"No, telling Grantaire, much like that particular square of paint, is Bossuet's work; by his choice, I hasten to point out. I gather he's spoken to Joly on the matter too, but Joly's shown no interest in actually reading the book." He smiles fondly. " I believe he's currently lost interest in anything written before the discovery of space travel; I don't think he's missing much on this particular novel, do you?"

He sprawls out to reach a bottle of wine and a couple of drinking glasses. "Oh, it's well written-- Hugo always had a fine sense of the language-- but even so, and even aside from personal offense, you can see some problems with it already, I'm sure."