Les Misérables, Book 8: Cemeteries Take What Is Entrusted to Them, Chapter 9 summary
Book 8: Cemeteries Take What Is Entrusted to Them, Chapter 9 of 365 · 11 min to read the chapter
In Chapter 9, Jean Valjean settles into convent life as a gardener, while Cosette becomes a pupil and enjoys daily visits with him. Comparing the nuns’ voluntary hardships with the suffering of convicts, he loses his growing pride and finds renewed humility, gratitude, and love.
What happens
- Cosette becomes a convent pupil, and Jean Valjean carefully locks away her former clothes.
- Fauchelevent handles outside errands while Javert watches the neighborhood for more than a month.
- Jean Valjean tends the garden, shares Fauchelevent’s hut, and receives Cosette for an hour each day.
- Cosette begins laughing again, and her happiness deepens Jean Valjean’s own.
- Jean Valjean compares prison hardships with the nuns’ stricter, freely accepted sacrifices and understands their suffering as atonement for others.
- His pride gives way to humility and gratitude, and many years pass as Cosette grows.
Free for 3 months
Get the full summary of Les Misérables, free
- 200,000+ classics as eBooks, audiobooks and 15-minute summaries, and print and large print at cost
- Up to 5 readers in your home on one plan
Commencez 90 jours gratuitsNothing to pay today. 0,14 USD a day in the first year, then 0,27 USD a day.
In this chapter
Quick check
Why does Fauchelevent always handle errands outside the convent?
Free for 3 months
Get the full summary of Les Misérables, free
- 200,000+ classics as eBooks, audiobooks and 15-minute summaries, and print and large print at cost
- Up to 5 readers in your home on one plan
Commencez 90 jours gratuitsNothing to pay today. 0,14 USD a day in the first year, then 0,27 USD a day.
200,000+ classics to read, hear and hold
15-minute summaries today, eBooks and audiobooks as each book opens, and printed books, large print included, at cost.
Try 3 months free
