# M. Bamatabois’s Inactivity explained — Les Misérables

> Chapter companion for Les Misérables by Victor Hugo.

## What happens

A description of provincial dandies and idlers in Montreuil-sur-Mer, focusing on M. Bamatabois, who torments a woman in a ball-dress by throwing snow down her back. The woman, revealed to be Fantine, attacks him violently. Inspector Javert intervenes, ordering her to follow him.

## Themes in this chapter

### Social Injustice and Poverty

Fantine, reduced to poverty and desperation, is publicly humiliated and assaulted by a wealthy idler, highlighting the cruelty of class divisions.

### Suffering and Sacrifice

Fantine's degraded state—bare shoulders, missing teeth, brandy-roughened voice—illustrates her profound suffering and sacrifice.

## Character check-ins

### Fantine

The woman tormented by Bamatabois; she attacks him in rage and is then seized by Javert.

### Javert

The police inspector who emerges from the crowd and commands Fantine to follow him.

### M. Bamatabois

A provincial dandy who torments Fantine by throwing snow on her back, then flees when Javert appears.

### Tholomyès

Mentioned as an example of what such a provincial dandy would have been like had he stayed in his province.

## Key lines

> There is in all small towns, and there was at Montreuil-sur-Mer in particular, a class of young men who nibble away an income of fifteen hundred francs with the same air with which their prototypes devour two hundred thousand francs a year in Paris.

In small towns like Montreuil-sur-Mer, there are young men who live modestly on fifteen hundred francs a year but act as if they were spending a fortune in Paris.

_Introduces the idle dandies of the town._

> The woman uttered a roar, whirled round, gave a leap like a panther, and hurled herself upon the man, burying her nails in his face, with the most frightful words which could fall from the guardroom into the gutter.

The woman screamed, spun around, and attacked the man like a wild animal, clawing his face and shouting terrible curses.

_Describes Fantine's violent reaction to Bamatabois's assault._

> Suddenly a man of lofty stature emerged vivaciously from the crowd, seized the woman by her satin bodice, which was covered with mud, and said to her, 'Follow me!'

A tall man quickly stepped out of the crowd, grabbed the woman by her muddy satin dress, and ordered her to come with him.

_Javert's intervention in the altercation._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/les_miserables_se/chapters/xii-m-bamatabois-s-inactivity
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/les_miserables_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/les_miserables_se/chapters