Les Misérables, Book 2: The Intestine of the Leviathan, Chapter 2 summary
Book 2: The Intestine of the Leviathan, Chapter 2 of 365 · 6 min to read the chapter
In Chapter 2, the narrator describes the Paris sewer as a refuge for persecuted people and a repository of the city’s discarded objects, crimes, and pretenses. The discussion turns from underground geography and history to an argument that philosophy can reconstruct society by examining what people throw away or try to conceal.
What happens
- The narrator compares the underground drains of Paris to branches and an intricate alphabet.
- Historical examples establish the fear surrounding sewers and their use as refuges for outcasts and persecuted people.
- Discarded objects mingle underground, exposing the realities beneath social rank, public dignity, and disguise.
- The narrator imagines historical perpetrators trying to scrub away evidence of political and religious killings.
- Philosophy becomes a method for recovering the city’s customs, suffering, and wrongdoing from discarded traces.
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What does the narrator compare philosophy to?
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