Name: Les Miserables. Victor Hugo
ISBN: 9780141392608

Victor Hugo

He was no longer Jean Valjean, but No. 24601 Jean Valjean, an escaped convict, is determined to put his criminal past behind him. But his attempt to become a respected member of the community are threatened by the relentless investigations of the dogged policeman Javert when, owing to a case of mistaken identity, another man is arrested in his place. It is not simply for himself that Valjean must stay free, however, for he has sworn to protect the baby daughter of Fantine, driven to prostitution by poverty. Victor Hugo's epic take of injustice, heroism and love is a timeless classic, not to be missed. 'A great writer - inventive, sly, innovatory.' A.S. Byatt

Les Miserables. Victor Hugo

Any ill-considered outburst of popular indignation would cause him to smile. ‘It appears,’ he would say, ‘that this is a crime which everyone commits. See how outraged hypocrisy hurries to cover itself!’ 

Paige Leitner

What is reported of men, whether it be true or false, may play as large a part in their lives, and above all in their destiny, as the things they do. 

'The flesh is at once man's burden and his temptation. He bears it and yields to it. He must keep watch over it and restrain it, and obey it only in the last resort. Such obedience may be a fault, but it is a denial fault. It is a fall, but a fall on to the knees which may end in prayer. To be a saint is to be an exception; to be a true man is the rule. Err, fail, sin if you must, but be upright. To sin as little as possible sin is the law for men; to sin not at all is a dream for angels. All earthly things are subject to sin; it is like the force of gravity.'

'I did not know that it was so monstrous. It is wrong to become so absorbed in Divine Law that one is no longer aware of human law. Death belongs only to God. What right have men to lay hands on a thing so unknown?'

'That's the truth of it. The only thing to do is live, use yourself while you have yourself. I have my philosophy, bishop, and my philosophers, but I do not let myself be fooled by make-believe. But that is not to say that there aren't some who need it, the poor, the under-fed, the down-and-outs. We give them myths to feed on, fairy-tales - the soul, immortality, Paradise, the stars ... And they swallow it. They butter their dry bread with it. The man who has nothing else has God. It's better than nothing and I've no objection, but for myself I stick to realism. God is for the masses.'

Do what we may to shape the mysterious stuff of which our lives are composed, the dark threads of our destiny will always re-emerge.

The infinite space that each man carries within himself, wherein despairiningly he contrasts the movements of his spirit with the acts of his life, is an overpowering thing. 

Paris opens her eyes and says, 'How silly am I!' and laughs in the face of humankind. The marvel of such a town! How wonderful that so much majesty is not troubled by its own parody, that the lips which today sound the summons to judgement will tomorrow play a tune on a jew's harper! Paris has a sovereign joviality. Her gaiety strikes like the lightning and her frolic brandishes a sceptre. [...] She is everywhere where the future dawns, in Boston in 1779, in Pesth in 1848, in Palermo in 1861, whispering the watchword, 'Liberty', in the ears of the American abolitionists at Harper's Ferry, and of the patriots of Ancona gathered in the shadows at the water's edge.

After many years of putting off reading this book, I finally felt inspired enough to tackle it. While the book is large, the text is readable and accessible (especially for 18th/19 century French literature). Victor Hugo writes in such a fascinating way that it doesn't feel as long as it really is. I would recommend this to anyone who is into classics or French history. It's witty, romantic, contextual, and philosophical. The most perfect read to finish off 2025 and begin 2026 with! 

Les Miserables. Victor Hugo

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