• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

ec

Alludes to Julius Caesar’s famous alea jacta est (“the die is cast”) when he crossed the Rubicon with his troops, in defiance of a standing order by the Senate.

ed

A round table did not allow for one person to sit at the head, symbolically superior to the others seated there.

ee

Agostín Iturbide (1783-1824), a Mexican general, was proclaimed Emperor of Mexico in 1822, and executed by firing squad two years later.

ef

This revolution imposed a new constitution, but retained the king and limited suffrage to 1 percent of potentially eligible voters—the wealthiest males.

eg

To hold the coronation ceremony in a secular building instead was symbolically to diminish the influence of the Catholic Church in the government.

eh

Euryanthe was composed by the German Romantic artist Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826), who was quite popular in France and particularly distinguished in his work for the piano.

ei

Hugo alludes to the Cabalist doctrine of “Occultation”: to preserve the free will and moral responsibility of humans, who would be overwhelmed by a direct view of God’s glory, he “withdraws” behind the masks of the sun and stars.

ej

Figuratively means “hairdresser,” but literally, “codfish.”

ek

“Omnibus” because anybody can ride on her.

el

Saint Martin, bishop of Tours (ca. 316-397), cut his warm winter cloak in half to give part to a freezing beggar.

em

Slang for “drink” (from a variant form of lecher, to lick).

en

Black bread.

eo

Gavroche says rentrons dans la rue (“let’s go back inside the street”) because it is literally his home.

ep

Frédéric Lemaître (1800-1876), a celebrated actor, gave rousing performances in romantic plays. Gavroche may well have received free tickets as payment for being part of a claque that would applaud vehemently—performing a function similar to today’s laugh and applause tracks on television.

eq

Hugo contrasts the grim prison that evokes Milton’s Hell with a pleasant garden that recalls the pioneering children’s books by Arnaud Berquin (1741-1791), a sentimental, moralizing author.

er

“What a good night for an escape.”

es

“Let us go. What are we doing here?”

et

“It’s raining enough to put out the devil’s fire. And then the police are going by. There is a soldier there who is standing sentinel. Shall we let them arrest us here?”

eu

What is it you tell us there? The innkeeper couldn’t escape. He don’t know the trade, indeed! Tear up his shirt and cut up his bedclothes to make a rope, to make holes in the doors, to forge false papers, to make false keys, to cut his irons, to hang his rope outside, to hide himself, to disguise himself, one must be a devil! The old man couldn’t do it, he don’t know how to work.

ev

Your innkeeper must have been caught in the act. One must be a devil. He is an apprentice. He has been duped by a spy, perhaps even by a sheep, who made him talk. Listen, Montparnasse, do you hear those cries in the prison? You have seen all those lights. He is retaken, come! He must be left to get his twenty years. I have no fear, I am no coward, that is known; but there is nothing more to be done, or otherwise they will make us dance. Don’t be angry, come with us. Let us go and drink a bottle of old wine together.

ew

I tell you that he is retaken. At the present time, the innkeeper isn’t worth a penny. We can do nothing here. Let us go. I expect every moment that a sergent de ville will have me in his hand.

ex

A rope (argot of the Temple).

ey

My rope (argot of the Barrières).

ez

A man.

fa

A child (argot of the Temple).

fb

A child (argot of the Barrières).

fc

“A child like me is a man, and men like you are children.”

fd

“How well the child’s tongue is hung!”

fe

“The Parisian child isn’t made of wet straw.”

ff

This rope.

fg

“Fasten the rope.”

fh

“To the top of the wall.”

fi

“To the cross-bar of the window.”

fj

Your daughter.

fk

“Nothing to do there.”

fl

Stupid.

fm

Whereas Cosette’s mother, Fantine, met with a cruel lover who destroyed her. Hugo implies that