User:Gavroche42/Friends of the ABC


 * What were these Friends of the A B C? A society having as its aim, in appearance, the education of children; in reality, the elevation of men. They declared themselves the Friends of the ABC.  The abaisse [abased] were the people.  They wished to raise them up.

Principal Members
As described within the novel (Charles Wilbour translation, 1862)


 * Enjolras - Enjolras had but one passion, the right; but one thought, to remove all obstacles. He hardly saw the roses, he ignored the spring, he did not hear the birds sing.
 * Combeferre - Combeferre said "Revolution, but civilisation". He read everything, went to the theatres, attended the public courts.  He declared the future was in the hands of the schoolmaster, and busied himself with questions of education.
 * Jean Prouvaire - Jean Prouvaire was addicted to love; he cultivated a pot of flowers, played on the flute, made verses, loved the people, mourned over woman, wept over childhood.
 * Feuilly - Feuilly was a generous heart. He had an immense embrace.  He was not willing that there should be any man upon earth without a country.
 * Bossuet - Bossuet was a cheery fellow who was unlucky. His specialty was to succeed in nothing.  On the other hand, he laughed at everything.
 * Bahorel- Bahorel was a creature of good humour and bad company. At bottom, a penetrating mind and more of a thinker than he seemed.
 * Joly - Joly was a young Malade Imaginaire. What he learned in medicine was rather to be a patient than a physician.  An eccentric and agreeable person.
 * Grantaire - Grantaire was a man who took good care not to believe anything. A rover, a gambler, a libertine, and often drunk, he displeased these young thinkers by singing incessantly: "I loves the girls and I loves good wine."