Jehan takes the book. Les Misérables. He's never read this work of Hugo's. Curiously, he opens the book to the marked page.
Les Amis de l'ABC, it says. He looks up at Bahorel, eyes wide, and then begins to read.
"Oh," Jehan says, after a minute. "Oh--well, that's true, Enjolras looks like that, and the severity is rather beautiful, like an icy mountaintop...and Combeferre, yes, what an excellent description...though who is Tholomyès?"
He grins at Bahorel's paragraph, nods along at Bossuet's and Joly's and Feuilly's, blushes deeply at his own. He can feel his face growing hot. And Grantaire's--well, it's sadly, poetically, tragically true, and as haunting as the unrequited love of any hero from a medieval lay.
Their religion was progress, it says, truthfully. Like so many religions, a harsh one, demanding martyrs.
Jehan is misty-eyed by the time he looks back up at Bahorel. "But I never told Hugo all this," he says. "How could he have known?"
He has other questions, too, such as what the rest of the book is about, and what role he and his friends play in it. But the first and most mysterious one is: how did Hugo know? Jehan had never believed him a seer, for all his literary gifts.
no subject
Les Amis de l'ABC, it says. He looks up at Bahorel, eyes wide, and then begins to read.
"Oh," Jehan says, after a minute. "Oh--well, that's true, Enjolras looks like that, and the severity is rather beautiful, like an icy mountaintop...and Combeferre, yes, what an excellent description...though who is Tholomyès?"
He grins at Bahorel's paragraph, nods along at Bossuet's and Joly's and Feuilly's, blushes deeply at his own. He can feel his face growing hot. And Grantaire's--well, it's sadly, poetically, tragically true, and as haunting as the unrequited love of any hero from a medieval lay.
Their religion was progress, it says, truthfully. Like so many religions, a harsh one, demanding martyrs.
Jehan is misty-eyed by the time he looks back up at Bahorel. "But I never told Hugo all this," he says. "How could he have known?"
He has other questions, too, such as what the rest of the book is about, and what role he and his friends play in it. But the first and most mysterious one is: how did Hugo know? Jehan had never believed him a seer, for all his literary gifts.