Les Misérables, Book 1: Paris Studied in Its Atom, Chapter 9 summary

What happens

1. The narrator links gaminerie with the Gallic spirit and finds traces of it in writers and public figures.
2. Championnet supplies an example of street-born irreverence through his treatment of religious places and objects.
3. The Paris gamin combines poor health with intelligence, playful defiance, and courage under fire.
4. Barra exemplifies the street child's rise from mischief to heroism.
5. The narrator ends by explaining the gamin's amusement as a response to unhappiness.

What to notice

The closing statement places unhappiness beneath the gamin's playfulness. It gives the preceding portrait of wit and daring an explicit emotional cause.

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