Chapter 180 The Surprise of Three Marius

Within a few days, Marius became Courfeyrac's friend.When young people meet young people, they can feel like old friends at first sight and get along with each other.Marius was able to breathe freely in Courfeyrac's side, which, for him, was something quite new.Courfeyrac asked him nothing.It didn't even occur to him to ask anything.At that age, it's all on the face, and it's obvious at a glance.Language is useless.We may say that there is such a youth that something is immediately shown on the face.Looking at each other, they know each other. But one morning, Courfeyrac suddenly asked him this sentence:

"I said... do you have any political opinions?" "Ah!" said Marius, almost feeling the abruptness of the question. "Where's your faction?" "Bonapartist democrats." "Like a quiet little gray mouse." The next day, Courfeyrac took him to the Café Moussant, and with a smile, he leaned close to his ear and said softly: "I should lead you to the revolution." So he led him into the "Friends of ABC" and introduced him to the other companions, whispering this simple phrase which Marius could not understand: "An Enlightenment student."

Marius fell into a swarm of people.And he, for all his seriousness and reticence, was not without wings and stingers. Marius, who, by habit and inclination, had always been withdrawn, who liked to think and answer questions by himself, felt a little uneasy at the sight of this group of noisy young people around him.All these new things for the first time stimulated him and made him dizzy.All this tumultuous coming and going of young people at their ease and at work disturbed his thoughts rapidly.Sometimes in this turmoil, he would think so far away that he could never pull back.He heard philosophy, literature, art, history, religion being talked about in ways he hadn't expected.He vaguely saw some strange shapes, and since he couldn't see from a distance, he couldn't help being a little baffled.When he switched from his grandfather's opinion to his father's, he always thought that he had stood firm, but now he doubted it, felt that he was not stable, and he felt depressed and afraid of self-confidence.The angle from which he was accustomed to observe various things began to move again.Some wobble shook all the knowledge in his head.It was a strange inner vibration.He almost suffers from it.

There seemed to be nothing "settled" in the minds of those young men.On various subjects Marius often heard strange words which offended his still cowardly heart. They saw a theater poster bearing the name of an old play in the so-called classical tragedy.Bahoret cried: "Down with the tragedy that the bourgeoisie loves!" and Marius heard Combeferre reply: "You are wrong, Bahore. The bourgeoisie loves tragedy, and in that it is left to the bourgeoisie to love it. There is a reason for tragedy in a wig, and I am not one of those who, in the name of Aeschylus, Those who oppose its right to exist. There are immature things in nature, and many mediocre works have appeared in the creation of heaven and earth. There are beaks that are not beaks, wings that are not wings, fins that are not fins, and claws that are not. paws, and a cry of agony that makes you laugh, and that's the duck. If poultry can co-exist with flying birds, I don't see why classical tragedy can't co-exist with ancient tragedy."

On another occasion, Marius was walking between Enjolras and Courfeyrac, passing the Rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Courfeyrac took his arm and said: "Attention. This is the former Gypsum Kiln Street. Today it is called Jean-Jacques Rousseau Street, because a strange family lived here more than sixty years ago. Jean-Jacques and Theresé. They were born soon One child after another. Theresa is in charge of giving birth, and Jean-Jacques is in charge of releasing them." Enjolras reproaches Courfeyrac and says: "Don't talk nonsense in front of Jean-Jacques! This man, I admire him. Although he abandoned his children, he loved his people like his children."

Among these young people, no one uttered the word "emperor".Only Jean Prouvel occasionally called Napoleon; everyone else said Bonaparte.Enjolras called it "Buwanaba". Marius wondered to himself.The beginning of chaos.