Les Misérables, Book 1: The War Between Four Walls, Chapter 22 summary
Book 1: The War Between Four Walls, Chapter 22 of 365 · 6 min to read the chapter
In Chapter 22, soldiers overrun the barricade’s center, and Enjolras shelters the surviving defenders in the wine shop while the wounded Marius falls into an unknown person’s grasp. The fighting shifts indoors, where the insurgents destroy the staircase, exhaust their ammunition, and resist with bottles of aquafortis as the assault becomes a slaughter.
What happens
- Soldiers charge over rubble at the barricade’s center and force its defenders back against a house whose door remains shut.
- Enjolras protects the retreat into the wine shop, but Marius suffers a shattered collarbone and feels someone seize him.
- Enjolras secures the entrance while soldiers, enraged by losses and rumors of prisoner mutilation, attack it.
- Enjolras urges costly resistance and kisses the dead Mabeuf’s hand beside Gavroche’s covered body.
- The soldiers break inside, but the surviving defenders occupy the first floor above a destroyed staircase.
- The insurgents spend their remaining ammunition and wield bottles of aquafortis while deadly gunfire continues.
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In this chapter
What to notice
The sentence brings courage and horror together. It sums up a defense in which determination persists but the fighting becomes inhuman.
Quick check
What do the defenders use after their ammunition runs out?
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