Eloquent fat shaming in Hugo's Les Misérables I though this quote regarding one of Hugo's few unlikable characters that I read this morning was excellent for this sub. It reads: "The reader has perhaps, since her first appearance, preserved some remembrance of this huge Thénardiess;-for such we shall call the female of this species,- large, blond, red, fat, brawny, square, enormous, and agile; she bolonged, as we have said. To the race of those colossal wild women who posturise at fairs with paving-stones hung in their hair. She did everything about the house, the chamber-work, the washing, the cooking, anything she pleased, and played the deuce generally. Cosette was her only servant; a mouse in the service of an elephant. Everything trembled at the sound of her voice; Windows and furniture as well as people. Her broad face, covered with freckles, had the appearance of a skimmer. She had a beard. She was the ideal of a butcher's boy dressed in petticoats. She swore splendidly; she prided herself on being able to crack a nut with her fist. Apart from the novels she had read, which at times have you an odd glimpse of the affected lady under the ogress, the idea of calling her a woman never would have occurred to anybody. This Thénardiess seemed like a cross between a wench and a fish-woman. If you heard her speak, you would say it is a gendarme; if you saw her drink, you would say it is a cartman; if you saw he handle Cosette, you would say it is the hangman. When at rest, a tooth protruded from her mouth."