Les Misérables, Book 1: The War Between Four Walls, Chapter 2 summary
Book 1: The War Between Four Walls, Chapter 2 of 365 · 6 min to read the chapter
In Chapter 2, Enjolras oversees repairs and preparations at the barricade while the insurgents treat their wounded, remove their dead, and face dwindling supplies. As dawn arrives, the remaining fighters begin talking about fear, creation, literature, and political killing, bringing ordinary conversation into their dangerous surroundings.
What happens
- Under Enjolras’s supervision, the insurgents enlarge the barricade, prepare ammunition, clear the rooms, and treat wounded men.
- The women find shelter nearby, while Feuilly spends the recommended rest period carving a political inscription.
- Mabeuf’s body and the bound Javert remain in the taproom, and Enjolras raises the old man’s bloodied coat.
- With food exhausted, Enjolras restricts alcohol and orders fifteen sealed bottles placed beneath Mabeuf’s table.
- A count around two in the morning finds thirty-seven fighters remaining.
- At dawn, jokes and conversations turn toward the dead, remorse, poetry, and the justice of killing rulers.
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In this chapter
What to notice
Courfeyrac turns an ordinary feature of the barricade into a judgment about fear. His remark also marks the return of conversation at dawn.
Quick check
Where does Enjolras order the fifteen sealed bottles placed?
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