The Revolt of the Angels · Chapter
III explained
Monsieur Sariette discovers his library in disarray with valuable Hebrew, Greek, and Latin texts scattered and damaged.
What happens
Monsieur Sariette discovers his library in disarray with valuable Hebrew, Greek, and Latin texts scattered and damaged. Despite exhaustive inquiries, he finds no explanation and becomes increasingly anxious. He eventually suspects a monkey, but upon finding a sickly captive macaco, he is overcome with pity and abandons the idea.
Themes in this chapter
Knowledge and Enlightenment
The library's sacred texts and scholarly works represent the pursuit of knowledge, now subject to mysterious disruption.
Human Nature and Folly
Sariette's wild speculations and obsessive search for a monkey culprit illustrate human irrationality and folly.
Characters to notice
- Monsieur Julien Sariette
The meticulous librarian who discovers the mysterious disorder in the library and becomes obsessed with finding the cause.
- René d'Esparvieu
Dismisses Sariette's concerns with a patronizing attitude, suggesting the books were left as they were.
- Gaétan d'Esparvieu
Mentioned as a possible suspect but is traveling in Italy.
- Abbé Patouille
Briefly considered by Sariette as a potential culprit due to his habit of dog-earing books.
- Maurice d'Esparvieu
Mentioned as a possible suspect due to his anti-Semitic views, though unlikely to have moved the books.
- Hippolyte Flandrin
The old manservant who dusts the library and is questioned by Sariette but knows nothing.
Key passages
“Having, after an interval of some moments, recovered from his profound amazement, the librarian went up to the table and recognised in the confused mass his most valuable Hebrew, French, and Latin Bibles, a unique Talmud, Rabbinical treatises printed and in manuscript, Aramaic and Samaritan texts and scrolls from the synagogues—in fine, the most precious relics of Israel all lying in a disordered heap, gaping and crumpled.”
After recovering from his shock, Sariette saw that the table held a chaotic pile of his most treasured religious and scholarly books, including rare Bibles and manuscripts, all damaged and out of order.
Highlights the severity of the mysterious disturbance and the value of the texts involved.
“He had just seen lying flat on the mantelpiece a paper-bound volume, a modern work, the boxwood paper-knife which had served to cut its pages still thrust between the leaves. It was a dissertation on the two parallel versions of Genesis, a work which Monsieur Sariette had relegated to the attic, and which had never left it up to now...”
Sariette noticed a modern book on the mantelpiece that he had previously stored in the attic, indicating that someone had retrieved and read it.
Shows that the intruder is not just disturbing old books but also seeking out specific modern scholarship.
“Recognising his mistake, troubled by the almost human face which sorrow and suffering made more human still, he murmured 'Forgive me,' and bowed his head.”
Realizing his error, Sariette was moved by the monkey's sad, human-like expression and apologized, feeling ashamed of his earlier anger.
Reveals Sariette's capacity for empathy and the chapter's shift from suspicion to compassion.