Les Misérables Volume 3, Chapter 4 Summary

Summary

This brief chapter sketches M. Gillenormand through a series of boasts, recollections, and eccentric opinions. The narrator reports that Gillenormand won prizes at the College of Moulins and proudly remembers being crowned by the Duc de Nivernais (whom he calls the Duc de Nevers). That ceremonial memory endures for him above major political upheavals—the Revolution, the execution of Louis XVI, Napoleon, and the Restoration all fail to erase the significance of that youthful accolade. The Duc de Nevers becomes in his mind a towering figure of the century, a symbol of aristocratic elegance.

Gillenormand’s talk ranges from the comic to the fantastical. He embraces monarchist myths (adoring the Bourbons and fearing 1789), spins tales about obscure eighteenth-century remedies—“the elixir of gold,” the “yellow dye of Bestucheff,” and General Lamotte’s drops—and attributes grand historical gestures to these potions, even claiming Louis XV sent phials to the Pope. He displays an almost tender credulity for such stories and a reluctance to accept scientific explanations (the narrator dryly notes the elixir is merely perchloride of iron). Gillenormand repeatedly invokes his age, sometimes threatening to live to a hundred and quipping that he hopes not to see ninety-three twice; his talk about the Terror highlights how he cultivated gaiety and cleverness to survive political danger. The portrait is concise but vivid: a conservative, theatrical old man who clings to ceremony, rumor, and personal legend as bulwarks against time and change.

Key events

1. Gillenormand recalls youth at the College of Moulins and a symbolic crowning.
2. He venerates the Duc de Nivernais, whom he calls the Duc de Nevers.
3. Major historical events are said not to have erased that memory.
4. He rhapsodizes about the 'elixir of gold' and other eighteenth-century remedies.
5. Narrator corrects the elixir’s true nature (perchloride of iron).
6. Gillenormand proclaims his Bourbon loyalty and his fear of 1789 and the Terror.
7. He speaks of his age and hints he intends to live to a hundred.

Analysis

This chapter functions as a concentrated character sketch that illuminates M. Gillenormand’s psychology and the novel’s interest in generational attitudes. Through anecdote and hyperbole, Hugo builds a portrait of an old royalist for whom ceremonial recognition trumps political reality; the crowning by the Duc de Nivernais becomes a personal lodestar that outshines epochal events. The episode about the elixir of gold serves as both comic relief and symbolic material: Gillenormand’s credulous embrace of pseudo-scientific panaceas underscores his preference for comforting myths over unsettling truths. The narrator’s corrective aside—identifying the elixir as perchloride of iron—introduces irony and a skeptical authorial voice that invites readers to see Gillenormand as charmingly out of step.

Structurally, the chapter gives a brisk interlude that clarifies the social and ideological environment around younger characters elsewhere in the volume: such elder stubbornness and attachment to aristocratic memory help explain conservative resistance in the social fabric. Thematically, it touches on memory, nostalgia, the politics of aging, and the mutability of reputations. The comic exaggeration of Gillenormand’s fussiness and the theatricality of his language also mark Hugo’s technique of blending satire with sympathy: the old man is both ridiculed and humanized, his foibles revealing broader cultural tensions between past and present. The repeated mention of age and survival hints at his determination to outlast change, a small-scale echo of the novel’s larger preoccupation with endurance and historical time.

Important quotes

““What a charming grand seigneur,” he said, “and what a fine air he had with his blue ribbon!””

M. GillenormandGillenormand praises the Duc de Nivernais (whom he calls Duc de Nevers) as the great figure of the century, showing his aristocratic admiration.

““I hope that I shall not see ninety-three twice.””

M. GillenormandHe jokingly refers to his age while asserting his intention or hope to live to a very advanced age, expressing his desire to be a centenarian aspirant.

“He would have been greatly irritated and thrown off his balance, had any one told him that the elixir of gold is nothing but the perchloride of iron.”

NarratorThe narrator ironically undermines Gillenormand’s fanciful belief in the miraculous elixir, showing Hugo’s skeptical, humorous voice.

Characters in Volume 3, Chapter 4

• M. Gillenormand
• Duc de Nivernais
• Duc de Nevers
• Catherine the Second
• Bestucheff
• General Lamotte
• Louis XV
• the Pope