#you’re like “’wow random porter is so great”’n

Underrated hero of Les mis: the porter who responds to Marius’s questions about Valjean with “WHAT ARE YOU, a COP?”

“And what is that gentleman’s business?” began Marius again.

“He is a gentleman of property, sir. A very kind man who does good to the unfortunate, though not rich himself.”

“What is his name?” resumed Marius.

The porter raised his head and said:—

“Are you a police spy, sir?”

For context: this is when Marius, after seeing Cosette in the Luxembourg gardens, decides to follow her home and interrogate the porter about who her dad is. Later the porter also doesn’t tell Marius anything about where Valjean has fled to.

“Where is he living now?”

“I don’t know anything about it.”

“So he has not left his new address?”

“No.”

And the porter, raising his eyes, recognized Marius.

“Come! So it’s you!” said he; “but you are decidedly a spy then?”

Idk it’s nice that in a world where everyone keeps narcing on Valjean, there’s one random dude who hears a cop asking for information and— with no other context— responds

“He’s a nice guy and I don’t talk to cops.”

It’s also a neat parallel with Valjean’s portress from M-Sur-M, who’s also one of the only people in town to stand by him after he’s revealed to be a convict. Hugo puts a much bigger emphasis on Sister Simplice’s lie, but the portress’s more subtle undramatic heroism that happens right before is really touching:

Three or four persons in all the town remained faithful to his memory. The old portress who had served him was among the number.

(…)

(Valjean) heard a tumult of ascending footsteps, and the old portress saying in her loudest and most piercing tones:—

“My good sir, I swear to you by the good God, that not a soul has entered this house all day, nor all the evening, and that I have not even left the door.”

I also think there’s a sort of tragedy to the portress in that subplot? Her lie isn’t able to save Valjean because she’s just a portress, and poor, and Javert doesn’t put any weight on the words of someone like her. She is not the kind of person who Javert would ever listen to. He ignores her lie and brushes last her.

It’s only when the exact same lie is repeated by Sister Simplice, who has a level of Authority/social standing that the portress doesn’t, that Javert is forced to believe it.

But these two porters contrast with the Principal Tenant at the Gorbeau House, who happily sells Valjean out to cops. I wonder if it has something to do with her being a Landlady as much as portress? I still haven’t gotten to Toussaint and the second part of the book, but to me the way Valjean’s porters stand up against police for him seems sorta like it might be a bit of subtle Class Solidarity. I wonder if that continues through the entire book.