The Invention of Hugo Cabret Part 1, Chapter 8 Summary

Cards

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  • Hugo goes to work at the old man’s shop. He’s not just a slave, though—he still steals all the little mechanisms from the toys that he wants, the sneaky boy.
  • The old man does some crazy amazing card tricks and Hugo asks him to show him how he does it. After one trick, the old guy tells Hugo to go back to work.
  • When the old man falls asleep, the girl comes up to Hugo and tells him to meet her at the bookstore in ten minutes.
  • She's started looking for Hugo’s notebook, to which you would hope Hugo would say thanks, right?
  • No dice. He freaks out and tells her not to look inside. She's more than a little ticked at his less-than-grateful response.
  • Then a young man enters the bookstore.
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  • You know what's coming next: a close-up image of a young man’s face (this book really likes focusing on those faces, huh?). He has a newsboy cap on and, most notably, an eye patch. Yo-ho, yo-ho.
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  • The young man’s name is Etienne and the girl greets him. He calls her Isabelle—so now Hugo's got her name (and we do, too).
  • She also introduces him to Hugo and says that Etienne sneaks her into the movie theater, since Papa Georges (the old man) won’t let her watch them.
  • Hugo tells them that his father always took him to the movies for his birthday, and that he last saw a movie with a man hanging from a giant clock. The movie was called Safety Last.
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  • This time it’s not an illustration! We see a photograph of a man wearing an old school boater hat and big spectacles hanging from the hand of a clock. This must be the movie that Hugo saw. (And in fact, it totally is.)
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  • Etienne tells the two kids that he can sneak them into the movie theater next Tuesday. They're totally game.
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  • Hugo goes one way in the bookstore, roaming among all the scattered books.
  • Then we see Hugo going the other way. Wow. This is one messy bookstore. There are books stacked every which way.
  • Then we see Hugo’s head as he stands in front of a whole wall that’s made of shelves of books.
  • Hugo’s hand rests on a book—which seems to have some cards on the cover.
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  • Hugo finds a book called Practical Manual of Card Magic and Illusions and tries out a bit of magic himself. As in, he tries to leave the store with the book without paying. Um, Hugo, last we checked, shoplifting was not magic.
  • Etienne catches him though and gives him the money to go pay for the book.