Les Misérables, Book 2: The Intestine of the Leviathan, Chapter 6 summary
Book 2: The Intestine of the Leviathan, Chapter 6 of 365 · 7 min to read the chapter
In Chapter 6, the narrator traces the growth of Paris’s sewers, describing the dangerous work behind their expansion and contrasting conditions in 1832 with those of the present. The discussion connects engineering with public health and proposes using underground water to clean the sewers and return waste to farmland.
What happens
- The narrator measures sewer construction under successive governments and compares the expanding network to a creature growing beneath Paris.
- Difficult ground, flooding, collapses, and disease threaten workers; Monnot and Duleau die after directing demanding construction projects.
- Cholera prompts extensive reconstruction, but the narrator stresses how incomplete and hazardous the system remains in 1832.
- Construction accelerates after 1831, and the narrator calculates the enormous financial value of the present network.
- The narrator contrasts healthy underground water with polluted city air and proposes cleaning sewers while returning waste to fields.
- The discussion closes with the dangers, public disgust, and frightening legends associated with sewer cleaning.
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What to notice
The bodily image presents the sewer as a source of sickness within the city. It concentrates the argument that sewer improvement concerns public health, not merely construction.
Quick check
What does the narrator identify as prompting the vast sewer reconstruction?
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