"She was a lean and delicate looking creature, her shivering nakedness clad in nothing but a chemise and skirt. Her waistband was a piece of string, and another piece tied back her hair. Bony shoulders emerged from the chemise, and the face above was sallow and flabby. The light fell upon reddened hands, a stringy neck, a loose, depraved mouth lacking several teeth, bleared eyes both bold and wary:in short, an ill-treated girl with the eyes of a woman; a blend of fifty and fifteen"

"But what was tragic about this the girl was that she had not been born ugly. She might even have been pretty as a child and the grace proper to her age was at odds with the repulsive premature aging induced by loose living and poverty. A trace of beauty still lingered in the sixteen year old face, like pale sunlight fading beneath the massed clouds of a winter's dawn"

"We've had some schooling, my sister and me. We haven't always been what we are now. We weren't brought up to be - "

" 'Do you know, Monsieur Marius. that you're a very handsome boy?'
The words prompted the same thought in both their minds, causing her to smile and him to blush."

"She was striving to make her voice soft but could only make it more guttural, and some of the words got lost in their passage from her throat to her lips, as on a piano with some of the notes missing" "To Marius the girl was in some sort an emissary of that underworld, disclosing a hideous aspect of its darkness."

"She looked at him with mournful eyes, in which however a faint light gleamed"

"The light vanished from her face as swiftly as it had come........'in other words,' she said sharply, and with a hint of bitterness, 'you don't know her, and you want to?"

"She went over to the window and said in the half-crazed way that was charcteristic of her.
'How ugly Paris looks in a white shirt!' "

"She sang:
You leave me to take the road to glory
But my heart will follow you all the way"

" 'Pére Mabeuf, would you like me to water your garden?'
.....and from behind a shrub a tall, thin girl emerged who stood boldly confronting him"

"I'm no angel. I'm the devil, but it's all the same to me."

"Strangely, she appeared at one more impoverished and more atttractive, two things which he had not thought her capable of........she had the same hoarse voice, the same chapped, weather-beaten skin, the same bold and shiftless gaze, and added to these the apprehensive, vaguely pitiable expresion that a spell in prison lends to the face of ordinary poverty. She had whisps of straw in here hair, not because, like Ophelia, she had gone mad, but she had spent the night in a stable loft. And with it all she had grown beautiful! Such is the miracle of youth."

"She was contemplating Marius with a look of pleasure on her pale face and something that was almost a smile. For some moments she seemed unable to speak."

"Oh well, it can't be helped. You look so miserable and I want you to be happy. But you must promise to smile, I want to hear you say, 'Well done!' Poor Monsieur Marius!"

"She withdrew her hand and said in a tone that would have wrung the heart of any beholder, but of which Marius.....was quite unconscious: 'Oh how delighted you are!' "

"Éponine! How did you know that was my name?.......but it's nice. I'm glad you've called me Éponine"

" 'You're keeping too close to me Monsieur Marius. Let me walk on ahead and you must follow as if you didn't know me. It wouldn't do for a respectable young man like you to be seen in company with a woman of my kind'
No words can convey the pathos of that word 'woman' spoken by that child"

" ' By the way, you remember you promised me something?'
Marius felt in his pocket. All he had in the world was the five franc piece intended for her father. He got it out and thrust it into her hand, and she opened her fingers and let the coin fall to the ground. She looked sombrely at him.
'I dont want your money,' she said."

"So without his knowing it, she followed him, and saw him slip through the wrought iron gate into the garden. 'Well! He's going into the house!' she concluded. and. testing the bars of the gate. rapidly discovered his means of entry. 'Not for you dearie,' she murmured sadly."

"It is worthy of note that Éponine did not speak a word of argot. Since she had known Marius thieve's slang had become impossible for her."

"She stood with her back to the gate, facing the six men, all armed to the teeth and looking like demons in the dark. She went on in a low resolute voice:
'Listen to me. I mean this. If you try to get into the garden, if you so much as touch this gate, I'll scream the place down. I'll rouse the whole neighbourhood and have the lot of you pinched.' "

" She took a step towards them, and she was awe-inspiring. She laughed again
'My God, do you think I'm scared? I'm used to starving in summer and freezing in winter. You poor fools, you think you can frighten any woman because you've got soft little sluts of mistresses who cower under the bedclothes when you talk rough. But I'm not scared.' She looked at her father. 'Not even of you.' With fiery eyes she glared round the other men"

"She was interrupted by a fit of coughing which came from the depths of her narrow, sickly chest.
'I've only got to yell you know and people will come running. There are six of you but I'm the public.' "

"Looking down, Marius saw a dark shape crawling over the cobbles towards him. The gleam of the lamp was enough to enable him to make out a smock, a pair of torn corduroy trousers, two bare feet and something that looked like a trail of blood. A white face was turned towards him and the voice asked:
'Don't you recognise me?'
'No.'
'Éponine.'
Marius bent hastily down and saw it was indeed that unhappy girl, clad in a man's clothes.
'How do you come to be here? What are you doing?'
'I'm dying,'she said."

" 'What happened?' he asked.....
....'Don't you remember a musket being aimed at you?'
'Yes, and a hand was clapped over it.'
'That was mine.' "

"She rested her head on his knee and said without looking at him:
'Oh what happiness! What bliss! Now I don't feel any pain.'"

" 'Promise to kiss me on the forehead after I'm dead......I shall know.' She let her head fall back on his knees; her lids fluttered, and then she was motionless. He thought that the sad soul had left her. But then, when he thought it was all over she slowly opened her eyes that were now deep with the shadow of death, and said in a voice so sweet that it seemed already to come from another world:
"You know Monsieur Marius, I think I was a little bit in love with you."
She tried to smile, and died.

From the musical: