If you were coming home a little drunk in the evening, you could squint your eyes and imagine the boulevard was on fire. It gave the area an aura of bittersweet impermanence that drove the housing prices up. I liked my building on the boulevard. All the staircases in it were winding,...
Marius, at nightfall, was pursuing the same road as on the preceding evening, with the same thoughts of delight in his heart, when he caught sight of Éponine approaching, through the trees of the boulevard. Two days in succession—this was too much. He turned hastily aside, quitted the...