Les Misérables, Book 3: The House on Rue Plumet, Chapter 4 summary

What happens

1. The overgrown garden becomes a setting suited to innocent affection rather than its former flirtations.
2. The narrator describes Cosette’s convent education and argues that religious instruction cannot replace a mother’s guidance.
3. Cosette explores the garden, enjoys Jean Valjean’s company, and presses him to accept greater comfort.
4. Her childhood survives as frightening fragments, while Jean Valjean seems to embody her absent mother’s care.
5. Jean Valjean cannot speak Fantine’s name to Cosette, though he describes her holiness as suffering.
6. Cosette’s exclusive affection fills Jean Valjean with happiness, which he imagines lasting throughout their lives.

In this chapter

What to notice

Cosette finds maternal care in Jean Valjean while lacking knowledge of her mother. The thought shows how fully he occupies her emotional life.

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