One of those weird coincidences: I was reading about Fantine dying of consumption while my wife and two-year-old son were hacking away with probably the worst cold either of them had ever had. It was rather disturbing. Especially when you add in the fact that Fantine hasn’t seen Cosette in five years, and remembers her as a two-year-old.
Incidentally, Victor Hugo never actually names Fantine’s illness. But as an extended respiratory disease in the 1820s, tuberculosis is a good bet.
The sisters at the hospital are afraid that the shock of learning M. Madeleine has left town and will miss his daily visit will kill her. Instead she rallies, convinced that the only reason he could possibly have left town is to retrieve Cosette! And in her delirium, she does in fact sing her daughter a lullaby.
On Tumblr (Re-Reading Les Mis)