Les Miserables Volume 3 Marius, BOOK FIRST.--PARIS STUDIED IN ITS ATOM CHAPTER III HE IS AGREEABLE

Description

In the evening, thanks to a few sous, which he always finds means to procure, the homuncio enters a theatre. On crossing that magic threshold, he becomes transfigured; he was the street Arab, he becomes the titi.[18] Theatres are a sort of ship turned upside down with the keel in the air. It is in that keel that the titi huddle together. The titi is to the gamin what the moth is to the larva; the same being endowed with wings and soaring. It suffices for him to be there, with his radiance of happiness, with his power of enthusiasm and joy, with his hand-clapping, which resembles a clapping of wings, to confer on that narrow, dark, fetid, sordid, unhealthy, hideous, abominable keel, the name of Paradise.

[18] Chicken: slang allusion to the noise made in calling poultry.

Bestow on an individual the useless and deprive him of the necessary, and you have the gamin.

The gamin is not devoid of literary intuition. His tendency, and we say it with the proper amount of regret, would not constitute classic taste. He is not very academic by nature. Thus, to give an example, the popularity of Mademoiselle Mars among that little audience of stormy children was seasoned with a touch of irony. The gamin called her Mademoiselle Muche--"hide yourself."

This being bawls and scoffs and ridicules and fights, has rags like a baby and tatters like a philosopher, fishes in the sewer, hunts in the cesspool, extracts mirth from foulness, whips up the squares with his wit, grins and bites, whistles and sings, shouts, and shrieks, tempers Alleluia with Matantur-lurette, chants every rhythm from the De Profundis to the Jack-pudding, finds without seeking, knows what he is ignorant of, is a Spartan to the point of thieving, is mad to wisdom, is lyrical to filth, would crouch down on Olympus, wallows in the dunghill and emerges from it covered with stars. The gamin of Paris is Rabelais in this youth.

He is not content with his trousers unless they have a watch-pocket.

He is not easily astonished, he is still less easily terrified, he makes songs on superstitions, he takes the wind out of exaggerations, he twits mysteries, he thrusts out his tongue at ghosts, he takes the poetry out of stilted things, he introduces caricature into epic extravaganzas. It is not that he is prosaic; far from that; but he replaces the solemn vision by the farcical phantasmagoria. If Adamastor were to appear to him, the street Arab would say: "Hi there! The bugaboo!"

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1. Ebooks list page : 93
2. Les Miserables Volume 3 Marius, BOOK FIRST.--PARIS STUDIED IN ITS ATOM CHAPTER IV HE MAY BE OF USE
3. Les Miserables Volume 3 Marius, BOOK FIRST.--PARIS STUDIED IN ITS ATOM CHAPTER I PARVULUS
4. Les Miserables Volume 3 Marius, BOOK FIRST.--PARIS STUDIED IN ITS ATOM CHAPTER II SOME OF HIS PARTICULAR CHARACTERISTICS
5. Les Miserables Volume 3 Marius, BOOK FIRST.--PARIS STUDIED IN ITS ATOM CHAPTER VI A BIT OF HISTORY
6. Les Miserables Volume 3 Marius, BOOK FIRST.--PARIS STUDIED IN ITS ATOM CHAPTER V HIS FRONTIERS
7. Les Miserables Volume 3 Marius, BOOK FIRST.--PARIS STUDIED IN ITS ATOM CHAPTER XI TO SCOFF, TO REIGN
8. Les Miserables Volume 3 Marius, BOOK FIRST.--PARIS STUDIED IN ITS ATOM CHAPTER IX THE OLD SOUL OF GAUL
9. Les Miserables Volume 3 Marius, BOOK FIRST.--PARIS STUDIED IN ITS ATOM CHAPTER XIII LITTLE GAVROCHE
10. Les Miserables Volume 3 Marius, BOOK FIRST.--PARIS STUDIED IN ITS ATOM CHAPTER XII THE FUTURE LATENT IN THE PEOPLE
11. Les Miserables Volume 3 Marius, BOOK FIRST.--PARIS STUDIED IN ITS ATOM CHAPTER X ECCE PARIS, ECCE HOMO
12. Les Miserables Volume 3 Marius, BOOK FIRST.--PARIS STUDIED IN ITS ATOM CHAPTER VII THE GAMIN SHOULD HAVE HIS PLACE IN THE CLASSIFICATIONS OF INDIA
13. Les Miserables Volume 3 Marius, BOOK FIRST.--PARIS STUDIED IN ITS ATOM CHAPTER VIII IN WHICH THE READER WILL FIND A CHARMING SAYING OF THE LAST KING
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