Editing Volume 3/Book 2/Chapter 5

Les Mis&eacute;rables, Volume 3: Marius, Book Second: The Great Bourgeois, Chapter 5: Basque and Nicolette<br />
(Tome 3: Marius, Livre deuxi&egrave;me:  Le grand bourgeois, Chapitre 5: Basque et Nicolette)

==General notes on this chapter==

==French text==

 
Il avait des th&eacute;ories. En voici une: &laquo;Quand un homme aime passionn&eacute;ment
les femmes, et qu'il a lui-m&ecirc;me une femme &agrave; lui dont il se soucie peu,
laide, rev&ecirc;che, l&eacute;gitime, pleine de droits, juch&eacute;e sur le code et
jalouse au besoin, il n'a qu'une fa&ccedil;on de s'en tirer et d'avoir la paix,
c'est de laisser &agrave; sa femme les cordons de la bourse. Cette abdication
le fait libre. La femme s'occupe alors, se passionne au maniement des
esp&egrave;ces, s'y vert-de-grise les doigts, entreprend l'&eacute;l&egrave;ve des m&eacute;tayers
et le dressage des fermiers, convoque les avou&eacute;s, pr&eacute;side les notaires,
harangue les tabellions, visite les robins, suit les proc&egrave;s, r&eacute;dige les
baux, dicte les contrats, se sent souveraine, vend, ach&egrave;te, r&egrave;gle,
jordonne, promet et compromet, lie et r&eacute;silie, c&egrave;de, conc&egrave;de et
r&eacute;troc&egrave;de, arrange, d&eacute;range, th&eacute;saurise, prodigue, elle fait des
sottises, bonheur magistral et personnel, et cela console. Pendant que
son mari la d&eacute;daigne, elle a la satisfaction de ruiner son mari.&raquo; Cette
th&eacute;orie, M. Gillenormand se l'&eacute;tait appliqu&eacute;e, et elle &eacute;tait devenue son
histoire. Sa femme, la deuxi&egrave;me, avait administr&eacute; sa fortune de telle
fa&ccedil;on qu'il restait &agrave; M. Gillenormand, quand un beau jour il se trouva
veuf, juste de quoi vivre, en pla&ccedil;ant presque tout en viager, une
quinzaine de mille francs de rente dont les trois quarts devaient
s'&eacute;teindre avec lui. Il n'avait pas h&eacute;sit&eacute;, peu pr&eacute;occup&eacute; du souci de
laisser un h&eacute;ritage. D'ailleurs il avait vu que les patrimoines avaient
des aventures, et, par exemple, devenaient des ''biens nationaux;'' il
avait assist&eacute; aux avatars du tiers consolid&eacute;, et il croyait peu au
grand-livre.&mdash;''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, &laquo;un m&acirc;le et un femelle&raquo;. Quand un domestique
entrait chez lui, M. Gillenormand le rebaptisait. Il donnait aux hommes
le nom de leur province: N&icirc;mois, Comtois, Poitevin, Picard. Son dernier
valet &eacute;tait un gros homme fourbu et poussif de cinquante-cinq ans,
incapable de courir vingt pas, mais, comme il &eacute;tait n&eacute; &agrave; Bayonne, M.
Gillenormand l'appelait Basque. Quant aux servantes, toutes s'appelaient
chez lui Nicolette (m&ecirc;me la Magnon dont il sera question plus loin). Un
jour une fi&egrave;re cuisini&egrave;re, cordon bleu, de haute race de concierges, se
pr&eacute;senta.&mdash;Combien voulez-vous gagner de gages par mois? lui demanda M.
Gillenormand.&mdash;Trente francs.&mdash;Comment vous nommez-vous?&mdash;Olympie.&mdash;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&mdash;the second
one&mdash;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 transformation 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.<ref>"Assister" Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales, 2012. http://www.cnrtl.fr/definition/assist%C3%A9</ref>

From Sanskrit, 'avatar' denoted incarnation of Hindu deities.  In excerpts of 19th century French literature, 'avatar' maintained the meaning of metamorphosis, transformation, or incarnation.<ref>"Avatar" Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales, 2012. http://www.cnrtl.fr/definition/avatar and http://www.cnrtl.fr/etymologie/avatar</ref>

===Grand-livre de la dette publique===

The ''Grand-livre'' is translated as ''the Ledger'' in Lee Fahnestock and Norman MacAfee's translation.<ref>Hugo, Victor. ''Les Misérables''. Trans. Lee Fahnestock and Norman MacAfee. New York: Signet Classics, Penguin Group, 2013, p. 602.</ref>

==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.<ref>Aynés, Laurent, “Property Law” in ''Introduction to French Law''.  The Netherlands: Kluwer Law International, 2008.  pp. 149-152. https://books.google.com/books?id=2ULv4NzlAFEC&q=patrimoine#v=snippet&q=patrimoine&f=false</ref>

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) <ref name="macro">Sargent, Thomas J and François R. Velde. “Macroeconomic Features of the French Revolution,” in ''Journal of Political Economy'', Vol. 103, No. 3 (Jun. 1995). University of Chicago Press p. 474-518. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2138696</ref>

===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.<ref name="debt">Editors. "Joseph Cambon" in ''Encyclopedia Britannica''. Published 17 Oct 2006. http://www.britannica.com/biography/Joseph-Cambon.</ref>

''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.<ref name="macro" />  Perhaps M. Gillenormand had attended some of these auctions.

==="il avait assisté aux avatars du tiers consolidé" / "he had witnessed the transformation 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."<ref name="Thiers">Thiers, Marie Joseph L. Adolphe. The History of the French Revolution. Trans. Unknown.  London: Whittaker & Co., Ave Marie Lane, 1845. P. 755-56  Original from Oxford University. https://books.google.com/books?id=yDIEAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false</ref> 

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. <ref name="Thiers" />

The transformation of the consolidated thirds, then, seems to be its devaluation based on market value, which resulted in the bankruptcy of the state.

===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.<ref name="debt" />

===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.<ref name="macro" />  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.<ref>Defoe, Daniel, and William Lee. ''Daniel Defoe: His Life, and Recently Discovered Writings. Vol 2. - The First Volume of his Writings.''  London: John Camden Hotten, Piccadilly, 1869.  Original from University of Illinois.  https://books.google.com/books?id=YCdHAQAAMAAJ&dq=paris+stock+jobbing&source=gbs_navlinks_s </ref> <ref> Walton, William. "Chapter 9: Financial and Commercial" in ''Paris Known and Unknown. Vol. 2.''  Philadelphia: George Barrie & Son, 1901.  Original from University of Minnesota. https://books.google.com/books?id=71YMAQAAMAAJ&dq=stock-jobbers+paris&source=gbs_navlinks_s [Mistakenly labeled Volume 3 in Google Books] </ref>

==Citations==
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