Les Miserables Volume 1 Fantine, BOOK FIFTH.-- THE DESCENT CHAPTER I THE HISTORY OF A PROGRESS IN BLACK GLASS TRINKETS

Description

• Author: Victor Hugo

And in the meantime, what had become of that mother who according to the people at Montfermeil, seemed to have abandoned her child? Where was she? What was she doing?

After leaving her little Cosette with the Thenardiers, she had continued her journey, and had reached M. sur M.

This, it will be remembered, was in 1818.

Fantine had quitted her province ten years before. M. sur M. Had changed its aspect. While Fantine had been slowly descending from wretchedness to wretchedness, her native town had prospered.

About two years previously one of those industrial facts which are the grand events of small districts had taken place.

This detail is important, and we regard it as useful to develop it at length; we should almost say, to underline it.

From time immemorial, M. sur M. had had for its special industry the imitation of English jet and the black glass trinkets of Germany. This industry had always vegetated, on account of the high price of the raw material, which reacted on the manufacture. At the moment when Fantine returned to M. sur M., an unheard-of transformation had taken place in the production of "black goods." Towards the close of 1815 a man, a stranger, had established himself in the town, and had been inspired with the idea of substituting, in this manufacture, gum-lac for resin, and, for bracelets in particular, slides of sheet-iron simply laid together, for slides of soldered sheet-iron.

This very small change had effected a revolution.

This very small change had, in fact, prodigiously reduced the cost of the raw material, which had rendered it possible in the first place, to raise the price of manufacture, a benefit to the country; in the second place, to improve the workmanship, an advantage to the consumer; in the third place, to sell at a lower price, while trebling the profit, which was a benefit to the manufacturer.

Thus three results ensued from one idea.

In less than three years the inventor of this process had become rich, which is good, and had made every one about him rich, which is better. He was a stranger in the Department. Of his origin, nothing was known; of the beginning of his career, very little. It was rumored that he had come to town with very little money, a few hundred francs at the most.

It was from this slender capital, enlisted in the service of an ingenious idea, developed by method and thought, that he had drawn his own fortune, and the fortune of the whole countryside.

On his arrival at M. sur M. he had only the garments, the appearance, and the language of a workingman.

It appears that on the very day when he made his obscure entry into the little town of M. sur M., just at nightfall, on a December evening, knapsack on back and thorn club in hand, a large fire had broken out in the town-hall. This man had rushed into the flames and saved, at the risk of his own life, two children who belonged to the captain of the gendarmerie; this is why they had forgotten to ask him for his passport. Afterwards they had learned his name. He was called Father Madeleine.

Disclaimer:
Contents of this page are indexed from the Internet. All actions are under your responsability. Email us to report illegal contents or external links and we'll remove them immediately.

Please check the description for download links if any or do a search to find alternative books.

Can't Download?
Please search mirrors if you can't find download links for "Les Miserables Volume 1 Fantine, BOOK FIFTH.-- THE DESCENT CHAPTER I THE HISTORY OF A PROGRESS IN BLACK GLASS TRINKETS" in "Description" and someone else may update the links. Check the comments when back to find any updates.

Search Mirrors
Maybe some mirror pages will be helpful, search this book at top of this page or click here to find more info.

1. Ebooks list page : 92
2. Les Miserables Volume 1 Fantine, BOOK FIFTH.-- THE DESCENT CHAPTER II MADELEINE
3. Les Miserables Volume 1 Fantine, BOOK FIFTH.-- THE DESCENT CHAPTER XII M. BAMATABOIS'S INACTIVITY
4. Les Miserables Volume 1 Fantine, BOOK FIFTH.-- THE DESCENT CHAPTER XI CHRISTUS NOS LIBERAVIT
5. Les Miserables Volume 1 Fantine, BOOK FIFTH.-- THE DESCENT CHAPTER VI FATHER FAUCHELEVENT
6. Les Miserables Volume 1 Fantine, BOOK FIFTH.-- THE DESCENT CHAPTER IV M. MADELEINE IN MOURNING
7. Les Miserables Volume 1 Fantine, BOOK FIFTH.-- THE DESCENT CHAPTER X RESULT OF THE SUCCESS
8. Les Miserables Volume 1 Fantine, BOOK FIFTH.-- THE DESCENT CHAPTER VII FAUCHELEVENT BECOMES A GARDENER IN PARIS
9. Les Miserables Volume 1 Fantine, BOOK FIFTH.-- THE DESCENT CHAPTER III SUMS DEPOSITED WITH LAFFITTE
10. Les Miserables Volume 1 Fantine, BOOK FIFTH.-- THE DESCENT CHAPTER V VAGUE FLASHES ON THE HORIZON
11. Les Miserables Volume 1 Fantine, BOOK FIFTH.-- THE DESCENT CHAPTER IX MADAME VICTURNIEN'S SUCCESS
12. Les Miserables Volume 1 Fantine, BOOK FIFTH.-- THE DESCENT CHAPTER XIII THE SOLUTION OF SOME QUESTIONS CONNECTED WITH THE MUNICIPAL POLICE
13. Les Miserables Volume 1 Fantine, BOOK FIFTH.-- THE DESCENT CHAPTER VIII MADAME VICTURNIEN EXPENDS THIRTY FRANCS ON MORALITY
14. Les Miserables Volume 1 Fantine, BOOK THIRD.--IN THE YEAR 1817 CHAPTER VI A Les Miserables Volume 1 Fantine, BOOK THIRD.--IN THE YEAR 1817 CHAPTER IN WHICH THEY ADORE EACH OTHER
15. Les Miserables Volume 1 Fantine, BOOK EIGHTH.--A COUNTER-BLOW CHAPTER II FANTINE HAPPY
16. Les Miserables Volume 1 Fantine, BOOK FIRST.--A JUST MAN CHAPTER XIV WHAT HE THOUGHT