to which she would smile

[Maybo]

Whenever Mayor Madeline visited her, all she asked was, "When can I see my Cosette?"
"Soon," he said, to which she would smile with joy.
(Les Miserables adapted by Michael Robert Bradie)

I don't understand "to which". Does "which" refer to "soon"?
Does the sentence mean "she would smile with joy to the word 'soon'"?

 

[jutfrank]

Kind of, yes, but it isn't really the word soon that makes her smile—it's the news that she will see Cosette soon that makes her happy. You can best understand which as referring to the content of Mayor Madeleine's utterance.

 

[GoesStation]

"To which" refers to the statement "Soon", not to the word.

 

[Maybo]

Can I say '"Soon," he said, which she would smile with joy to'?
Sometimes I don't know when I can put a preposition before "which", and when I can put it at the end of the sentence.

 

[GoesStation]

Can I say '"Soon," he said, which she would smile with joy to'?

No.

Rather than get into a long discussion about this very unusual sentence, I suggest you move on to something you're likely to encounter more than once in your studies.

 

[Tdol]

Sometimes I don't know when I can put a preposition before "which", and when I can put it at the end of the sentence.

This is not a case where you can this this. You could say something different like he said, which would make her smile.

 

[Rover_KE]

It would be more meaningful to me if the translator had rendered it as "Soon," he said, at which she would smile with joy.

She smiled at his reply. not to it.

Sometimes I don't know when I can put a preposition before "which", and when I can put it at the end of the sentence.

It's not wrong to end a sentence with a preposition, but it's often a good idea not to, as the further away from the verb the preposition is put, the more inelegant the sentence sounds.

Thus, "Soon," he said, at which she would smile with joy, and "Soon," he said, which she would smile at with joy sound more natural than '"Soon," he said, which she would smile with joy at'?

(I'll have a word with the president of our local Les Mis Fan Club – Juan Daymore.)