146 Les Miserables
CHAPTER 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 con-
traction of viola Jean, ‘here’s Jean.’
Jean Valjean was of that thoughtful but not gloomy dis-
position which constitutes the peculiarity of affectionate
natures. On the whole, however, there was something de-
cidedly sluggish and insignificant about Jean Valjean in
appearance, at least. He had lost his father and mother at a
very early age. His mother had died of a milk fever, which
had not been properly attended to. His father, a tree-pruner,
like himself, had been killed by a fall from a tree. All that
remained to Jean Valjean was a sister older than himself,—a
widow with seven children, boys and girls. This sister had
brought up Jean Valjean, and so long as she had a husband
she lodged and fed her young brother.
The husband died. The eldest of the seven children was