Les Misérables - Tome I - Fantine — Résumé 🇺🇸 English
In 1815, M Charles François Bienvenu Myriel served as the bishop of Digne, having occupied the seat since 1806 at about seventy-five years of age. Upon his arrival in the diocese, various rumors and stories circulated regarding his background, as public perception often shapes a mans destiny just as much as his actions. Born to a counselor at the parliament of Aix into a robe nobility, his father had married him off at a very young age to secure an inheritance. Charles Myriel was graceful, witty, and spent his early life devoted to worldly pursuits and gallantries until the French Revolution upended society. Parliamentary families were dispersed, and Myriel emigrated to Italy early on, where his wife sadly died of a long-standing pulmonary illness without leaving any children.
The collapse of old French society, the destruction of his family, and the tragic spectacles of 1793 eventually inspired profound changes in him, and he returned from Italy as an ordained priest. By 1804, he worked as an elderly and retired curate of Brignolles when a small parish matter brought him to Paris. While waiting in the antechamber for his petition to the powerful Cardinal Fesch, he caught the attention of Emperor Napoleon during a royal visit. When the emperor abruptly asked who the old man was, Myriel boldly answered that Napoleon looked at a good man while the curate looked at a great man, allowing both to profit from the encounter. The emperor later asked the cardinal for the curates name, leading to Myriel receiving his unexpected appointment as the bishop of Digne.
Although the small town of Digne buzzed with gossip about his mysterious past, these early rumors gradually faded into deep oblivion after nine years of his dedicated residency and episcopate. Myriel arrived in the town accompanied by his sister, Mademoiselle Baptistine, who was ten years younger and embodied a delicate, transparent beauty of goodness and angelic purity. They were served by a short, plump, bustling, and asthmatic old housekeeper named Madame Magloire, who transitioned from serving the curate to managing the household. Following proper imperial decrees, the bishop was duly installed in his episcopal palace with full honors, receiving initial visits from local authorities and beginning his lifelong service to the community.