Section 23 Summary

This section begins with the phrase, "Because of the treacherous narrow stairs, Robinson..."

Old Grandma Henrouille gives a lively show in the crypt, despite the fact that she is forbidden to raise the prices. Grandma Henrouille points out the missing eyes, full sets of teeth and leathery tongues. The old woman looking death in the eye and laughing at it was a sight worth seeing, Bardamu notes and the tourists flowed in to see her.

Robinson has so little to do that his main hobby is complaining about life in general and about Grandmother Henrouille in particular. Grandma Henrouille's energetic tours bring a lot of money and Robinson, who rarely even enters the crypt, wants a bigger share. Robinson thinks he has been taken for a sucker. Bardamu is disappointed in his friend's new, middle-class, bourgeois attitudes, because Robinson now thinks only of...