Les Misérables, Book 8: Enchantments and Desolations, Chapter 2 summary
Book 8: Enchantments and Desolations, Chapter 2 of 365 · 4 min to read the chapter
In Chapter 2, Marius and Cosette share a little about their families while their happiness shuts out the suffering and dangers around them. Marius forgets troubling events involving her father, and neither lover considers where their relationship leads or what practical obstacles remain.
What happens
- Marius and Cosette remain absorbed in their happiness, unaware of the cholera killing people in Paris.
- Marius explains his work and family circumstances, while Cosette describes her upbringing and her father's generosity.
- Marius fails to mention Thénardier, the nighttime adventure, or her father's troubling behavior.
- The narrator describes love as a state that replaces thought and makes ordinary reality disappear.
- Neither Marius nor Cosette asks where their love leads, because both feel they have already arrived.
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In this chapter
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What does Marius fail to discuss with Cosette?
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