Having reassured us somewhat by explaining the Colonel Pontmercy who appeared out of nowhere in Part Two, and by connecting Marius with him, Hugo now takes us to meet yet a third group of unknown characters, the Friends of A.B.C. However, all these strangers—Gavroche, Marius, Enjolras and his friends, and even M. Mabeuf of Book V—are only apparently introduced at random. All their destinies are converging on one historic moment where they will also become entangled with the fate of Jean Valjean.
Hugo describes each member of the student group with affection and understanding: Enjolras the militant, Combeferre the genial philosopher, Prouvaire the artistic idealist, Feuilly the intelligent workman, Courfeyrac the "good guy," Bahorel the irrepressible, Bossuet (Laigle) and Joly the misfits, and Grantaire the cynic. Enjolras is a particularly interesting study since he is one of the first portrayals in literature of that characteristic nineteenth-century angel of death, the political idealist, the flawless fanatic, the "pure" Marxist or anarchist. What really justifies the attention Hugo devotes to these young men, however, is that they are all going to die.
It will be noted that Marius' political evolution follows that of Hugo himself—from the royalism of his Breton mother to the mildly liberal Bonapartism of his heroic father to a firm devotion to Republican principles.
