A few questions about the book

[Rachel]

I'm not crazy! But apparently, her being pregnant is a fact I just made up.

[Morgan]

Mine says in the first chapter of "To Entrust is Sometimes to Abandon" that "ten months had slipped by since 'the good joke,'" and that Cosette was almost three. So you figure Cosette was around two ten months earlier. Based on that, Cosette would have had to be born in something like 1815.

Exactly, Gervais.

The other thing about that is that if Cosette was two at the time of the "surprise", there's this bit in the letter the guys leave for the girls: "Pendant près de deux ans, nous vous avons rendues heureuses."
So it sounds like they've been together around two years then. But if Cosette is two at that point, which she must be to be going on three ten months later, then Tholomyes would have had to have got Fantine pregnant another nine months before that, so two and a half to three years ago total.

Presumably, for that to work, the "nous" and "vous" have to refer to them all coming together as a group, and Fantine/Tholomyes were already a couple by that point.

(It also means he got in there pretty quickly. Cosette would have had to have been conceived sometime in mid-late 1814 if my maths is correct. Fantine's described as "cette créature de vingt-cinq ans" at the time of the Champmathieu trial (1823), and as having gone to Paris aged 15, which would therefore be ten years earlier - 1813ish.)

[humanracer]

continuity issues...that old chesnut

[MmeBahorel]

I'm going to guess that Cosette was born in June 1815 because Napoleon and also that Tholomyès and Fantine met in April 1814 again because Napoleon. In which case, it isn't an actual continuity issue. (the actual continuity issues include Fantine being attacked for having no hair over a year after she sold it like hair never grows back at all, Fantine signed a letter to Thenardier a month after she died, and Marius and Cosette either get married on Mardi Gras or on the date Hugo cites, which are not the same day.)

[Rachel]

I'm going to guess that Cosette was born in June 1815 because Napoleon and also that Tholomyès and Fantine met in April 1814 again because Napoleon. In which case, it isn't an actual continuity issue. (the actual continuity issues include Fantine being attacked for having no hair over a year after she sold it like hair never grows back at all, Fantine signed a letter to Thenardier a month after she died, and Marius and Cosette either get married on Mardi Gras or on the date Hugo cites, which are not the same day.)

Oh, Hugo.

[singingstar1216]

1. I remember taking an English class that basically got students into the habit of taking notes in books. So my "notes" sometimes involved symbolism and stuff, but I also wrote little comments as though responding to the characters. I remember at one point writing, "FINALLY, THE BISHOP DOES SOMETHING THAT'S NOT PERFECT!" I don't remember what it was though. XD So to answer the question, there was one tiny flaw, but obviously not significant enough for me to remember.

3. I think these relationships can happen today. Fantine seemed to be the only one in the group who truly cared about her lover, while her friends just found it fun. However, I also wondered if Fantine was the only one who went home and cried. After all, if she could pretend to laugh about it until she got home, why couldn't the others?

[humanracer]

3. I think these relationships can happen today. Fantine seemed to be the only one in the group who truly cared about her lover, while her friends just found it fun. However, I also wondered if Fantine was the only one who went home and cried. After all, if she could pretend to laugh about it until she got home, why couldn't the others?

That's a very good point.