All 42 Uses of
enigma
in
Les Miserables
- There is a sacred horror beneath the porches of the enigma; those gloomy openings stand yawning there, but something tells you, you, a passer-by in life, that you must not enter.†
Chpt 1.1
- The universe appeared to him like an immense malady; everywhere he felt fever, everywhere he heard the sound of suffering, and, without seeking to solve the enigma, he strove to dress the wound.†
Chpt 1.1
- The bridge of Austerlitz had abdicated, and was entitled the bridge of the King's Garden [du Jardin du Roi], a double enigma, which disguised the bridge of Austerlitz and the Jardin des Plantes at one stroke.†
Chpt 1.3
- Decidedly this man was an enigma.†
Chpt 1.5
- Why does she send out to purchase six sheets of note paper, when she has a "whole stationer's shop full of it?" etc. There exist beings who, for the sake of obtaining the key to these enigmas, which are, moreover, of no consequence whatever to them, spend more money, waste more time, take more trouble, than would be required for ten good actions, and that gratuitously, for their own pleasure, without receiving any other payment for their curiosity than curiosity.†
Chpt 1.5enigmas = things that are mysterious and seem unexplainable
- And often these secrets once known, these mysteries made public, these enigmas illuminated by the light of day, bring on catastrophies, duels, failures, the ruin of families, and broken lives, to the great joy of those who have "found out everything," without any interest in the matter, and by pure instinct.†
Chpt 1.5
- The battle of Waterloo is an enigma.†
Chpt 2.1
- At least, if the tradition is to be believed, and in particular the two enigmatical lines in barbarous Latin, which an evil Norman monk, a bit of a sorcerer, named Tryphon has left on this subject.†
Chpt 2.2enigmatical = mysterious and seemingly unexplainable
- It was there, that, about 1829, was committed that mysterious assassination, called "The assassination of the Fontainebleau barrier," whose authors justice was never able to discover; a melancholy problem which has never been elucidated, a frightful enigma which has never been unriddled.†
Chpt 2.4
- THE BEGINNING OF AN ENIGMA.†
Chpt 2.5
- CONTINUATION OF THE ENIGMA.†
Chpt 2.5
- Jean Valjean often said afterwards, that, although many funereal spectres had crossed his path in life, he had never beheld anything more blood-curdling and terrible than that enigmatical form accomplishing some inexplicable mystery in that gloomy place, and beheld thus at night.†
Chpt 2.5enigmatical = mysterious and seemingly unexplainable
- THE ENIGMA BECOMES DOUBLY MYSTERIOUS.†
Chpt 2.5
- Thus he proceeded in a tolerably perplexed state of mind, putting to himself a hundred questions about this enigmatical personage.†
Chpt 2.5enigmatical = mysterious and seemingly unexplainable
- He had applied himself to riddling out the significance of the different peals, and he had succeeded, so that this taciturn and enigmatical cloister possessed no secrets for him; the sphinx babbled all her secrets in his ear.†
Chpt 2.8
- All day long, he buried himself in social questions, salary, capital, credit, marriage, religion, liberty of thought, education, penal servitude, poverty, association, property, production and sharing, the enigma of this lower world which covers the human ant-hill with darkness; and at night, he gazed upon the planets, those enormous beings.†
Chpt 3.4
- The first has the whole heavens in his eyes; the last, enigmatical though he may be, has still, beneath his eyelids, the pale beam of the infinite.†
Chpt 3.7enigmatical = mysterious and seemingly unexplainable
- Lacenaire made this response, enigmatical so far as the magistrate was concerned, but clear to the police: "Perhaps it was Patron-Minette."†
Chpt 3.7
- Not one of the enigmas which he had hoped to see solved had been elucidated; on the contrary, all of them had been rendered more dense, if anything; he knew nothing more about the beautiful maiden of the Luxembourg and the man whom he called M. Leblanc, except that Jondrette was acquainted with them.†
Chpt 3.8enigmas = things that are mysterious and seem unexplainable
- The enigma was more impenetrable than ever.†
Chpt 3.8 *
- Brave, etc. Finally, this carpenter found, still in the same enclosure, a third paper on which was written in pencil, but very legibly, this sort of enigmatical list:— Unite: Blanchard: Arbre-Sec.†
Chpt 4.1enigmatical = mysterious and seemingly unexplainable
- Enjolras said, mixing his words with a few half-enigmatical but significant metaphors:— "It is proper that we should know where we stand and on whom we may count.†
Chpt 4.1
- Did this man belong to the double enigma of order and disorder?†
Chpt 4.2
- Cosette was accustomed to the enigmatical side of her destiny, and hardly noticed her father's peculiarities.†
Chpt 4.3enigmatical = mysterious and seemingly unexplainable
- This created enigmas which exercised the imaginations of the big girls, such as: Ah, how delightful is the drum!†
Chpt 4.3enigmas = things that are mysterious and seem unexplainable
- A letter without name, without address, without date, without signature, pressing and disinterested, an enigma composed of truths, a message of love made to be brought by an angel and read by a virgin, an appointment made beyond the bounds of earth, the love-letter of a phantom to a shade.†
Chpt 4.5
- Thought is moved in its most sombre depths, social philosophy is bidden to its most poignant meditations, in the presence of that enigmatic dialect at once so blighted and rebellious.†
Chpt 4.7enigmatic = mysterious and seeming unexplainable
- Metaphor is an enigma, wherein the thief who is plotting a stroke, the prisoner who is arranging an escape, take refuge.†
Chpt 4.7
- We find in the eighteenth century, in nearly all the songs of the galleys and prisons, a diabolical and enigmatical gayety.†
Chpt 4.7enigmatical = mysterious and seemingly unexplainable
- Yes, the enigma will utter its word, the sphinx will speak, the problem will be solved.†
Chpt 4.7
- At the corner of the street they halted and exchanged the following enigmatical dialogue in a low tone:— "Where shall we go to sleep to-night?"†
Chpt 4.8enigmatical = mysterious and seemingly unexplainable
- In the presence of the imminence of the peril, in the presence of the death of M. Mabeuf, that melancholy enigma, in the presence of Bahorel killed, and Courfeyrac shouting: "Follow me!" of that child threatened, of his friends to succor or to avenge, all hesitation had vanished, and he had flung himself into the conflict, his two pistols in hand.†
Chpt 4.14
- Admitting that the gigantic and gloomy insurrection of June was composed of a wrath and of an enigma, one divined in the first barricade the dragon, and behind the second the sphinx.†
Chpt 5.1
- He had always felt the absolute impossibility of addressing that enigmatical man, who was, in his eyes, both equivocal and imposing.†
Chpt 5.1enigmatical = mysterious and seemingly unexplainable
- He walked in an enigma.†
Chpt 5.3
- And then, Cosette had, for long years, been habituated to seeing enigmas around her; every being who has had a mysterious childhood is always prepared for certain renunciations.†
Chpt 5.5enigmas = things that are mysterious and seem unexplainable
- Everything about this singular enigma was inexplicable.†
Chpt 5.5
- Thus I should have remained Monsieur Fauchelevent, thus I should have concealed my true visage, thus, in the presence of your expansion, I should have had an enigma, thus, in the midst of your full noonday, I should have had shadows, thus, without crying "ware,' I should have simply introduced the galleys to your fireside, I should have taken my seat at your table with the thought that if you knew who I was, you would drive me from it, I should have allowed myself to be served by domestics who, had they known, would have said: 'How horrible!'†
Chpt 5.7
- There was something enigmatic about that person, of which his instinct had warned him.†
Chpt 5.7enigmatic = mysterious and seeming unexplainable
- This enigma was the most hideous of disgraces, the galleys.†
Chpt 5.7
- Here questions exfoliated, so to speak, into innumerable enigmas, abysses yawned at the bottoms of abysses, and Marius could no longer bend over Jean Valjean without becoming dizzy.†
Chpt 5.7enigmas = things that are mysterious and seem unexplainable
- Jean Valjean quitted the room, leaving Cosette stupefied at this enigmatical farewell.†
Chpt 5.8enigmatical = mysterious and seemingly unexplainable
Definition:
something mysterious that seems unexplainable