Les Miserables Volume 3 Marius, BOOK SEVENTH.--PATRON MINETTE CHAPTER III BABET, GUEULEMER, CLAQUESOUS, AND MONTPARNASSE

Description

A quartette of ruffians, Claquesous, Gueulemer, Babet, and Montparnasse governed the third lower floor of Paris, from 1830 to 1835.　

Gueulemer was a Hercules of no defined position. For his lair he had the sewer of the Arche-Marion. He was six feet high, his pectoral muscles were of marble, his biceps of brass, his breath was that of a cavern, his torso that of a colossus, his head that of a bird. One thought one beheld the Farnese Hercules clad in duck trousers and a cotton velvet waistcoat. Gueulemer, built after this sculptural fashion, might have subdued monsters; he had found it more expeditious to be one. A low brow, large temples, less than forty years of age, but with crow's-feet, harsh, short hair, cheeks like a brush, a beard like that of a wild boar; the reader can see the man before him. H=" " cellspacing="0" width="600">

?盙譺es. His occupation consisted in selling, in the open air, plaster busts and portraits of "the head of the State." In addition to this, he extracted teeth. He had exhibited phenomena at fairs, and he had owned a booth with a trumpet and this poster: "Babet, Dental Artist, Member of the Academies, makes physical experiments on metals and metalloids, extracts teeth, undertakes stumps abandoned by his brother practitioners. Price: one tooth, one franc, fifty centimes; two teeth, two francs; three teeth,

two francs, fifty. Take advantage of this opportunity."  This Take advantage of this opportunity meant: Have as many teeth extracted as possible. He had been married and had had children.  He did not know what had become of his wife and children. He had lost them as one loses his handkerchief. Babet read the papers, a striking exception in the world to which he belonged. One day, at the period when he had his family with him in his booth on wheels, he had read in the Messager, that a woman had just given birth to a child, who was doing well, and had a calf's muzzle, and he exclaimed: "There's a fortune! my wife has not the wit to present me with a child like that!"

Later on he had abandoned everything, in order to "undertake Paris."  This was his expression.　

Who was Claquesous? He was night. He waited until the sky was daubed with black, before he showed himself. At nightfall he emerged from the hole whither he returned before daylight. Where was this hole? No one knew. He only addressed his accomplices in the most absolute darkness, and with his back turned to them. Was his name Claquesous?  Certainly not. If a candle was brought, he put on a mask. He was a ventriloquist. Babet said: "Claquesous is a nocturne

for two voices." Claquesous was vague, terrible, and a roamer.   No one was sure whether he had a name, Claquesous being a sobriquet; none was sure that he had a voice, as his stomach spoke more frequently than his voice; no one was sure that he had a face, as he was never seen without his mask. He disappeared as though he had vanished into thin air; when he appeared, it was as though he sprang from the earth.　

A lugubrious being was Montparnasse. Montparnasse was a child; less than twenty years of age, with a handsome face, lips like cherries, charming black hair, the brilliant light of springtime in his eyes; he had all vices and aspired to all crimes.

The digestion of evil aroused in him an appetite for worse. It was the street boy turned pickpocket, and a pickpocket turned garroter. He was genteel, effeminate, graceful, robust, sluggish, ferocious. The rim of his hat was curled up on the left side, in order to make room for a tuft of hair, after the style of 1829. He lived by robbery with violence. His coat was of the best cut, but threadbare. Montparnasse was a fashion-plate in misery and given to the commission of murders. The cause of all this youth's crimes was the desire to be well-dressed. The first grisette who had said to him: "You are handsome!" had cast the stain of darkness into his heart, and had made a Cain of this Abel. Finding that he was handsome, he desired to be elegant: now, the height of elegance is idleness; idleness in a poor man means crime. Few prowlers were so dreaded as Montparnasse. At eighteen, he had already numerous corpses in his past. More than one passer-by lay with outstretched arms in the presence of this wretch, with his face in a pool of blood. Curled, pomaded, with laced waist, the hips of a woman, the bust of a Prussian officer, the murmur of admiration from the boulevard wenches surrounding him, his cravat knowingly tied, a bludgeon in his pocket, a flower in his buttonhole; such was this dandy of the sepulchre.

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 3 Marius, BOOK SEVENTH.--PATRON MINETTE CHAPTER III BABET, GUEULEMER, CLAQUESOUS, AND MONTPARNASSE" 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 : 93
2. Les Miserables Volume 3 Marius, BOOK SEVENTH.--PATRON MINETTE CHAPTER IV COMPOSITION OF THE TROUPE
3. Les Miserables Volume 3 Marius, BOOK SEVENTH.--PATRON MINETTE CHAPTER II THE LOWEST DEPTHS
4. Les Miserables Volume 3 Marius, BOOK SEVENTH.--PATRON MINETTE CHAPTER I MINES AND MINERS
5. Les Miserables Volume 4 Marius, BOOK SEVENTH.--SLANG CHAPTER I ORIGIN
6. Les Miserables Volume 4 Marius, BOOK SEVENTH.--SLANG CHAPTER II ROOTS
7. Les Miserables Volume 4 Marius, BOOK SEVENTH.--SLANG CHAPTER IV THE TWO DUTIES: TO WATCH AND TO HOPE
8. Les Miserables Volume 4 Marius, BOOK SEVENTH.--SLANG CHAPTER III SLANG WHICH WEEPS AND SLANG WHICH LAUGHS
9. Les Miserables Volume 4 Marius, BOOK NINTH.--WHITHER ARE THEY GOING CHAPTER II MARIUS
10. Les Miserables Volume 4 Marius, BOOK SECOND.--EPONINE CHAPTER IV AN APPARITION TO MARIUS
11. Les Miserables Volume 3 Marius, BOOK FIFTH.--THE EXCELLENCE OF MISFORTUNE CHAPTER III MARIUS GROWN UP
12. Les Miserables Volume 3 Marius, BOOK FIFTH.--THE EXCELLENCE OF MISFORTUNE CHAPTER I MARIUS INDIGENT
13. Les Miserables Volume 3 Marius, BOOK FOURTH.--THE FRIENDS OF THE ABC CHAPTER III MARIUS' ASTONISHMENTS
14. Les Miserables Volume 3 Marius, BOOK FIFTH.--THE EXCELLENCE OF MISFORTUNE CHAPTER II MARIUS POOR
15. Les Miserables Volume 4 Marius, BOOK THIRTEENTH.--MARIUS ENTERS THE SHADOW CHAPTER III THE EXTREME EDGE
16. Les Miserables Volume 3 Marius, BOOK EIGHTH.--THE WICKED POOR MAN CHAPTER XVIII MARIUS' TWO CHAIRS FORM A VIS-A-VIS