Les Misérables, Book 10: June 5, 1832, Chapter 2 summary

What happens

1. The narrator judges collective violence by whether it advances justice or attacks the rights of the whole.
2. Historical examples show that crowds can oppose progress and betray their own cause.
3. The discussion turns to writers whose forceful language challenges tyranny, especially Tacitus and Juvenal.
4. The narrator distinguishes moral insurrection from material riot, while recognizing that hunger can produce legitimate grievances.
5. Universal suffrage appears as a peaceful means of expressing demands, unlike the bourgeois habit of condemning every disturbance.
6. The narrator identifies insurrection beneath the form of the June 1832 revolt and claims eyewitness knowledge of its events.

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