Chapter 21: Chapter 21

VI Jean Valjean Towards the middle of the night Jean Valjean woke. Jean Valjean came from a poor peasant family of Brie. He had not learned to read in his childhood. When he reached man’s estate, he became a tree-pruner at Faverolles. His mother was named Jeanne Mathieu; his father was called Jean Valjean or Vlajean, probably a sobriquet, and a contraction of voilà Jean, “here’s Jean.” Jean Valjean was of that thoughtful but not gloomy disposition which constitutes the peculiarity o…