Les Misérables, Book 8: Cemeteries Take What Is Entrusted to Them, Chapter 4 summary
Book 8: Cemeteries Take What Is Entrusted to Them, Chapter 4 of 365 · 8 min to read the chapter
In Chapter 4, Jean Valjean proposes leaving the convent inside a coffin so that Fauchelevent can bring him back openly as a gardener, with Cosette admitted as a pupil. Fauchelevent accepts the dangerous plan and explains how he expects to remove the gravedigger and release Valjean at the cemetery.
What happens
- Jean Valjean prepares Cosette to leave silently in Fauchelevent’s basket and wait for him at a woman’s house.
- Fauchelevent explains that permission to admit Valjean and Cosette depends on secretly burying a nun beneath the chapel.
- The official coffin must leave for the cemetery, and Valjean proposes occupying it himself.
- Valjean arranges to hide near the dead room and asks for air holes and a loosely nailed lid.
- Fauchelevent agrees and outlines how he can distract the gravedigger, then free Valjean from the grave.
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In this chapter
What to notice
Valjean presents the coffin plan as his only alternative to capture. His certainty pushes Fauchelevent toward agreement.
Quick check
How does Fauchelevent propose dealing with Father Mestienne if he is sober?
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