VIRAGO
CHARACTERS
ENJOLRAS
Marie-Anne-Claude Enjolras de Salers was born the eldest daughter of a viscount in Aurillac, a provincial town in the French region of Auvergne, in 1807. At the age of seventeen, she was sent to live in Paris with her aunt Agnès, where she conceived a fierce desire to go to university and become involved in politics. Thus she cut her hair, got fitted for suits, assumed the name Marc-Aurélien-Claude Enjolras, and took on the identity of a man.
Enjolras is extremely proud, to the point of haughtiness, but also capable of grand feats of courage and idealism. She makes close friends only very rarely, but when she does, she proves to be extremely loyal to those friends. Enjolras' radical politics define her life, leaving her uninterested in anything not immediately applicable to the future of France, especially romantic entanglements. As the leader of a secret republican society called the Friends of the A B C, she is prepared to fight to the death to help free the people of France from tyranny and misery.
COMBEFERRE
Charles-Étienne-Joseph Combeferre was born in 1804 in the town of Gap in the French region of Dauphiné. He was the younger of two sons born to a country doctor, and from a young age he was drawn to his father's profession. His father later remarried, giving Combeferre twin sisters much younger than himself, to whom he is deeply devoted. A zealous bookworm by nature, Combeferre was excited to continue his education in Paris from the age of fifteen, when he enrolled in the prestigious academy Louis-le-Grand. There he would meet and befriend the gregarious Courfeyrac, and the two would go on to found a political club together once they were in university. It was through Courfeyrac that Combeferre would meet a young man who would change the course of his life, a seventeen-year-old named Marc-Aurélien-Claude Enjolras. Combeferre would become Enjolras' closest friend and most trusted advisor, even after discovering her secret identity. Besides his dangerous political activities, Combeferre is a medical student and later a hospital intern, deeply devoted to his social work and his science experiments. He has the reputation of being as warm-hearted and practical-minded as his friend Enjolras is aloof and abstract.
COURFEYRAC
Jean-Marie-Alexandre de Courfeyrac, born in 1804 in Montpellier, is Enjolras' cousin and Combeferre's best friend from school. When Enjolras conceived of the idea of taking on a male identity to attend university, Courfeyrac was enlisted to help her transition into the world of men and to keep her safe there. Ever obliging, he went above and beyond his mandate and helped Enjolras transition right into the world of radical politics, where he introduced her to his friends, including Combeferre.
Courfeyrac is always in the middle of the action, brash and outgoing to a fault, a friend to all, an unapologetic womanizer, a dandy always at the cutting edge of fashion, a joker who teases his serious cousin Enjolras mercilessly, and, for all that, an intensely loyal creature who is always willing to go above and beyond to help his friends out of a jam.
AGNÈS
Marie-Agnès du Meunier is Enjolras' maternal aunt. Out of love for her deceased elder sister, Agnès agrees to take on that sister's daughter as her protégée and find her a suitable husband in Paris. But being a beautiful, wealthy, vivacious, unmarried woman enjoying the attention of all of Parisian society, Aunt Agnès may not be so well-suited to help her beloved niece transition into respectable domesticity. And when Enjolras herself has other ideas, Agnès becomes her ally in a dangerous deception that will have unintended consequences for this devoted aunt.
PROUVAIRE
Jean Prouvaire, sometimes known as Jehan, is a close friend of Combeferre's and one of Enjolras' lieutenants in the Friends of the A B C. He is a gentle but brave soul who loves poetry and the romantic ideals of the Middle Ages.
FEUILLY
Feuilly is one of Enjolras' lieutenants in the Friends of the A B C, the only workingman among them. He was orphaned at a young age, and later moved to Paris to apprentice as a fan-maker. Because of his grave demeanor, he is one of Enjolras' most trusted lieutenants. Courfeyrac is his closest friend in the A B C.
JOLY
Daniel Joly is one of Enjolras' lieutenants in the Friends of the A B C. A medical student, he is generally known as a friendly neurotic.
LAIGLE
Théophile Laigle is one of Enjolras' lieutenants in the Friends of the A B C, and also Joly's roommate and closest friend. Like most of the Friends, he is an occasional law student, and though his friends tease him for being luckless, he lives his life quite cheerfully.
BAHOREL
Jules Bahorel is one of Enjolras' lieutenants in the Friends of the A B C. He is known for his hot temper and readiness to throw himself into battle.
GRANTAIRE
Grantaire is a drunkard who can be commonly found at meetings of the Friends of the A B C, despite being a staunch cynic who scorns republican ideals. He is deeply devoted to Enjolras, who despises him in turn because of his cynicism. He is a former art student and, as it turns out, a former patriot. He is also trained in the fighting arts of bâton and savate, which, when added to his formidable size and strength, make him a frightful opponent for any enemy who might threaten his beloved Enjolras.
LOUISON
Louison is a dishwasher at the café Musain, where the Friends of the A B C meet. She is the A B C's loyal serving-girl.
MARRAST
Armand Marrast is a republican journalist who becomes one of the allies of Enjolras and her Friends of the A B C. He is older than Enjolras and more cautious, having lived through the turbulent 1820s, when republican groups were decimated by purges and persecution. He is one of the leaders of a carbonari group that becomes known as the Society of the Rights of Man, and also the editor of a patriot newspaper known as the Tribune des Départements.
MORHÉRY
A grandson of a deputy to the 1789 Estates-General, Louis-Adolphe Robin de Morhéry is a Breton republican working with Marrast while occasionally pursuing a medical degree on the side. Enjolras appreciates his straightforward manner of speaking and considers him a good companion for barricade-building.
BLANQUI
Auguste Blanqui is a republican who makes a reputation of being a lifelong rabble-rouser. Born the son of a 1792 revolutionary, he carries on the family tradition and often ends up in jail for his extreme socialist views. He is one of the leaders of the patriotric club later called the Society of the Friends of the People, and in this capacity becomes acquainted with Enjolras and her Friends of the A B C. He is particularly fond of Bahorel, who shares his ferocity and his recklessness.
RASPAIL
François-Vincent Raspail is a chemist and doctor devoted to the republican cause and to his social work among the poorest classes of Parisian society. He is one of the leaders of the Friends of the People, and, being older than Enjolras by some years, is considered a solid and reliable ally.
CÉCILE
Marie-Cécile Enjolras de Salers is the naïve teenaged sister of Enjolras, who still lives a dull life back in the Auvergne. To escape her gilded cage, she dreams of coming to Paris, being welcomed into fashionable society, and finding a husband who is handsome, rich, charming, and most of all, constantly attentive to her every need.
CLÉMENCE and CONSTANCE
Clémence and Constance Combeferre are the twin half-sisters of Combeferre, who enjoy a tender relationship with their brother despite being much younger than he. They are playful and cheerful in temperament, with Constance being the more gentle and introspective twin and Clémence the more outgoing and mischievous twin. They await Combeferre's visits with great impatience, and keep him updated on happenings in Gap through frequent letters.
GIGI
Geneviève Brouillard, née Lambert, is a childhood friend of Combeferre's and the former sweetheart of Combeferre's brother Yves. Beautiful but ambitious, she would do almost anything to get out of the small town of Gap and seek her fortune in Paris.
DR. COMBEFERRE and MATHILDE
Doctor Charles Combeferre and his second wife Mathilde are Combeferre's father and stepmother, leading citizens in the little Alpine town of Gap. While the doctor maintains a fond, indulgent relationship with his son, Mathilde is less patient with her stepson, and Combeferre's relations with her are often strained. Both Doctor and Madame Combeferre dote on their twin daughters Constance and Clémence.
YVES
Yves Combeferre is the elder brother of Combeferre, deceased for years now. He and Combeferre had been very close as children, and he and Gigi had been childhood sweethearts. Always an adventurous boy, Yves died in battle at the tender age of fifteen.
PONTMERCY
Marius Pontmercy is a young law student befriended by Courfeyrac and invited to join the Friends of the A B C. He stops coming to meetings after clashing with the Friends over the subject of Napoleon's imperialism, and then stops participating in politics altogether once he falls in love. He and Courfeyrac remain friendly through the years, though Marius' reluctance to commit to the republican cause is a source of some exasperation for Enjolras.
DESCHAMPS
Marie Deschamps is a poor laundress who fought bravely in the July Revolution of 1830 and became a celebrated symbol of that revolution. She is rumored to have been the real-life model for Lady Liberty in Delacroix's famous painting "Liberty Leading the People." She meets Enjolras and the Friends of the A B C at the barricades of 1830 and becomes close with them.
ENJOLRAS, père
Viscount Jean-Claude-Géraud Enjolras de Salers is Enjolras' father. Old already when he married and started his family, the viscount lived through turbulent times in his youth. He made his career in the eighteenth-century armies of Louis XVI, and a stern demeanor and severe appearance are the markers of his soldierly personality. After living in exile during the Revolution, he returned to France during the First Empire, married the much-younger daughter of a wealthy Parisian merchant, and brought his new wife back to his ancient homeland of Auvergne. She gave him two daughters before dying of a fever, and the old viscount would struggle to raise these daughters on his own. Retired from the army, he never returned to court life, even after the Restoration of the Bourbon dynasty. Instead he chooses political retirement and social isolation, living with his younger daughter and his small household in his family estate near Aurillac. His severe, spartan personality was clearly passed down to his elder daughter Claude, but when she rebels against his authority, he will find it difficult to reconcile his beliefs on duty and order with his love for his daughter.
Historical Characters
ÉVARISTE GALOIS
ÉTIENNE GARNIER-PAGÈS
GODEFROI CAVAIGNAC
PATRIOTS
The political individuals who call themselves "patriots" are also more generally known as republicans, that is, those who support the idea of France as a Republic. This loose coalition (too loose to be considered a modern-day political party) is the most leftist of those in nineteenth-century France, and can verge on proto-communism or socialism in its most radical forms. Its more idealistic members are utopianists looking to create a perfect society on earth, and its more practical members often look back to the first French Republic of the 1790s as a model for how that society ought to be organized.
In addition to Enjolras and her Friends of the A B C, many real-life republicans appear in this story, including:
-Journalist Armand Marrast
-Journalist and sometime medical student Louis-Adolphe Robin-Morhéry
-Professional rabble-rouser Auguste Blanqui
-Doctor and chemist François-Vincent Raspail
-Statesman Étienne Cabet
-Physicist François Arago and his younger brother Étienne
-Soldier Godefroi Cavaignac
-Lawyer Étienne Garnier-Pagès and his younger brother Louis-Antoine
-Journalist Victorin Fabre
-Doctor Ulysse Trélat
-Printer Auguste Mie
-Mathematician Évariste Galois
ÉTIENNE CABET
FRANÇOIS ARAGO
ADOLPHE THIERS
ORLÉANISTES
A political party generally belonging to the Left, the orléanistes are defined as a group that wants to have Louis-Philippe, the Duc d'Orléans, as their king. They believe that he would be a liberal constitutional king who adheres to the general ideas of the Revolution, but not necessarily its specific policies. They are equally against the doctrines of pure democracy (rule by the people) and carlisme (rule by Charles X, the strictly conservative king of the 1820s).
Notable orléanistes appearing in this story are the journalists Adolphe Thiers and Armand Carrel, editors of the liberal newspaper Le National.
ARMAND CARREL
ARTISTS and WRITERS
A few artists and writers of nineteenth-century France are featured in this story, including Eugène Delacroix, Alexandre Dumas (père), Henri Beyle (also known as Stendhal), and of course Victor Hugo.
ALEXANDRE DUMAS (PÈRE)
EUGÈNE DELACROIX
HENRI BEYLE (STENDHAL)
VICTOR HUGO