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#fantine analysis tag
whorejolras · 2 months
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patron-minette · 1 year
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Been thinking a lot about the slight parallels between the situations that Fantine and Éponine find themselves in on the nights that they get arrested by Javert.
On those respective evenings, both young women (well, Éponine is still a girl, really… and Fantine is only in her twenties…) stand out in the snow and encounter fashionable, yet ungentlemanly dandies. Let me clarify though that the situations these characters deal with in their scenes are strikingly different:
Fantine, technically speaking, is the one to approach Bamatabois, if only because she must cross paths with him as she promenades the officer’s cafe, trying to solicit herself out to soldiers. He insults her and shoves snow down her back. Fantine attacks him for this and is arrested. For Fantine, this entire night seems like a living hell, even before she gets arrested.
Montparnasse is the one to approach Éponine as she stands watch on the snowy boulevard, serving as a look-out whilst the Gorbeau ambush occurs. The pair sneak off and sleep together, the affair between them seems entirely consensual. Montparnasse is even compared to ‘Némorin’, a romantic character. Éponine is arrested later that night with the implied suggestion that she was discarded by Montparnasse after they slept together— for he never was caught by Javert. For Éponine, there is a small sense of enjoyment (or, at the very least, an escapism from her hellish life) in the first part of her evening with Montparnasse before she is then arrested.
Yet, despite the differences in these paralleled encounters, it is the images that these scenes evoke that possess such striking similarities.
Éponine and Fantine share a partial likeness at this point in their respective stories. They are both in poverty and, in differing capacities, both have previously solicited their bodies in some way in the novel too (Fantine is an explicit sex worker, and Éponine is quite clearly involved in some informal prostitution scheme, as evidenced by the ambiguous phrases in the letters her father makes her deliver). The young women both stand out in the snow completely alone and exposed, Fantine is wearing a ball dress with her neck uncovered and her bare shoulders exposed; Éponine does not even have shoes on. Then, both of these vulnerable young women encounter and interact with arrogant, dandy characters— Bamatabois and Montparnasse.
And, just like how there are similarities between Fantine and Éponine, there are similarities between the young men in these scenes too. Ultimately, these dandies get away with their chosen actions. Montparnasse has his way with Éponine then (seemingly) abandons her, and Bamatabois gets to bully and harass prostitutes— all the whilst both avoiding any consequences.
For both Fantine and Éponine, their nights end in arrest. For both Bamatabois and Montparnasse, they are permitted to have their fun and remain free to repeat their actions again, should they so choose.
Although... I think it is interesting to note that there is a crucial difference between Montparnasse and Bamatabois. Bamatabois is a real dandy, Montparnasse is merely mimicking one. Montparnasse is instead a criminal cutthroat who evidently doesn’t have the same class or influence in society that Bamatabois holds.
Likewise, there are indeed differences between Éponine and Fantine in relation to their status. As I have previously mentioned, Fantine is a prostitute, whereas Éponine is only implied to have been engaging in sex work, conducted in an entirely informal and irregular manner. And, Éponine's tryst with Montparnasse certainly does not seem to be related to prostitution in any way. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said concerning Fantine's encounter with Bamatabois.
What do these two scenes leave us with then? Well, Fantine's arrest paints the image of a ruined prostitute being assaulted by a bourgeois dandy as she suffers through life despite how horribly it has treated her, doing everything in her power to provide an income to support her daughter and herself. Éponine's arrest paints the image of a destitute girl, likely on her way down the path of prostitution, giving into the desires of an idler who dresses as a fop and sneaking off with him, desperately trying to seek some escapism from her life.
The similarities between these pairs of characters in these moments absolutely destroy me. Through the paralleled scenes, Hugo seems to foretell how Éponine and Montparnasse would have likely ended up in their not-so-distant futures (if Éponine had lived that long). Without any other option, surely Éponine too would have been forced to turn to prostitution in her future, just like Fantine, and there would no longer be such opportunities for her to momentarily escape from life's cruelties. And, if Montparnasse was able to continue living his life acting like a dandy, his vanity and cruelty (which we already see the beginnings of throughout the novel anyway) would only become increasingly elevated, and he might morph into a character even more-so like Bamatabois in relation to the way he treats women.
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Writing Patterns
Thank you for the tag @mollywog
Rules: list the first line of your last 10 (posted) fics and see if there's a pattern!
Mortal Trust and Fairy Dust (Kilmeny of the Orchard)
For three and a half terms, Larry West has been master of the Lindsay school.
Ties That Bind, Bonds That Strengthen (Blue Castle)
"Have you heard? Cecilia Gay is with child!"
A Princess comes to Deerwood (Blue Castle)
In the middle of Valancy Stirling's fourteenth year, a great excitement came to Deerwood.
One of the Deerwood Stirlings (Blue Castle)
Cecilia Stirling Smith was hastily and scandalously married at 17.
Spend the winters by my side (Hadestown/Les Miserables)
Fantine arrived in Hadestown wild and cynical, already broken down enough by life up Top that she accepted the worst Hadestown had to offer with a bitter laugh that emphasized her missing teeth, as if to say, ‘this is no worse than what I had to endure up there.’
Promises (Hadestown not!fic)
That said, someone other than me should write the story of Eurydice and Persephone, after everything’s said and done, two women who’ve been let down by the men they love, orbiting each other with wary fascination.
In the darkest time of year (Hadestown)
Hades is waiting at the station when Orpheus dies.
Never go anywhere, never see anyone (War and Peace/Les Miserables)
“And so, Madame, you shall be attentive and obedient as though receiving directions from me personally, or I shall be forced to discipline you in a manner which will displease both of us, do you understand me?”
Refueling (Les Miserables)
Feuilly scrubbed a hand over his eyes, trying to will them to stay open just a little while longer.
In defense of roses (Les Miserables)
“...and the power structure itself leads to a slow but steady deterioration of power for the people as it gets accumulated by the wealthy and influential who milk the economic desperation and petty xenophobia of the common citizens as a way to keep from being held accountable by the very people who should be most incensed by the rampant corruption of their leaders. It's awful! It's obscene! And no one even notices, which is incredible to me. Have we as a society grown so complacent that criminals only need to put on a suit and a microphone and be seen as heroes instead? Have the ordinary people of this system become so accustomed to being oppressed that they don't even notice the reality of their own oppression?”
Pattern analysis: I don't actually start with dialog as often as I thought I did. I tend to prefer a concise opening sentence - reading through these again a lot of the longer ones feel clunky and like things I would do differently if I was writing that fic today. (Except the last one. Jean Prouvaire is allowed to monologue about art for as long as he wants.) I like an opening line that grabs the attention, but I don't always manage to craft one.
Tagging, uh, @kehlana-wolhamonao3, @no-where-new-hero, @batrachised, @ohhgingersnaps and anyone else who wants to play.
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pilferingapples · 6 years
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Hello! You are one of my favourite Les Mis bloggers. Thanks for all the amazing posts! Especially the ones on Enjolras. Can I please ask you for recommendations of non-fiction books or documentaries that will help understand the social/political context of Les Mis better? Also any books on the French revolution? Have you read Citizens by Simon Schama or A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel? Would love to know your thoughts on them. Sorry for the multiple questions! And thank you!
Aww, thank you! Some books I’ve really enjoyed and think have a lot of concentrated Les Mis context--all English-language, or easily available translated, unless otherwise noted!:
Victor Hugo, by Graham Robb- obviously relevant to Hugo’s life and attitudes, which are written into the book a lot!  But also, Hugo was involved in a lot of notable events through his life, making a good Hugo Bio a pretty good contextual source for Les Mis on a lot of fronts. 
Paris Between Empires, by Philip Mansel -- it’s written in pretty accessible language, and covers Paris *exactly* the years Hugo is writing about, plus a good few more on either side for people wanting to write Fantine Prequel Fic or Post-Barricade stories.   Info on the Siege of Paris (Expelling Napoleon version), the rapidfire changes of government, etc are all welcome-- but there’s also a lot of info on regular lives going on in streets and salons, and Names to Watch. Very handy! 
My Memoirs, Alexandre Dumas -- a close friend of Hugo for their whole careers, Dumas was also involved in an amazing amount of the politics and social movements of  the day! His memoirs are fun, quick , and slightly dizzying whirl of French history from one of the best writers of the day. Highly recommended for both context and a feel for the attitudes of a man from the era!
A History of Romanticism, by Theophile Gautier- a primary source account of some of the figures and events in the Romantic movement in the 1830s. Character-wise, it’s particularly good background for Prouvaire and Bahorel, but context-wise, it’s very relevant to Hugo and the social/artistic movement that Hugo helped lead during the late 1820s-1830s--and like the Dumas memoir, also a look into the particular attitudes of someone from the time, and  someone who definitely figured into Hugo’s own social circle.
 The Flaneur and His City, by Richard D.E, Burton- it’s about half untranslated French quotes, so I only really recommend it if you know some French, but my GOSH it’s such an amazing, compact source on the street life and social makeup of Paris in the July Monarchy!  Fic Detail Central. 
all of those are more general reads-- if you’re looking for barricade-related stuff in particular, my best leads are all in my “barricade relevant’ tag. 
For the French Revolution:
 I’d recommend Mark Steel’s Vive La Revolution as a primer! It’s very much written for a popular audience, and it’s very fun. A lot of the material is available in recorded video lectures on Youtube, too!  (I recommend doing a search for them, as there are several scattered around.)
Also, for all the Revolutions from the first French Revolution to the 1848 Revolution that brought the short-lived Second Republic, I recommend the Revolutions Podcast. I don’t agree with all the analysis and opinions on that podcast--because it’s History, and if I ever Totally Agree with someone’s take on such a broad section of history the shock may kill me--, but it’s GREAT for getting the basic order of things, and has a lot of great info to help you draw your own conclusions!
(I have not read Schama or Mantel; I’ve  been strongly warned away from them, by people whose judgement of the history and of my own taste I trust. I probably *will* read Schama at some point, when I feel I’ve gotten more of a handle on the FRev, because he was a very prominent voice about it and it’s important to get a lot of different views, but I am pretty sure that’s gonna be something of a hate read, and Mantel I think I will avoid entirely.)
That’s probably a good Starter List for reading! 
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ao3feed-valvert · 5 years
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First Burn Notes
read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2zZKLjn
by musicaltrash_24601
The thoughts and thought process of the author as they wrote First Burn.
Words: 1252, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English
Series: Part 2 of First Burn
Fandoms: Les Misérables - All Media Types, Les Misérables - Victor Hugo, Les Misérables (2012), Les Misérables - Schönberg/Boublil
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Categories: M/M
Characters: Fantine (Les Misérables), Javert (Les Misérables), Jean Valjean
Relationships: Javert/Jean Valjean
Additional Tags: Angst, Javert is Eliza, Jean is Alexander, Madeleine Era, gay angst, Canon Compliant, Kinda?, Canon Era, Character Analysis, fic analysis, Implied/Referenced Suicide
read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2zZKLjn
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Fantine Week 2018 - Day Three: Family & Friendship
read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2PpWi0q
by particolored_socks
Mini meta essay on Fantine's relationships with the women in her life, from Paris to Montreuil-sur-mer.
Words: 1086, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English
Series: Part 3 of Fantine Week 2018
Fandoms: Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Fantine (Les Misérables), Favourite (Les Misérables), Marguerite (Les Misérables)
Additional Tags: Nonfiction, Meta Essay, Meta Analysis, Originally Posted on Tumblr, fantine week 2018
read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2PpWi0q
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ao3feed-hamilton · 6 years
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by musicaltrash_24601
The notes I promised for my First Burn fic so long ago
Words: 1252, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English
Series: Part 2 of First Burn
Fandoms: Les Misérables - Schönberg/Boublil, Les Misérables (2012), Les Misérables - Victor Hugo, Les Misérables - All Media Types, Hamilton - Miranda
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Categories: M/M
Characters: Fantine (Les Misérables), Javert (Les Misérables), Jean Valjean
Relationships: Javert/Jean Valjean
Additional Tags: Javert is Eliza, Jean is Alexander, Madeleine Era, gay angst, Canon Compliant, Kinda?, Javert feels betrayed, Songfic, songfic analysis, One Shot, Canon Era, Fantine's dead lmao, Javert (Crowe) - Freeform, Valjean (Jackman), No Happy End but sort of at the same time?, This is my first angst, please be kind, Character Analysis, They were lovers, Implied/Referenced Suicide
from AO3 works tagged 'Hamilton - Miranda' https://ift.tt/2M8wAvu
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whorejolras · 20 days
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rip Fantine you would have loved the decriminalisation of sex work
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whorejolras · 1 month
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this has been sitting in my drafts for months and i'm finally posting it.
it's adding on from this post about Fantine and sex work in les mis. this post ended up being long and more about sex work than Fantine but it does come around i swear.
the way we discuss Fantine is very important, but why?
the way that we talk about Fantine and sex work in les mis - on tumblr, with our friends, in the brick club chat, in articles and in scholarly analysis - directly correlates with the way we treat modern day sex workers and the struggles we face today. notably, the fight for decriminalisation.
i'd argue that Fantine is the most famous of the "dead sex worker" trope. i'd argue she's one of the most famous fictional sex workers. she was just name dropped in the new mean girls movie. everyone knows the story of Fantine the "Miserable Dead Prostitute".
to many people, the book or musical is their first and often only point of reference for sex work, and informs how they treat real life sex workers. many of us interacting in fandom are or will soon be adults with jobs, you could be a childcare worker or a doctor or therapist or any role that makes you a mandatory reporter. and if you hold biases towards sex workers and your patient or the parent of the kid in your class is one, then what.
(you know i had a therapist tell me once that if i had any kids she would "be forced" to report me to the police for "child abuse" on the grounds of my job. that was discrimination and was illegal as i live in one of the four locations in the world with sex work both decriminalised and a protected attribute under discrimination law, but it still happened.)
how people think informs how they vote, and public opinion in turn impacts legislation that actively damages sex workers and puts them in real danger. (criminalisation, the nordic model, "legalisation" also known as licensing, instead of full decriminalisation).
here is a resource put together by NSWP, the Global Network of Sex Work Projects that covers terminology and legal frameworks. I recommend giving the whole thing a read, but if you just want to learn about the difference between the different legal models I'm talking about read from pages 12-14.
full decriminalisation is the safest best practice option for all sex workers. not the nordic model, not select legalisation, full decriminalisation for all workers including those who aren't "legal" citizens.
bringing this back to Fantine. when i search analysis of sex work/"prostitution" in les mis, this is the shit i find.
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link 1 | link 2
i don't even know where to start on rebranding "oldest profession" to "oldest form of oppression" and "trafficked and forced into the industry" - the trafficking conflation is a common one. the majority of labour trafficking occurs in industries completely unrelated to sex work, with sex trafficking numbers being grossly overestimated. there are no true numbers because under criminalisation victim/survivors of sex trafficking can't safely seek help for fear of being criminalised. decriminalisation helps everyone.
I will also say that the trafficking narrative is a racist xenophobic one used to target migrant workers, making them more vulnerable to higher rates of police violence, detention and deportation. if you want to get deeper into this I recommend reading Migrant sex workers and trafficking - Insider research for and by migrant sex workers.
yet here we see the idea that most of (if not all) sex workers are trafficked or forced, a narrative that removes the agency of sex workers and obscures the reality of labour trafficking. in short, lies which serve to sensationalise and erase real lived experiences, provide publicly-sanctioned excuses for the heavy policing of marginalised communities, and helping no one.
i will quickly say here that you'll never meet anyone who fights as hard for sex trafficking survivors than sex workers and sex worker peer led organisations.
and in the second example, you see how even though they're saying sex work, (so they listened enough to know not to say "prostitute" anymore), but they're still sharing anti-sw beliefs like "selling the body/selling yourself", violent phrasing that denies us not only agency but connection to our bodies, autonomy, and consent.
this is something i'll talk about a lot more in the chapter analysis that i'll get around to finishing and posting one day: but fantine doesn't sell her body to sex work any more than she sells it to the textile factory. how is one form of physical labour "selling your body/yourself" and another isn't? at the end of the day, she still owns her body, just like when i leave a booking i still own my body, just like when i clocked out of my past civilian jobs i still owned my body. we sell labour, we sell services. not ourselves.
noting here that even when discussing exploitation and trafficking, phrasing it as "selling your body" is also gross, still removes the survivors agency and connection to their body, and shows that you're not really a safe ally to survivors at all.
these ideas, that i pulled from the first paragraphs of two of the first analyses of fantine i stumbled across, are the same ones that sex workers around the world argue against when lobbying for full decriminalisation. it's the arguments we have with law makers and councils and saviour organisations and our own families and friends.
i'll talk about this more later but look at how anne hathaway finished playing Fantine and then signed off on a letter and petition against full decriminalisation of sex work and advocated for the nordic model - ensuring that sex workers and trafficking victims alike would be more vulnerable to violent clients and policing.
ironically, the same thing Fantine faces.
so my whole roundabout point is it matters. the way we talk about characters like Fantine matter. this directly impacts how real people treat real sex workers. this directly impacts legislation that directly impacts the lives and safety of sex workers AND survivors of sex trafficking.
just in case i haven't said it enough the safest option for both parties is always complete and full decriminalisation btw 🫶🏻
all links in case they break (sorry for making it longer but i don't trust tumblr with links lol)
tumblr post:
NSWP terminology and legal models source:
screenshot 1:
screenshot 2:
Migrant sex workers and trafficking - Insider research for and by migrant sex workers:
anne hathaway article:
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whorejolras · 2 months
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thank you to the ppl who reblogged my fantine/sex work posts over night 🫶🏻 thank you everyone who reads these things and goes "oh i didn't know that! i do now! that's great" and shares it along 🫶🏻 thank you to especially the influential les mis names here & in the book club chat engaging publicly and positively with me about this - i can already see the "first followers" who probably always silently agreed and now feel safe to also voice their support bc someone they value already is 🫶🏻
this stuff is important to me for so many reasons and it makes it so much easier to talk about when i don't feel like i'm a burden or annoying or too angry about something that no one cares about. makes me feel safe in this space, makes me feel included, makes me feel respected.
we're all here bc we found something beautiful that drew us into a story that is at its core about the good in humanity and love between people, thank you for showing those values in practice when i rlly needed to see it 🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻🫶🏻
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whorejolras · 11 days
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@softerhour also pointed out that Who's Afraid of Little Old Me is Fantine in her au where she gets Revenge
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whorejolras · 6 months
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maybe i am here
previously @faevibing
jess | 28 | they/them
disabled, stoner, autistic
bi non-binary fagdyke soz if you like me ur a little gay ✨
fssw + writer + tarot reader + small biz owner
here 4 les mis & the arcana & to be horny on main
currently writing too many unpublished smutty e/R fanfics (also a fair few e/R/c, eposette, and j/b/m fics)
currently co-organising JBM week 2024 with @combeferres-mothematics over on @jbm-week
oh i'm also the person who's always yelling about fantine and sex work portrayals in les mis and analysis of les mis. hi 👋🏻
fantine analysis tag
sw in les mis tag
my fics tag
my posts tag
face tag
faevibing tag
what is fae vibing?
edit: like if u read this esp if u just started following
~
fiancé @whoretaire in first & second pic 💕
pfp and header by @whoretaire, i requested "lavender haze" enj 😍(but with my hair 👀)
edit: seen smth about fagdyke being used by transphobes i'm very much not using it like that but like in the i'm trans and non-binary and no matter who i'm with i'm gay and that's a beautiful word to me that sums it up for me way 🙏🏻 i was very much not online enough to know that when i started using the word
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Fantine Week 2018 - Day Two: Gold
read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2UtqzPI
by particolored_socks
Mini meta essay on Fantine's hair -- why it's important that her hair is blonde, and why it's important that she sells it herself.
Words: 1513, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English
Series: Part 1 of Fantine Week 2018
Fandoms: Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Fantine (Les Misérables)
Additional Tags: Nonfiction, Meta Essay, Meta Analysis, Originally Posted on Tumblr, fantine week 2018, Prostitution mention
read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2UtqzPI
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Fantine Week 2018 - Day One, Youth & Childhood
read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2zVJsSP
by particolored_socks
Mini meta essay on Fantine's rise from gamine to grisette.
Words: 991, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English
Fandoms: Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Fantine (Les Misérables)
Additional Tags: Nonfiction, Meta Essay, Meta Analysis, Originally Posted on Tumblr, fantine week 2018
read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2zVJsSP
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ao3feed-valvert · 6 years
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First Burn Notes
read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2M8wAvu
by musicaltrash_24601
The notes I promised for my First Burn fic so long ago
Words: 1252, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English
Series: Part 2 of First Burn
Fandoms: Les Misérables - Schönberg/Boublil, Les Misérables (2012), Les Misérables - Victor Hugo, Les Misérables - All Media Types, Hamilton - Miranda
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Categories: M/M
Characters: Fantine (Les Misérables), Javert (Les Misérables), Jean Valjean
Relationships: Javert/Jean Valjean
Additional Tags: Javert is Eliza, Jean is Alexander, Madeleine Era, gay angst, Canon Compliant, Kinda?, Javert feels betrayed, Songfic, songfic analysis, One Shot, Canon Era, Fantine's dead lmao, Javert (Crowe) - Freeform, Valjean (Jackman), No Happy End but sort of at the same time?, This is my first angst, please be kind, Character Analysis, They were lovers, Implied/Referenced Suicide
read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2M8wAvu
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ao3feed-valvert · 6 years
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First Burn
read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2sNyydm
by musicaltrash_24601
Jean Valjean, or Monsieur Madeleine, brought Fantine into his house for care, and his beloved inspector is appalled and shocked.
Words: 1534, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English
Fandoms: Les Misérables - All Media Types, Les Misérables - Schönberg/Boublil, Les Misérables (2012), Les Misérables - Victor Hugo, Hamilton - Miranda
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Categories: M/M
Characters: Fantine (Les Misérables), Javert (Les Misérables), Jean Valjean
Relationships: Javert/Jean Valjean
Additional Tags: Angst, Javert is Eliza, Jean is Alexander, Madeleine Era, gay angst, Canon Compliant, Kinda?, Javert feels betrayed, Songfic, One Shot, Canon Era, Fantine's dead lmao, Javert (Crowe) - Freeform, Valjean (Jackman), No Happy End but sort of at the same time?, This is my first angst, Please be gentle in your criticism, They were lovers, Character Analysis, Implied/Referenced Suicide
read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2sNyydm
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