(no subject)

[street_sparrow]

Gavroche has a book. It's a very, very thick book, bound in paperback with a cover proclaiming it to be part of a Classics series, with a title that will be familiar to a number of people.

(Yes, it's that book.)

He's sitting by the fire reading it with careful and intent attention, not skipping a word. Although he might when he gets to the passage about the sewers.

Being only a few pages in, he hasn't got to any of the parts that will provoke grief or incoherent rage yet, either.

Comments

[cook_the_rude]

"Are you sure that is a good idea?"

It's Dr. Lecter, and he seems to guess what book it is.

[street_sparrow]

"I've already read parts of it", he says, glancing up. "And so have some of my friends."

[cook_the_rude]

"I know about that part," Dr. Lecter says. "But all of it? You'll learn things that will make you very angry, or very sad, or both. Some people in there are unspeakable idiots."

[street_sparrow]

"I know." He flashes a brief unamused smile. "But I need to know what I missed."

One way or another.

[cook_the_rude]

"Some parts are very long and boring, too."

[street_sparrow]

"...well, I might skim through those", he allows.

[cook_the_rude]

"If you get to the battle of Waterloo," Dr. Lecter says, "skim ahead a hundred or so pages. You would bitterly regret if you didn't."

[vive_lavenir]

Jehan Prouvaire walks in with a book of his own--on horticulture, as a matter of fact, he's going to keep some potted plants. But he stops short when he sees Gavroche with a book larger than any brick.

"...oh," Jehan says. "And what do you make of it so far?"

[street_sparrow]

"I haven't really started yet." Jehan gets a smile, as always. "But he does like his words."

[vive_lavenir]

Jehan smiles back. "Yes, why say anything with one word when a seven-page digression might say it better? But I'll say this for Hugo, I don't believe any of his words are wasted. Though I know Combeferre disagrees."

But Combeferre is a philistine in some ways, and was also particularly offended by Hugo's descriptions of beauty (Mlle Fauchelevent's, Enjolras's), which Jehan as a Romantic understands and enjoys.

[street_sparrow]

"You might be right", Gavroche allows. "I've been warned against wading through the Battle of Waterloo section, but I think I might risk it anyway."

[vive_lavenir]

Jehan bites his lip. "It's long," he says, "but yes, it's worth it in a literary sense, although--"

How to say this? "His description of the battle has resonances--both similarities and contrasts--with when he writes of the barricades, later. You may find it upsetting, I don't know."

Gavroche is still a child, and while his first life may have been one inescapable horror after the next, from which no one could protect him, it doesn't have to be like that in Milliways.

[street_sparrow]

Gavroche looks up at him, sober and steady and valuing his opinion.

"Did you find it upsetting?"

[runningred]

"You really sure that's a good idea?" Jay asks casually, sipping a mug of industrial strenght coffee.

[street_sparrow]

"Nope." He looks up and offers a brief grin. "But if other people know what's in here, I probably ought to."

[runningred]

"You already know the important bits - your life. The rest is just other people's lives and narrative licence."

[street_sparrow]

"But some of those other people's lives matter to me", he says quietly.

[runningred]

Jay nods. "Yeah, fair enough. Let me know if you need someone to talk to about it after, hey?"

[street_sparrow]

He nods, then glances up.

"I've read some parts ahead already. Courfeyrac showed me - Jay, I had little brothers."

[rudderless]

"What's got you all twisted up?"

Not with anger, but with rapt attention. Eponine is curious enough to ask. And just bored enough, too; she's been sewing all afternoon and her wanderlust demands activities.

[street_sparrow]

"This book." He holds it up, but closes it. "It's about us."

[rudderless]

"....And next you'll be telling me you know Santa Claus." Someone's skeptical.

[street_sparrow]

"...well, yes, but that's beside the point... Not just us. It goes back years before we were born, and goes on after - after the barricade."

[rudderless]

"....You have to be pullin' my knee, Gav." She cranes her neck. "S'it say why our folks are such horses arses?"

[street_sparrow]

"I haven't got that far yet." He taps the page. "This is going on about some old priest and how he could have been a saint."