Les Misérables - Tome I - Fantine — Résumé 🇺🇸 English
In the year 1815, M Charles François Bienvenu Myriel served as the bishop of Digne at approximately seventy-five years of age. Rumors and stories had long circulated regarding his early life before entering the clergy. Born to a counselor in the parliament of Aix as part of the robe nobility, he had been married young in his late teens according to family custom. During this early period, Charles Myriel was known as an elegant and witty man who spent his life in society and romance. When the French Revolution broke out, his family was dispersed, and he emigrated to Italy where his ailing wife ultimately passed away without children.
Following the profound shocks of the revolution and personal loss, Charles Myriel returned to France as a priest. By 1804, he was serving as the elderly parish priest of Brignolles living a quiet, retired life. During a trip to Paris on parish business, he encountered Emperor Napoleon outside the cardinal Fesch anteroom. When Napoleon asked who the old man was, Myriel boldly replied that while the emperor was looking at a simple man, he himself was looking at a great man from whom both could learn. Struck by this encounter, the emperor later appointed Myriel as the bishop of Digne. Despite initial town gossip about his past, these stories eventually faded into complete obscurity after nine years of devoted residency and service in his diocese.
Upon moving to Digne, M Myriel was accompanied by his younger sister, Mademoiselle Baptistine, and their housekeeper, Madame Magloire. Mademoiselle Baptistine was a gentle, thin, and pale woman whose lifelong devotion to holy works earned her a luminous and angelic presence characterized by kindness and purity. Madame Magloire was a short, plump, and busy elderly woman prone to breathlessness from constant activity and asthma. The bishop was duly installed in his episcopal palace with all the honors required by imperial decrees. After the customary initial visits were exchanged with local authorities including the mayor and the prefect, the town eagerly awaited to see how their new bishop would begin his ministry.