M. Gillenormand is an exceptional human being, as tough for an old man as Gavroche for a gamin, but in quite a different social sphere. Gavroche belongs to the slums of the nineteenth century, the octogenarian to the salons of the eighteenth, and everything about him, from his profanity to his bed hangings, breathes the atmosphere of another age. He has all the virtues of the eighteenth-century upper classes—their elegance, gaiety, and charm—and their worst failing: callous class egoism. M. Gillenormand is not, however, cruel or mean; he is generous with money, kind enough to support two bastards who are not even his, and in fact he and his grandson are very much alike. Unfortunately, their differences grate on particularly sensitive points. Marius' attitude to his fellow man, as we shall see, is more fraternal than patriarchal; he believes it is a virtue to feel strongly, while M. Gillenormand thinks it is in bad taste. The egoism of youth is as stubborn as the egoism of age.
Even so, no separation would have come between them except for an accident of history. M. Gillenormand has an emotional horror of everything that has to do with the Revolution, and Marius cannot endure to deny a second time a father he has already involuntarily neglected. Like many Frenchmen of their age, Marius and his grandfather suddenly and unhappily find themselves on opposite sides of the widening chasm between the Old Regime and the young Republic.
