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Through the Infinite Mind of Victor Hugo's, Les Miserables
Book Review:Transforming injustice into heroism, love, vindication, and ultimate redemption.
I've been into Victor Hugo's Les Miserables, going leisurely at it since the end of January. Reputed to be one of the longest pieces of European literature in English language, I, at last, finished this behemoth on June 1st.
Les MisΓ©rables is simple. It is the story of an escaped convict, Jean Valjean, who determined to reform after being saved by the Bishop of Digne. Recalcitrant and implacable, Javert, the policeman wants to see him rightfully punished according to the law - life imprisonment as a galley slave.
Fantine, a dead prostitute entrusted her illegitimate daughter, Cosette, into Valjeanβs care. We see the sinister thread of a relentlesslyΒ evil inn keeping couple, the ThΓ©nardiers, and their urchin children, Γponine and Gavroche.
We also met and followed the course of Marius, who falls in love with Cosette, and who is the son of a Napoleonic hero who died believing wrongly that he had once been saved on the field of Waterloo by ThΓ©nardier, who was in fact a scavenging thief.
βThe introduction described the book as βa sort of essay on the infiniteβ and that,Β βThat is why its tempo is so explicit with slowness, syncopated with digression.β
According to the author, Victor Hugo, βThis book is a tragedy in which infinity plays the leadβ, while βMan plays a supporting role.β
βThe author dare his bourgeois readers to consider their responsibility for a society that drove men to crime, and women to prostitution - a poor man persecuted by a system in which justice has been overshadowed by the law.
Conservatives denounced a book that presented a criminal as a hero. Pope Pius IX placed Les MisΓ©rables on the Churchβs Index of proscribed books, and copies were publicly burned in Spain
In Paris and all around the world, Les MisΓ©rables solidified Hugoβs reputation as the champion of the poor and the enemy of tyranny. The novel was devoured by everyone from Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky to soldiers on both sides of the American Civil War.β
In Les Miserables, you read the story of a condemned criminal, who suffered for 19 years for the petty crime of stealing bread to feed his sister and her starving children.
Finally, out of prison, Jean Valjean's efforts at penance and reformation were constantly thwarted by his relentless nemesis and law enforcer, police officer, Javert.
The translation, with a reading time of over 70 hours, is the equivalent of 7 to 10 average-sized modern fiction or nonfiction writing.
I bought the hardcopy version in 2011 (via Washington DC airport), but I only got to reading it 12 years later.
The novel ended joyfully at 90% since the remainder (with over 7 hours more to plod through) contains the accompanying explanatory notes many of which Iβve already read via the eBook in-text hyperlinks.
Indeed, this is one of those "β¦Β you ought to read this book, at least once in your lifetime" titles.
It's a story of society's inexorable and at times pitiless high-handedness (in the name of justice). A story of love, self-sacrifice, redemption, and vindication.
You will journey through the battle of Waterloo, and into the streets of Paris with the fighters of The French Revolution 1830s.
You will get lost in and out of many boring seemingly out-of-context almost infinite details. The thrill and the depths of timeless human nature you discover will prove more than worth it, when you finally arrive at the other side - vindication, reconciliation, and redemption.
My Favorite Quotes
βSo here you are! Monsieur Pontmercy, you forgive me!β Jean Valjean repeated.
At those words, coming once more from Jean Valjean, all that was welling up in Mariusβs heart found an outlet and he burst out: βCosette, do you hear that?
Typical! He asks me to forgive him. And do you know what he did for me, Cosette? He saved my life! He did more than that. He gave me you. And after saving me, and after giving me you, Cosette, what did he do with himself? He sacrificed himself. Thatβs the kind of man he is. And to me the oblivious, the pitiless, the guilty, the ungrateful wretch, he says: Thank you!
Cosette, if I spent my whole life at this manβs feet, it would be too little. The barricade, the sewer, the furnace, the cesspitβhe went through it all for me, for you, Cosette! He carried me through every form of death, driving death away from me and accepting it for himself.
Every form of courage, every form of virtue, every form of heroism, every form of saintliness, he has the lot! Cosette, this man is an angel!β
βShhhh! Shhh!β Jean Valjean whispered. βWhy say all that?β
βBut what about you!β shouted Marius with a fury verging on veneration. βWhy didnβt you say anything? Itβs your fault, too. You save peopleβs lives, and you hide it from them! You do more than that, you slander yourself while youβre pretending to unmask yourself. Itβs appalling.β
βI told the truth,β answered Jean Valjean.
βNo,β Marius retorted, βthe truth is the whole truth and that you did not tell. You were Monsieur Madeleine. Why didnβt you say so? You saved Javert, why didnβt you say so? I owe my life to you, why didnβt you say so?β
βBecause I thought as you did. I felt you were right. I had to go away. If youβd known about that sewer business, you would have made me stay with you. So I had to keep quiet. If I had spoken out, it wouldβve upset everything.β
One advantage of ebooks over hard copies is that the former version enables me to store and easily recall for review those quotes and profound timeless anecdotes that arrested my attention while reading.
Going through the quotes is like walking through the sands of a shoreline bestrewed with beautiful seashells. Every new discovery seems to be more enchanting than the last.
And yet More Quotes
It is a terrible thing to be happy! How we content ourselves with it! How easily we find it to be the be-all and end-all! How easily, having attained that false aim of life, happiness, we forget the real aim, duty!
The devil, who is cunning, took to hating man; man, who is even more cunning, took to loving woman. In this way, he did himself more good than the devil did him harm.
βWho is that man?β asked Bossuet.
βA man,β replied Combeferre, βwho saves others.β
Marius added in a grave voice: βI know him.β
This assurance was enough for everyone. Enjolras turned toward Jean Valjean.
βCitizen, welcome.β
And he added: βYou know we are going to die.β
Jean Valjean, without answering, helped the insurgent he had saved get into his uniform.
Source
Victor Hugo, Les MisΓ©rables (Translated by Julie Rose, with Introductuion by Adam Thirlwell), Copyright Β© Random House Inc. 2008
Thank you for reading. This review was originally published here by the author.
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