Les Misérables Volume 2, Chapter 6 Summary

Summary

The chapter gives a careful, episodic description of the Little Convent within the Petit-Picpus enclosure. Hugo explains that the Petit-Picpus complex comprises three distinct buildings—the Great Convent for nuns, the Boarding-school for pupils, and the Little Convent, a small house with a garden that shelters elderly nuns from a variety of suppressed orders and a few retired society women. These women are portrayed as a heterogeneous, almost theatrical mixture of habits, ranks, and eccentricities, a "harlequin convent" that results from the Revolution and later imperial arrangements allowing dispersed nuns to find refuge together under the Bernardines-Benedictines.

Hugo gives particular examples to illustrate the Little Convent's character: a last nun of the Sainte-Aure order who preserves a tiny manikin wearing her order's former splendid habit (now only a relic), named and anonymous society ladies who retire there (Madame Albertine, Madame Beaufort d’Hautpoul, Marquise Dufresne), a noisy nose-blowing woman nicknamed Madame Vacarmini by pupils, and the brief, dramatic residency of Madame de Genlis, whose arrival was recommended by the Duc d’Orléans and who leaves after a few months because "there was no shade in the garden." The chapter also describes physical arrangements: a church that separates the institutions, a curtained choir where nuns and pupils attend service unseen by outsiders, and the curious customs and relics (including Latin verses pasted in a cupboard) that mark this peculiar community.

Key events

1. Introduction of Petit-Picpus's three distinct buildings: Great Convent, Boarding-school, Little Convent
2. Description of the Little Convent as refuge for aged nuns from various suppressed orders
3. Story of the last nun of Sainte-Aure and her manikin in the old habit
4. List of retired society women living in the Little Convent (Madame Albertine, Madame Beaufort d’Hautpoul, Marquise Dufresne)
5. Anecdote about Madame Vacarmini (the noisy nose-blower) and Madame de Genlis's brief residency
6. Description of the church layout: curtained choir that keeps cloistered women invisible to the public

Analysis

This chapter functions largely as a panoramic, ethnographic interlude: Hugo pauses the forward action to sketch a micro-society that illustrates themes of displacement, memory, and institutional patchwork after the Revolution. By cataloguing relics, eccentric residents, and the improvised coexistence of distinct orders, the narrative emphasizes continuity and loss—old rituals and garments remain, but often only as curious survivals (the manikin, Latin verses). The Little Convent’s motley population also dramatizes social stratification and the porous boundaries between religious life and polite society: retired aristocratic women and ruined nuns share the same courtyard, suggesting both charity and social reorganization.

Structurally, the chapter deepens setting and atmosphere, preparing the reader for later scenes that depend on the convent’s particular layout (the curtained choir, the garden entrance). Hugo’s technique mixes precise architectural description with lively anecdote and named exemplars (Madame de Genlis, the Duc d’Orléans reference) to give historical specificity. Symbolically, the curtained choir and hidden stalls underscore themes of concealment and separation—public rites that simultaneously shield and isolate. The Latin verses and relic-like manikin function as micro-symbols of anachronism and the persistence of belief, whether sincere or superstitious.

Important quotes

“It was a building with a garden, in which lived all sorts of aged nuns of various orders, the relics of cloisters destroyed in the Revolution; a reunion of all the black, gray, and white medleys of all communities and all possible varieties; what might be called, if such a coupling of words is permissible, a sort of harlequin convent.”

NarratorSets the chapter's central image: the Little Convent as a colorful, heterogeneous refuge formed from suppressed orders after the Revolution.

“She was a nun of Sainte-Aure, the only one of her order who had survived.”

NarratorIntroduces the poignant relic-figure who preserves her order's memory by keeping a manikin in its ancient habit.

“Imparibus meritis pendent tria corpora ramis: Dismas et Gesmas, media est divina potestas; Alta petit Dismas, infelix, infima, Gesmas; Nos et res nostras conservet summa potestas.”

NarratorReproduces the Latin verses left by Madame de Genlis which illustrate lingering superstition and the eccentric archival traces found in the convent.

Characters in Volume 2, Chapter 6

• Mother Sainte-Bazile
• Mother Sainte-Scolastique
• Mother Jacob
• nun of Sainte-Aure
• Madame Albertine
• Madame Beaufort d’Hautpoul
• Marquise Dufresne
• Madame Vacarmini
• Madame de Genlis
• Duc d’Orléans
• Vicomte de Gestas
• Dismas
• Gesmas
• Bernardines-Benedictines
• Benedictines of Martin Verga
• prioress
• Hospitallers