, child’s hand shouldn’t be like that. It’s so sad.) He also takes on the role of her educator, teaching her to read, which aligns with Hugo's ideal of childhood education. Interestingly, I had forgotten that Valjean himself initially learned to read while in prison, with the intention to harm the society.

Together, they form a perfect family dynamic: “He protected her, and she strengthened him. Thanks to him, she could walk through life; thanks to her, he could continue in virtue. He was that child’s stay, and she was his prop.”

#;-;;;