Les Misérables Volume III Book 5 Chapter 3

In which the young Marius, now grown to twenty and estranged from his loving yet stern grandfather, embraces poverty and solitude as both punishment and path to an idealised self, his heart turned quietly toward introspection and honour. Amidst this humble existence, he finds solace in rare friendships and in the unbidden influence of a kindly churchwarden, forging a soul attuned more to thought than worldly toil.