Les Misérables, Book 9: Where Are They Going?, Chapter 3 summary

What happens

1. M. Mabeuf gives the purse to the police instead of using it, while failed experiments and mounting debts consume his resources.
2. With no money for food, he begins selling his treasured library, and his cheerful manner disappears.
3. The Horticultural Society’s president obtains a ministerial dinner invitation, but Mabeuf receives neither attention nor practical assistance.
4. When Mother Plutarque needs expensive medicine and nursing, Mabeuf sells his last book, Diogenes Laertius, for one hundred francs.
5. The next day, he sits motionless in his neglected garden until distant fighting interrupts him.
6. A gardener identifies riots near the Arsenal, and Mabeuf leaves after automatically searching for a book to carry.

What to notice

The repeated exchange turns his library into daily subsistence. It captures how poverty consumes the possessions that sustain his happiness.

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