I: The Charybdis of the Faubourg Saint Antoine and the Scylla explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Revolution and Social Upheaval

  The chapter vividly describes the barricades of June 1848 as symbols of popular revolt and civil war, emphasizing the chaotic and desperate nature of insurrection.

• Social Injustice and Poverty

  The barricades are built from the ruins of poverty—'rags of wood, of iron, of bronze, of stone'—and the text reflects on the suffering and destitution that drive the populace to revolt.

• The Human Condition and Fate

  The chapter meditates on the tragic fate of figures like Barthélemy, who began in the galleys and ended on the gallows, illustrating the somber social construction that shapes human destiny.

Characters to notice

• Gavroche

  Implied as part of the street urchin element in the description of the barricades and the populace.

• Enjolras

  Referenced indirectly through the revolutionary spirit and the barricade builders Cournet and Barthélemy.

Key passages

• “It sometimes happens that, even contrary to principles, even contrary to liberty, equality, and fraternity, even contrary to the universal vote, even contrary to the government, by all for all, from the depths of its anguish, of its discouragements and its destitutions, of its fevers, of its distresses, of its miasmas, of its ignorances, of its darkness, that great and despairing body, the rabble, protests against, and that the populace wages battle against, the people.”

  Occasionally, despite ideals like liberty and equality, the desperate and suffering masses rise up against the very principles that should protect them, leading to conflict between the populace and the people.

  This passage reflects on the paradox of the poor fighting against the system that oppresses them, a key theme in the chapter.

• “The Saint-Antoine barricade was tremendous; it was three stories high, and seven hundred feet wide. It barred the vast opening of the faubourg, that is to say, three streets, from angle to angle; ravined, jagged, cut up, divided, crenelated, with an immense rent, buttressed with piles that were bastions in themselves throwing out capes here and there, powerfully backed up by two great promontories of houses of the faubourg, it reared itself like a cyclopean dike at the end of the formidable place which had seen the 14th of July.”

  The Saint-Antoine barricade was enormous, three stories high and seven hundred feet wide, blocking three streets and built from the debris of the faubourg, standing like a giant wall at the site of the historic July 14th uprising.

  This description emphasizes the scale and symbolic weight of the barricade, linking it to the French Revolution.

• “The barricade of the Faubourg du Temple, defended by eighty men, attacked by ten thousand, held out for three days. On the fourth, they did as at Zaatcha, as at Constantine, they pierced the houses, they came over the roofs, the barricade was taken. Not one of the eighty cowards thought of flight, all were killed there with the exception of the leader, Barthélemy, of whom we shall speak presently.”

  The Temple barricade, held by eighty men against ten thousand attackers, lasted three days until the army broke through the houses and roofs; all defenders died except their leader Barthélemy.

  This highlights the desperate courage of the defenders and the brutality of the siege.