Volume 3/Book 2/Chapter 5

Les Misérables, Volume 3: Marius, Book Second: The Great Bourgeois, Chapter 5: Basque and Nicolette
(Tome 3: Marius, Livre deuxième: Le grand bourgeois, Chapitre 5: Basque et Nicolette)

French text

Il avait des théories. En voici une: «Quand un homme aime passionnément les femmes, et qu'il a lui-même une femme à lui dont il se soucie peu, laide, revêche, légitime, pleine de droits, juchée sur le code et jalouse au besoin, il n'a qu'une façon de s'en tirer et d'avoir la paix, c'est de laisser à sa femme les cordons de la bourse. Cette abdication le fait libre. La femme s'occupe alors, se passionne au maniement des espèces, s'y vert-de-grise les doigts, entreprend l'élève des métayers et le dressage des fermiers, convoque les avoués, préside les notaires, harangue les tabellions, visite les robins, suit les procès, rédige les baux, dicte les contrats, se sent souveraine, vend, achète, règle, jordonne, promet et compromet, lie et résilie, cède, concède et rétrocède, arrange, dérange, thésaurise, prodigue, elle fait des sottises, bonheur magistral et personnel, et cela console. Pendant que son mari la dédaigne, elle a la satisfaction de ruiner son mari.» Cette théorie, M. Gillenormand se l'était appliquée, et elle était devenue son histoire. Sa femme, la deuxième, avait administré sa fortune de telle façon qu'il restait à M. Gillenormand, quand un beau jour il se trouva veuf, juste de quoi vivre, en plaçant presque tout en viager, une quinzaine de mille francs de rente dont les trois quarts devaient s'éteindre avec lui. Il n'avait pas hésité, peu préoccupé du souci de laisser un héritage. D'ailleurs il avait vu que les patrimoines avaient des aventures, et, par exemple, devenaient des biens nationaux; il avait assisté aux avatars du tiers consolidé, et il croyait peu au grand-livre.—Rue Quincampoix que tout cela! disait-il. Sa maison de la rue des Filles-du-Calvaire, nous l'avons dit, lui appartenait. Il avait deux domestiques, «un mâle et un femelle». Quand un domestique entrait chez lui, M. Gillenormand le rebaptisait. Il donnait aux hommes le nom de leur province: Nîmois, Comtois, Poitevin, Picard. Son dernier valet était un gros homme fourbu et poussif de cinquante-cinq ans, incapable de courir vingt pas, mais, comme il était né à Bayonne, M. Gillenormand l'appelait Basque. Quant aux servantes, toutes s'appelaient chez lui Nicolette (même la Magnon dont il sera question plus loin). Un jour une fière cuisinière, cordon bleu, de haute race de concierges, se présenta.—Combien voulez-vous gagner de gages par mois? lui demanda M. Gillenormand.—Trente francs.—Comment vous nommez-vous?—Olympie.—Tu auras cinquante francs, et tu t'appelleras Nicolette.

English text

He had theories. Here is one of them: "When a man is passionately fond of women, and when he has himself a wife for whom he cares but little, who is homely, cross, legitimate, with plenty of rights, perched on the code, and jealous at need, there is but one way of extricating himself from the quandry and of procuring peace, and that is to let his wife control the purse-strings. This abdication sets him free. Then his wife busies herself, grows passionately fond of handling coin, gets her fingers covered with verdigris in the process, undertakes the education of half-share tenants and the training of farmers, convokes lawyers, presides over notaries, harangues scriveners, visits limbs of the law, follows lawsuits, draws up leases, dictates contracts, feels herself the sovereign, sells, buys, regulates, promises and compromises, binds fast and annuls, yields, concedes and retrocedes, arranges, disarranges, hoards, lavishes; she commits follies, a supreme and personal delight, and that consoles her. While her husband disdains her, she has the satisfaction of ruining her husband." This theory M. Gillenormand had himself applied, and it had become his history. His wife—the second one—had administered his fortune in such a manner that, one fine day, when M. Gillenormand found himself a widower, there remained to him just sufficient to live on, by sinking nearly the whole of it in an annuity of fifteen thousand francs, three-quarters of which would expire with him. He had not hesitated on this point, not being anxious to leave a property behind him. Besides, he had noticed that patrimonies are subject to adventures, and, for instance, become national property; he had witnessed the incarnation of the consolidated third, and he had no great faith in the Great Book of the Public Debt. "All that's the Rue Quincampois!" he said. His house in the Rue Filles-du-Clavaire belonged to him, as we have already stated. He had two servants, "a male and a female." When a servant entered his establishment, M. Gillenormand re-baptized him. He bestowed on the men the name of their province: Nimois, Comtois, Poitevin, Picard. His last valet was a big, foundered, short-winded fellow of fifty-five, who was incapable of running twenty paces; but, as he had been born at Bayonne, M. Gillenormand called him Basque. All the female servants in his house were called Nicolette (even the Magnon, of whom we shall hear more farther on). One day, a haughty cook, a cordon bleu, of the lofty race of porters, presented herself. "How much wages do you want a month?" asked M. Gillenormand. "Thirty francs." "What is your name?" "Olympie." "You shall have fifty francs, and you shall be called Nicolette."

Translation notes

"il avait assisté aux avatars du tiers consolidé"

In the 19th centurey and earlier, the French 'assister' expressed passive observance of an event.

From Sanskrit, 'avatar' denoted incarnation of Hindu deities. In excerpts of 19th century French literature, 'avatar' maintained the meaning of metamorphosis, transformation, or incarnation. "Incarnation" seems the most fitting denotation of the transformation of the government's intention for the consolidated third into the disastrous reality of the bankruptcy after the plan for the consolidated third was enacted.

Grand-livre de la dette publique

The Grand-livre is translated as the Ledger in Lee Fahnestock and Norman MacAfee's translation.

Textual notes

Patrimoines / Patrimony

Paternal inheritance. It is also a term for the property of a church.

A general context for this passage may be from French property law and cast in theory in the 19th century. The term le patrimoine, translated as patrimony or estate, consists of any rights (which can be real or personal), of a physical or legal person, that retain financial value.

Before the revolution, the king sold Parlementary positions. They were property which could be passed through generations or resold. Other government positions, known as offices, including police, judicial, and financial were also property, which could be inherited from the given owner. Hence, government positions were patrimonies that came with a wage.(p. 483)

Biens Nationaux / National Property

In December 1792, the National Convention passed a decree for church and nobility properties to be seized in areas taken by the French army. Pierre-Joseph Cambon, a businessman-become-member of the National Convention, ensured the passing of the decree.

National Estates was another term for property obtained by the state. These Estates, procured to be auctioned by the state, included those of the church, all the king's things, those of émigrés who fled revolution, and the property of people consumed by the Terror. Perhaps M. Gillenormand had attended some of these auctions.

"il avait assisté aux avatars du tiers consolidé" / "he had witnessed the incarnation of the consolidated third"

The consolidated third became known as the two-thirds bankruptcy. M. A. Thiers succinctly describes the consolidated third in his mid 19th century tome, The History of the French Revolution:

"Thus the debt was overwhelming, and the state was in the situation of an individual who was unable to meet his engagements. It was resolved, therefore, to continue to pay a portion of the debt in money, and... pay off the capital itself with [the national] estates. It was proposed to retain one-third only; the third retained was to be called the consolidated third, and to remain on the Great Book as a perpetual annuity. The other two-thirds were to be paid off... in bonds receivable in payment of national estates. It is true that these bonds fell in traffic to less than one-sixth of their value, and that for those who did not wish to purchase lands it was an absolute bankruptcy."

What Theirs meant by "in traffic" seems to be the exchange of one type of currency for another, which is suggested as Thiers continues:

"The bankruptcy occurred partly because "creditors who would not purchase the national estates would lose nine-tenths by negotiating their bonds, inasmuch as the issue of so large a quantity of paper [money] would considerably lower its value; that... most of the creditors of the state were too poor to buy lands;... that consequently an actual loss of nine-tenths of their capital in most cases took place; that the third, assumed to be consolidated and secured from reduction in future, was only promised." The government, on the other hand, considered national property (national estates) legitimate means of paying off debts.

Grand-livre de la dette publique / Great Book of the Public Debt

In August 1793, as head of finance and the treasury, Cambon created the Grand-livre de la dette publique, centralizing the debts of the government of France.

il croyait peu au grand-livre / he had little faith in Great Book

The problem of managing the government debt instigated the desparation leading to the French Revolution and multiple financial schemes were devised throughout the decade of revolution to rein in debt and inflation. Severe financial restrictions put in place during the Terror were temporarily successful. Following the terror, market speculation was again allowed, contributing to severe inflation, which, by 1797, led to a default, and therefore declaration of bankruptcy, by the government. One conception of this would be that Cambon's effort's to manage the public debt by creating the 'Grand-livre' appeared fruitless in retrospect.

Rue Quincampoix

Rue Quincampoix is an ancient and narrow street in Paris that was the site of stock-jobbing, of negotiations and the trading of stocks by dense crowds of all category of people. According to William Walton, in Paris Known and Unknown, "Avarive, fear, hope, error, and knavery unceasingly agitated this never-ending crowd; one hour built up a sudden fortune which was destroyed the next hour." (p. 132) The financial dealings of this street date from before speculator John Law's establishment of the first official bank of France in 1716. Law became infamous for a financial scheme that led to the Mississippi market bubble, the dissolution of the newly created bank of France, and a serious blow to the French economy in 1720.