The Arcades Project - Operi

waHhed everywhere, and maintained order-that is, night. . . . The eye which
might have looked from above into that mass of shadow would have caught a
glimpse in the distance here and there, perhaps, of indistinct lights, bringing out
broken and fantastic lines, outlines of singular constructions, something like
ghostly gleams coming and going among ruins; these were the barricades." Oeltvres
completes. novels, vol. 8 (Paris, 1881), pp. 522-523.-The following passage
is from the chapter "' Faits (P ou l'histoire sort et que I 'histoire ignot·e." "'The meetings
were sometimes periodic. At some, there were never more than eight or ten,
and always the same persons. In others, anybody who chose to entered, and the
room was so full that they were forced to stand. Some were there from enthusiasm
and passion; others because 'it was on their way to work. ' As in the time of the
Revolution, there were in these wine shops some female patriots, who embraced
the newcomers. Other expressive facts came to light. A man entered a shop, drank,
and went out, saying: "Wine merchant, whatever l owe, the revolution will pay.'
... A worker, drinking with a (,;omrade, made him put his hand on him to see how
warm he was; the other felt a pistol under his vest. ... All this fermentation was
puhlic, we might almost say tranquil. ... No singularity was wanting in this crisis-still
Imbterrallean, but already perceptible. Bourgeois talked quietly with
workers about the preparations. They would say, 'How is the uprising coming
along?' in the same tone in which they would have said, 'How is your wife?''' Victor
Hugo, Oeuvres completes, novels, vol. 3 (Paris, 1881), pp. 43, 50-51 (Les
MisernlJles)." [a11a,l]
Barri{ade fighting in Les Miserubles. From the chapter '"Originalite de Paris."
'"Outside of the insurgent qu.artiers, nothing is usually more strangely calm than
the physiognomy of Paris during an uprising . ... There is firing at the streetcorners,
in an arcade, in a cul-de-sac; ... corpses litter the pavement. A few streets
away, you call hear the clicking of hilliard halls in the cafes . ... The carriages jog
along; people are going out to dine. Sometimes in the very quurti - e,. where there is
fighting. In 1831 a fusillade was suspendcd to let a wedding party pass hy. At: the
time of the insurrection of May 12, 1839, on the Rue Saint-Martin, a little infirm
old man, drawing a handcart l'mrmounted hy a tricolored rag, in which there were
decanters filled wit.h some liquid, went hack and forth from the harricade t.o the
troops and from the troops to the barricade, impartially offering glasses of cocoa
. . . . Nothing is more st.range; and this is thc peculiar characteristic of the
uprisings of Paris, which is not found in any ot.her capit.al. Two things are requisite
for it: the greatness of Paris and its gaiety. It requires the city of' Voltaire and of
Napoleon." Victor I-lugo, Oerwres completes, novels, vol. 8 ,
PI'- 429-431." [a11a,2]
On the motif of exoticism, conjoined with t.hat of emancipation:
All the seraglios are opened,
The imam finds his inspiration in wine,
The Orient learns to read,
Barrault crosses the seas.