Les Misérables Volume 2, Chapter 9 Summary

Summary

The narrator digresses to describe a centenarian nun living at the Petit-Picpus convent, who once belonged to the Abbey of Fontevrault and had known figures from pre-Revolutionary society. She amuses the convent pupils with tales of past customs and famous names—M. de Miromesnil and a Presidentess Duplat among them—and delights in repeating a chain of ecclesiastical succession when renewing her vows, which provokes secret laughter from the girls beneath their veils. Her Picard accent, anecdotes about Bernardine monks, and colorful reminiscences (including the peculiar Champagne/Burgundy custom of the four wines) mark her as an eighteenth-century survivor in a newer world.

The centenarian also guards a locked cupboard containing an object she never shows. Her secrecy fuels the curiosity of the convent community; she shuts herself away to contemplate it and grows silent whenever it is mentioned. After her death the sisters hurriedly open the cupboard and discover, under linen, a Faenza platter: a playful, grotesque image of little Loves being chased by apothecary boys with enormous syringes. The plate’s mockery—Love defeated by the colic—turns out to be anticlimactic but characteristically vivid, providing a comic relic rather than a holy relic. The narrator notes that such a platter might have inspired Molière and that a similar object still exists in a Paris bric-à-brac shop in 1845. The centenarian also avoids receiving visitors, claiming the parlor is too gloomy.

Key events

1. Narrator pauses to describe a centenarian nun from Fontevrault living at Petit-Picpus.
2. She recounts pre-Revolutionary names and customs, amusing the pupils with an eighteenth-century voice.
3. She solemnly renews vows with an amusing liturgical formula that makes the girls suppress laughter.
4. She keeps a locked cupboard containing a secret object and guards it jealously.
5. After her death the sisters open the cupboard and find a Faenza platter showing Loves chased by apothecary lads.
6. Narrator links the platter to Molière and notes a similar object was for sale in 1845.

Analysis

This short digression accomplishes several things for the novel. It enriches the setting of the Petit-Picpus convent by inserting a living link to the ancien régime: the centenarian embodies continuity between pre-Revolutionary France and the novel’s present, reminding readers that institutions like convents preserve social memory. Her anecdotes and the comic ritual of vow-giving contrast the convent’s pious surface with human foibles—suppressed laughter, regional accent, taste for gossip—underscoring Hugo’s interest in social detail and the texture of everyday life.

The locked object functions as a miniature mystery that reveals the tension between expectation and reality: readers (and the nuns) expect a relic; instead they find a bawdy, secular faience plate. That anti-climax satirizes romanticized notions of sanctity and hints at Hugo’s skepticism about received reverence. The anecdote about the four wines subtly comments on human degradation through excess, a moral sketch that resonates with broader themes of social vice and dignity. Narratively, the digression offers tonal variety—comic, historical, and anecdotal—while reinforcing the convent as a place where past and present cohabit, and where small objects can carry disproportionate cultural meaning.

Important quotes

“Monseigneur Saint-François gave it to Monseigneur Saint-Julien, Monseigneur Saint-Julien gave it to Monseigneur Saint-Eusebius, Monseigneur Saint-Eusebius gave it to Monseigneur Saint-Procopius, etc., etc.; and thus I give it to you, father.”

The centenarianHer ritualized, repetitive formula when renewing vows, which makes the schoolgirls laugh and shows her attachment to liturgical tradition.

“It was a Faenza platter representing little Loves flitting away pursued by apothecary lads armed with enormous syringes.”

NarratorThe secret object revealed after the centenarian's death, an anticlimactic yet vividly comic artifact that challenges expectations of a sacred relic.

Characters in Volume 2, Chapter 9

• The centenarian
• M. de Miromesnil
• Presidentess Duplat
• Monseigneur Saint-François
• Monseigneur Saint-Julien
• Monseigneur Saint-Eusebius
• Monseigneur Saint-Procopius
• Bernardine monks
• Molière