# Post Corda Lapides explained — Les Misérables

> Chapter companion for Les Misérables by Victor Hugo.

## What happens

This chapter provides a detailed physical description of the convent of Petit-Picpus-Sainte-Antoine, including its layout, buildings, garden, and surrounding streets, offering a material counterpart to the earlier moral portrait.

## Key lines

> The convent of the Petit-Picpus-Sainte-Antoine filled almost the whole of the vast trapezium which resulted from the intersection of the Rue Polonceau, the Rue Droit-Mur, the Rue Petit-Picpus, and the unused lane, called Rue Aumarais on old plans.

The convent occupied nearly the entire trapezoid-shaped area formed by four streets: Rue Polonceau, Rue Droit-Mur, Rue Petit-Picpus, and the old lane Rue Aumarais.

_Describes the convent's location and shape._

> The principal building, taken in its entirety, was a juxtaposition of hybrid constructions which, viewed from a bird’s-eye view, outlined, with considerable exactness, a gibbet laid flat on the ground.

The main building was a mix of different structures that, from above, looked exactly like a gallows lying flat.

_Metaphorically compares the convent's layout to a gibbet._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/les_miserables_se/chapters/viii-post-corda-lapides
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/les_miserables_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/les_miserables_se/chapters