She puts her own feelings aside to bring Cosette and her love, Marius, together, as war threatens to tear them apart. When their paths cross years later, Eponine sees it as an opportunity for redemption. As she grows up under a rotten roof of dishonesty and crime, Pony – as her siblings call her – is denied the love and friendship of those who might have enriched her life, and instead finds herself on the street with only her loathsome family for company.Ī wealthy benefactor takes young Cosette away to a better life, but Eponine never forgets her cruelty towards the girl with hair like sunshine. When the family take a little girl called Cosette into their care, and force her into slavery, Eponine befriends the girl but is soon forced to hate her kindness is not a quality the Thénardiers deem valuable. Her parents, the Thénardiers, are hateful swindlers who show no loyalty, honesty or tenderness towards anyone even their children are starved of love, unless they’ve stolen something particular valuable. Even before she could walk, Eponine was taught to trick and steal, acting a part for money, silver, or whatever might be sold to pay for her despicable family. The girl’s name is Eponine, and hers is the “broken heart of Les Miserables”.Ī prequel of sorts, A Little In Love takes us through Eponine’s story, starting at childhood and ending at that fateful moment when death comes knocking. As she dies in the darkness, staring up at the stars and clutching the most important thing in her small world, she looks back on all the wrongs she’s committed, the love that was forever unrequited, and the forgiveness she fought so hard for. Next to a barricade a girl lies alone on the street. As the sound of the French Revolution rings out across the Parisian streets, gunpowder, smoke and defiant flags fill the air.

A little in love by susan fletcher