Title: Gavroche: The Gamin of Paris
Adaptation: Translated and Adapted by M.C. Pyle
Published: Henry T. Coates & Co. (1872)

Of course there have been other adaptions of the story, some more recognizable than others, but this may well be the first. It is an altered account of the adventures of Gavroche that incorporates familiar supporting characters, such as Montparnasse and Gavroche's brothers. Its author is billed as "translator and adaptor," but it is in no way a simple edited version of Les Misérables that contains only the parts pretaining to Gavroche. It's an alternate story. For one thing, it rearranges events to make the outcome strangely...well, happy.

I came across the book in Georgetown, Colorado, a small town outside Denver. The public library had a copy, and the afternoon I was there I read it as quickly as I could, skimming, and wrote down a summary for fun. Some of the changes in Gavroche are ones that have been made elsehwere (movies, kiddie abridgements, fan fiction): the elevation of Montparnasse to a more significant role, the removal of Enjolras which leaves Marius to lead the insurrection. I can only imagine the confusion of someone who read Gavroche first before reading the real story, but though literature it ain't, I was sucked in by the perky, naive happiness of the book. Downsides include that if it's not a violation of copyright, it comes embarassingly close, since at the time Hugo was alive and the owner of Les Misérables, and that it lacks emotional punch—aside from a kind of cute, happy feeling. However, as a sacharine, whimsical re-write, it's amusing, and who knows? It may be the 1870s version of "campy."

So on the whole, I liked it. Why? Because it's fun, because it tries to do neither too much nor too little, because in the end it shows unlikely characters helping each other. Oh, and because Jean Valjean lives.

But seriously, it's a short novel written for children ten years after the publication of Les Misérables. Some of the characters are sugar coated (mainly Montparnasse, but Gavroche as well), and Hugo's plot is tinkered with generously. It also chooses to focus on Gavroche and his adventures—as you might have guessed from the title. But, it's cute (that word again) to see how events in "another story" dovetail with those in Gavroche: The Gamin of Paris, and the book's just plain pleasant enough that only a very dark and angry person could take umbrage at it on behalf of its antecedent. It's worth a look if ever a copy should appear on your desk. But if one never does, here's what happens in it. If there are vague parts or omissions in the plot summary, it's the result of only having a few hours at the library with the book.

The Plot

Gavroche wanders the city and is clever, much as in Les Misérables. In the course of his wanderings and his cleverness, he comes across his criminal friend, Montparnasse, and he watches as the teenage hood attempts to steal a white-haired gentleman's purse. However, the gentleman, Monsieur Leblanc, who is stronger than most elderly folk, hands Montparnasse his face. He asks the subdued Montparnasse what he would like to do with his life, receives an unsatisfactory answer ("be a thief"), and gives him the same talking-to that he doles out in another novel. Then, having defeated and lectured Montparnasse, he puzzles Gavroche by also handing the would-be mugger his purse.

Sometime later, probably the next day, Gavroche finds two young boys, Adolphe and Gustave, crying in the street because they have nowhere to sleep and have lost their way. They are, of course, actually his brothers, but he doesn't know this. However, his ignorance does not prevent him from adopting them as "his" boys and becoming their surrogate "papa."

As in another story, Adolphe and Gustave had been being "rented" from their real parents—the Jondrettes, who are also Gavroche's parents—by a woman named Magnon. After her own two boys had died, she needed replacements to continue collecting money for their keep. See, she had been a maid in a rich man's house, and had untruthfully told him that he had fathered her children, thus making him feel responsible for them. Magnon had been moving, and they had been told to meet her at such and such an address, but they lost the piece of paper that had the address on it. Hence the tears.

Gavroche takes them in, buys them good white bread, gives a shivering urchin girl his woolen coat in a surfeit of generosity, and takes them to the Elephant, his own personal pad. He sets them up the first night as he does in Les Misérables, and they don't much care for the rats in this story either, but they are way into Gavroche, their new "papa," and start right off hero worshipping their savior. Instead of getting lost the next day, Adolphe and Gustave prove more intelligent, or lucky, than their counterparts in Hugo's book, and so their association with Gavroche, the Gamin of Paris, stretches into days and weeks. Their "papa" drops in occasionally, to check on them and teach them Parisian slang, and takes good care of "his boys." And so all told, things are pretty good for all three.

One day, while out on the town, Gavroche decides to drop in on his parents and finds that some sort of game is being played. Having overheard talk of the mischief before having entered the Jondrette family tenement room, the enterprising Gavroche hides himself in the next door apartment and listens in on the conversation. The plan is to waylay a charitable old man and extort just as much money as possible from him. Because he is plucky and because his morals have not been corroded by the life of the gamin, Gavroche is unhappy at the news and waits to see what he can do to help the victim.

When the victim arrives, he turns out to be Leblanc. Nearly the same scene unfolds before Gavroche as unfolds before Marius in a different book: Leblanc arrives with the intent of helping poor old Jondrette; several unsavory sorts slink into the shadows of the fleabag room; Jondrette starts to go a little nuts. He demands some amount, possibly two thousand francs, from the old man by way of "selling" him an old supposedly valuable painting—a worthless sign from a pot house, Leblanc points out. Really angry now at the refusal to cough up, Jondrette and his accomplices succeed in overpowering and tying up Leblanc, who submits to such treatment. Jondrette rants about how he recognizes Leblanc as the man who some years earlier had come to his inn and taken his boy from him. Familial feelings neglected, Jondrette seems most outraged that the boy had been a source of income, as he had been receiving money, again, for his upkeep. (Confusing, yes, and I wasn't sure if the boy was Gavroche or not, so we'll leave it at that: probably in skimming I missed either A) a part about how Leblanc had, for some reason, adopted Gavroche á la Cosette and then lost him, or B) a line about how a man who looked like but wasn't Leblanc had taken Gavroche of Jondrette's hands—either way, no other boy who hasn't already been introduced enters into the story.)

Jondrette has a brainwave and orders Leblanc to write a letter to Simon, Leblanc's household servant, telling him to bring the demanded money to the Jondrettes' address. This written, Madame Jondrette is sent to the address supplied by Leblanc, but returns with news that it's a fake. Why the ruse, Jondrette wants to know. "For time," declares Leblanc, who has worked himself free (he was half untied in order to write the letter), and springs up, grabs the menacing hot poker from the corner, brandishes it threateningly, and tosses it out the window. That will show the crooks just who is boss, and so far Gavroche has been royally entertained.

Now Jondrette and his gang are really mad: they plan to tie Leblanc up again and bash in his head. They are on their way to completing the first part of their new scheme when Gavroche, who has decided that things have gone quite far enough and is worried for Leblanc's safety, thinks hard on what to do, manifests some paper and a pencil, and tosses a note into the adjacent room through his spy hole, warning them that the "beaks" are coming.

This works magnificently. The criminals flee, sans Leblanc, and Gavroche enters the vacated room. He unties Leblanc, noting that the knots look like Brujon's, and any knot Brujon tied, he, Gavroche, can untie. He introduces himself, giving his name, and the most grateful Leblanc praises him and promises to repay him—the terms of which include offering him a home under his roof. But Gavroche already has the Elephant Inn, as he calls it, and declines. Regardless, Leblanc gives him his address in the Rue St.-Antoine, should the gamin ever need any help, and the two part ways to continue their disparate lives until the book tosses them back together again.

One night a short while later, Montparnasse appears knocking at the Elephant with news that Gavroche's father and members of his gang have landed in jail and need a small, nimble gamin hand out. As for why they are in prison in the first place, the police were unaware of the extortion plot—Gavroche had asked and gotten Leblanc to promise not to call the police into the matter—so it was for some other legal infraction that the gang was picked up. So it appears that Gavroche goes through the same jail-breaking scene as he does in Les Misérables. However, on his return to the Elephant, or sometime shortly thereafter, he loses Adolphe and Gustave.

But new material arrives to keep Gavroche busy: the revolution has cropped up. Marius is the natural leader of a band of insurgent students who man the barricade in the Rue St.-Denis. Among them, by name, are Joly and Combeferre; the rest must be present in anonymous spirit only. Gavroche, somewhat disheartened by the loss of his boys and somewhat worried about their fate, nonetheless joins the revolution, as he does in another account. The incidents are the same: he appropriates a cart with a note and a flourish; he wants a gun but is denied one by Marius, who wants to see to it that all the men are armed before firearms are distributed to children; he generally enjoys himself amid the chaos.

Meanwhile, in another part of the story, Adolphe and Gustave wander about, at a loss of what to do with themselves. But they do figure out that they should scavenge for food. In the course of this, the boys watch a man and his son feed the swans at a park, just as in a similar story. They succeed in grabbing up the bread after the swan-feeders have left, and the elder, Adolphe (Dolphe to his younger brother and friends), recalls and repeats Gavroche's command when he first bought them white bread—"Poke that in your gun."

Happily, though, they will not have to compete with birds for breakfast the next day: Monsieur Leblanc happens to be strolling in the park too, and he spots them snarfing the bread and takes pity on the swans—no, he takes pity on the boys and takes them in, bringing them home and giving them a place to stay. Once at Leblanc's home, they tell their tale of losing Magnon's address and being adopted by their new "papa," who they want to find again. In the course of the telling, they mention Gavroche's name, causing Leblanc to mention that he, too, would like to find the boy who saved him from the Jondrettes.

While sitting on his steps and thinking that evening, Leblanc notices a young boy coming down the streets, pitching stones at the streetlamps. When he gets closer, Leblanc recognizes Gavroche, on the prowl and darkening the streets to facilitate revolution which is, apparently, nocturnal. Gavroche talks briefly with Leblanc, having much the same conversation as he does in Hugo's version: he's throwing the rocks to aid the noble revolution, and Leblanc doesn't care about revolution or if he wants to throw stones. Despite Leblanc's recognition of him, Gavroche goes back to the barricade (it didn't seem the old man tried to stop Gavroche). Shortly thereafter, Leblanc, being a good republican and therefore not into revolution but also being inclined to try to save the lives of young (stupid) men, follows.

It turns out it was a good thing that Gavroche got back to the barricade when he did. An attack had commenced and the insurgents' position was about to be overrun. But Gavroche is resourceful, and he clears the soldiers off by grabbing up a torch, standing near a powder keg, and threatening to blow the barricade to kingdom come. Marius bears no outward ill-will toward to gamin for the poaching of his big moment.

Leblanc arrives just in time for his National Guard uniform to serve as the fifth family man's passport to safety, and Combeferre again observes that "he is a man who saves his fellowman." Leblanc is also a man who shoots the hats off of his fellowman's head, and furthermore, a man who uses mattresses to block grapeshot. Between him and Gavroche, the barricade hardly needs any other defenders. But still, things are grim. "One more victory like that," says Marius after his band has repelled a furious onslaught by spending most of their ammunition, "and we'll be lost."

Overhearing this, Gavroche runs out into the no man's land to fetch bullets from fallen soldiers, much to the dismay of the men at the barricade. He is hit, as per a very similar novel, and he sings, but he does not die. Instead Combeferre and Leblanc (whose head is knicked by a bullet in the process) retrieve him, still breathing, and Leblanc bandages Gavroche's wounds in the cafe.

Marius sees that the end has come, and with his comrades, he makes a desperate last stand, retreating into the cafe and upstairs as the soldiers breach the barricade's defenses. In the confusion Leblanc decides the least he can do is save the innocent, brave, and good-hearted Gavroche, and unnoticed he slips into, naturally, the sewer, carrying the wounded gamin.

After much trudging and the evasion of a patrol and the discovery of a piece of bread in Gavroche's pocket for which he is much grateful (despite the ickiness of eating in the sewer), Leblanc comes upon the locked grate. There he would have been defeated but for the timely arrival of not Thénardier, alias Jondrette, but of Montparnasse, who fortuitously has the key. He makes Thénardier's offer of going halves on the "dead man's possessions" and observes that Leblanc has killed a small person. Possibly an Oompa-Loompa. Leblanc has no money, but he talks a good game: there's a great reward in store if only he can get out of the sewer. Montparnasse finally agrees, and even offers him some twine with which to attach ballast when the times comes to sink the body in the Seine. But when the pair move into better light he sees that it is Gavroche that Leblanc is carrying.

Initially, Montparnasse is hopping mad at this man for having killed his plucky little friend, but once again Leblanc talks fast. He shows him that the boy is alive, not dead, and, furthermore, reveals that his real name is Jean Valjean and that he's an ex-con who saved himself from a black fate when he escaped prison and with the help of Providence fashioned for himself a better destiny as a successful manufacturer. Montparnasse, he says, can do with this information as he likes, but his, Leblanc's, only thought is to save the boy. Montparnasse agrees and is as grateful for the rescue as he was angry at the "murder."

Dripping unpleasantly and smelling worse, the three of them nevertheless find a cab (and not the police) waiting by the quay, and in the bad light the driver doesn't notice that his fares are going to ruin his upholstery. Thus they get a ride safely back to the Rue St.-Antoine. Gavroche recovers slowly, but pluckily, and is reunited happily with Gustave and Adolphe, while meanwhile, Leblanc works on rehabilitating the criminally inclined Montparnasse. This is eventually accomplished, as Montparnasse is set up by Leblanc as a shipper of goods from some French port that starts with a C. He even finds he likes captaining a ship—something about the salty breeze and stuff—and he's thoroughly reformed.

All four youngsters are adopted by the ever-benevolent Leblanc, who must have been lonely without ever having had Cosette around. Montparnasse changes his name to Victor Leblanc, and after he has been happily captaining commerce for awhile, he has a brush with a woman who is connected to a former Jondrette gang member. She recognizes him, and her message to the reformed Victor is that the gang member is in need of Montparnasse's services, but he declines. However, in the course of their conversation, he learns that Gavroche's older sister, Eponine, is dead of consumption (incidentally, she died in a hospital) and that (he learns this from a cleverly phrased question) Gustave and Adolphe really are Gavroche's brothers in blood, as well as in spirit, and that they had been farmed out as a supplementary source of income. On learning the news that Eponine is dead, Gavroche is sad, but he remarks that she always had had a delicate constitution, so that's all right. The rest of the news, however, is cause for much happiness among the new family, and indeed all are very happy in their new lives with their new brothers, sons, and father, especially good old Leblanc. And there was much rejoicing. The end!