1.1.1-Robertawickham

My First Club Ninety-Three Post!
Here we go with Ch. 1 of Book 1, Le Bois de la Saudraie. I know NOTHING about this book except that it’s about 1793 and Hugo wrote it, so I have very few expectations. I think it will be verbose, grandiose, and full of political angst, but apart from that, I’m a blank slate.

In some ways this chapter smacks of the Waterloo digression in Les Mis. There’s the description of beautiful nature haunted by death and war, the sheer spookiness of the surroundings, the admiration for the combatants, and the civilian peasant with no political opinions getting swept up by people with concerns she can’t even comprehend. Hugo’s admiration for the soldiers is even stronger here than in Waterloo, I think, what with the honorable and solicitous behavior of the soldiers, and the bit about how the soldiers sent from Paris to the Vendée were a model for future generations. Which makes sense, since these are republicans and not Bonapartists. Michelle Fléchard is in the same situation as Guillaume Van Kylsom the gardener who was caught up by the English troops at Waterloo, except she gets sympathized with and rescued (if also interrogated, patronized and gawked at), while Van Kylsom was abused and exploited.

Mostly, it’s the atmosphere of overwhelming dread that’s the same.

Many authors have spent many words on the divide that can exist between the people who fight wars and the people who live in the areas where wars are fought. Here the divide seems to be mainly urban vs. rural: there are the Parisians, who think France is one nation and are amazed at anyone fighting for the lord and king and curé who abused their family, and then there’s Michelle, who identifies herself by her region rather than by her “nation,” who has no nation, and who thinks abject submission to church and state is the natural and inevitable order of things. Or else she seems to. Because we don’t actually know how sincere she is when she says her husband fought for the king, let alone how sincere she is when she says that it’s a “mercy” her father was beaten for hunting a rabbit rather than killed. One thing about being a peasant in feudal France is that you’re probably not going to blurt out your frank opinions to passing strangers with guns. You’re going to dissemble and play stupid and docile (easy enough to do if you’re scared anyway). Of course there probably were peasants who thought like this, but there were also certainly peasants who didn’t.

One thing I do like about this entire section is that it would be so easy to portray the soldiers as out of touch and therefore wrong and destructive, or alternatively to portray Michelle as stupid, but Hugo avoids both. The soldiers are pretty great here, actually, especially the vivandière (a martial and politically active woman!) and the sergeant. They believed that they were going to be ambushed. Once they discover Michelle, the threat of ambush is still there. Just because Michelle’s in their corner of the woods doesn’t mean they can assume that no one else is. And as the sergeant notes, she could be a spy. Yet not only do they not mistreat her in the slightest, they take the time to be actively concerned about her wellbeing and her kids’, and to adopt the whole family and bring them into the regiment. This has to be a huge risk—a crying baby could easily give them away. But they do it anyway. Michelle herself is heroic, though in the usual Hugo sacrificial-mother way.

The vivandière Houzarde is a fascinating character already, and I hope we’ll see more of her. She has seen numerous battles; she gawked at the execution of Louis XVI; she took a soubriquet rather than use her family name; and, most tellingly, she commands the men not to shoot right as their sergeant orders them to shoot. And they listen to her! At the same time, she’s scrupulously attentive to the scared and apolitical woman she finds (while Houzarde herself and her men are still in danger, I have to point out again), and she gives drinks to all the thirsty wounded she sees, no matter what side they’re on.

Sadly, I suspect this book isn’t going to be about Houzarde and Michelle teaming up and fomenting revolution. *sigh*

Commentary
Needsmoreresearch "Sadly, I suspect this book isn’t going to be about Houzarde and Michelle teaming up and fomenting revolution. *sigh*" But if it were I would read that every day of my life.

Pilferingapples I WANT THE HOUZARDE AND MICHELLE ADVENTURE TIME STORY TOO, darn it.

YES on how awesome the soldiers are being; even if they didn’t want to fire on a noncombatant for purely practical reasons (like giving away their own position) they could have quietly gone by and not risked themselves. They are specifically choosing to engage with Michelle and her kids, at risk to themselves. And I think that’s part of an overall point here; the bravest person of them is probably Houzard, who is martial and involved with the fight, but whose place in the fight is to carry water, out among the bullets. The bravest thing the soliders can do here is stop and help a stranger. And I don’t think it’s a Courage-> action thing, or not entirely; I think at least in part it’s the other way around. Because everyone’s creeping through the woods cautious and careful and in a world of unease (except maybe the vanguard scouts, and maybe Houzard, who’s fearless from her curiosity, who’s USED to being fearless out compassion) and then they find Michelle and her children, and the soldiers are drawn out into boldness by trying to connect with Michelle, and by their compassion for her family. Compassion, ACTING in compassion, makes them brave, where acting in violence makes them cautious.

… I don’t know anything about this book EITHER, but taking guesses on Likely Themes at this point, I’m keeping an eye on that one. :P