Les Misérables Volume 4, Chapter 3 Summary

Summary

A narrow stretch of the Rue Saint-Denis proves ideal for a barricade: one end is blocked by Corinthe and the Rue Mondétour, so any attack can come only from the front. Under Bossuet’s direction the crowd seizes paving-stones, barrels, beams and an overturned omnibus to raise a formidable rampart. Gavroche, Bahorel, Enjolras, Feuilly and other insurgents work swiftly; even frightened locals like widow Hucheloup, Matelote and Gibelotte contribute, driven by panic and determination.

Amid the hurried, rough construction Grantaire indulges in drunken, comic, sentimental boasting and flattery of Matelote, until Enjolras interrupts him with an angry reprimand: this is a place for enthusiasm, not for drunkenness. The rebuke sobers Grantaire instantly; he pleads to stay and sleep at the barricade, then collapses into slumber. Enjolras scorns him as incapable of true conviction, leaving Grantaire’s brief, tender defiance unresolved as night falls and the barricade stands ready.

Key events

1. The street is quickly cleared and shuttered by frightened residents.
2. Insurgents dismantle paving and gather materials—lime barrels, casks, beams—to build a barricade.
3. An omnibus is seized and overturned to complete the barrier across the street.
4. Local women (Mame Hucheloup, Matelote, Gibelotte) aid in the barricade’s construction.
5. Grantaire performs drunken speeches and flatteries at the window.
6. Enjolras angrily reproves Grantaire; Grantaire sobers, asks to sleep, then falls asleep.

Analysis

This chapter stages the physical and social birth of a barricade and contrasts two modes of commitment among the insurgents. The rapid, collective improvisation of the barricade—tearing up street, overturning an omnibus, using empty casks—emphasizes popular resourcefulness and the theme of ordinary people transforming urban space into political instrument. Hugo’s close description of materials and labor democratizes heroism: women and unlikely figures contribute meaningfully, underscoring the communal character of revolt.

Grantaire functions as counterpoint to Enjolras. Enjolras embodies austere, ideological purity; his rebuke crystallizes standards of revolutionary seriousness. Grantaire’s drunken eloquence, comic self-mythologizing and sudden tenderness dramatize inner conflict between mockery and desire for belonging. The narrator’s tone shifts between admiration for collective handiwork (“There is nothing like the hand of the populace...”) and ironic distance toward Grantaire, preparing a recurring tension in the novel between conviction and skepticism. The scene foreshadows interpersonal strains that will test the group’s unity while reinforcing the barricade as a stage where private character debates become public and consequential.

Important quotes

“Non licet omnibus adire Corinthum.”

BossuetBossuet uses this Latin phrase while stopping an omnibus and preventing it from passing, showing the barricaders’ humor and control as they improvise defenses.

“There is nothing like the hand of the populace for building everything that is built by demolishing.”

NarratorThe narrator praises the crowd’s ability to turn destruction into creation, highlighting the barricade as a collective, improvised work.

“Grantaire, you are incapable of believing, of thinking, of willing, of living, and of dying.”

EnjolrasEnjolras’s harsh reproach to Grantaire marks the moral and ideological divide between the committed leader and the cynical drunk.

Characters in Volume 4, Chapter 3

• Bossuet
• Courfeyrac
• Joly
• Mame Hucheloup
• Gavroche
• Bahorel
• Enjolras
• Feuilly
• Matelote
• Gibelotte
• Anceau
• Grantaire