#lm 1.1.4

[les-mis-daily-doodles]

this is just last day of a condemned man i see you victor hugo

[javertwenttoheaven]

Les Mis Letters 1.1.4

Reading this chapter as a teen is what moved me to being anti-death penalty.

[unsolicitedf001ishness]

Les Mis Favorite Quotes 1.1.4 Works Corresponding to Words

"She interrupted herself impatiently"

“There is M. Géborand purchasing paradise for a sou.”

"Once he was begging for the poor in a drawing-room of the town; there was present the Marquis de Champtercier, a wealthy and avaricious old man, who contrived to be, at one and the same time, an ultra-royalist and an ultra-Voltairian. This variety of man has actually existed. When the Bishop came to him, he touched his arm, 'You must give me something, M. le Marquis.' The Marquis turned round and answered dryly, “I have poor people of my own, Monseigneur.' 'Give them to me,' replied the Bishop."

"Alas! God gives air to men; the law sells it to them."

"He understood how to say the grandest things in the most vulgar of idioms. As he spoke all tongues, he entered into all hearts."

"To be a saint is the exception; to be an upright man is the rule. Err, fall, sin if you will, but be upright."

"The guilty one is not the person who has committed the sin, but the person who has created the shadow.”

"It will be perceived that he had a peculiar manner of his own of judging things: I suspect that he obtained it from the Gospel."

"One may feel a certain indifference to the death penalty, one may refrain from pronouncing upon it, from saying yes or no, so long as one has not seen a guillotine with one’s own eyes: but if one encounters one of them, the shock is violent; one is forced to decide, and to take part for or against."

[scuttleton]

LM 1.1.4

Oh man Myriel has a sense of humor too. Love this guy. I mean seriously what's not to love:

Monsieur Géborand had never in his life been charitable to any poor unfortunate. After that sermon it was noticed he gave one sou every Sunday to the old beggar-women at the cathedral door. They had to share it between six of them. One day the bishop saw him making his donation and said to his sister with a smile, ‘There’s Monsieur Géborand buying one sou’s worth of paradise.’

Cheeky.

He would not condemn anything without due consideration or without taking circumstances into account. He would say, ‘Let’s see how the wrong-doing was arrived at.’

Compassionate and empathetic.

When he saw everyone condemning very loudly and being very quick to express indignation, ‘Oh my,’ he would say with a smile, ‘this looks like being a great crime that everyone commits. Here we have hypocrisies in fright, hurrying to protest and to take cover.’

Again, cheeky.

When the discussion came to a close he asked, ‘Where are this man and woman to face judgement?’ ‘At the court of assizes.’ He went on, ‘And where will the crown prosecutor face judgement?’

Viewing situations from all angles.

On the eve of the day set for the condemned man’s execution the prison chaplain fell ill. A priest was needed to attend the criminal in his final moments. They sent for the parish priest. Apparently he refused to come, saying, ‘It’s nothing to do with me. I can’t take on the responsibility of dealing with that charlatan, I too am unwell. In any case it’s not my job.’ This response was reported to the bishop, who said, ‘Monsieur le curé is right. It’s not his job. It’s mine.’ He went straight to the prison and down into the ‘charlatan’s’ cell, called him by name, took him by the hand, and spoke to him. He spent the whole day and the whole night with him, forgetting about food and sleep, praying to God for the condemned man’s soul, and asking the man to pray for his. . . . When they came to fetch the poor man the following day the bishop was there. He went with him. He appeared before the crowd in his purple mozzetta with his episcopal cross round his neck, alongside that trussed-up criminal. He climbed into the tumbril with him, he climbed on to the scaffold with him. So crushed and despondent the previous day, the man facing death was radiant. He felt his soul had been reconciled and his trust was in God. The bishop embraced him and as the blade was about to drop said to him, ‘He whom man slays God restores to life. He who is cast out by his brothers returns to the Father. Pray, believe, enter into life! The Father is there.’

Don't even have words for this one. Man. A throat closing handful of paragraphs right there.

Also, footnote says Hugo was against the death penalty, and boy howdy can you tell in his paragraphs about how the guillotine and it's scaffolding are alive and bloodthirsty monsters. Chilling wording, you can feel the abhorrence in every sentence.

And finally this fraction of a sentence:

...and to transform the grief that dwells on the grave by teaching the grief that dwells on a star.

I like the wording.

[littlefallof-rain]

This was all I could think when I read this

[secretmellowblog]

I really love the Julie Rose translation of this bit:

Madame Magloire liked to call him *Your Highness* One day, he got up out of his armchair and went to find a book. The book happened to be on one of the top shelves and, as the bishop was fairly short, he couldn’t reach it. “Madame Magloire,” he said, “bring me a chair, will you. My Highness doesn’t extend to this shelf.”

[maybeitsapineapple]

LM 1.1.4

I quite like the title in English, since ‘works’ and ‘words’ do actually resemble each other

In the early 20th century, the duke of Aosta apparently responded to a journalist calling him “Vostra Altezza” (Your Highness) by saying “198 centimetri”

Can anyone find an actual St Augustine quote about that or is this a Certified Hugo Fact

Hugo’s paternalistic tendencies yayyyyy 😭

ABYSS MENTION

Carpenter again 😔

Wonder if Oscar Wilde was making a reference to this in Lady Windermere’s Fan with the line “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars”

I should either commit to stopping or commit to doing this.

[syrupsyche]

back again with LML but Chinese! i haven't given up yet!

another great pun moment with Magloire's title for Bishop Myriel as "Your Grace" (or in French, as Votre Grandeur), to which Myriel responds when he can't reach a shelf:

“fetch me a chair. My greatness [grandeur] does not reach as far as that shelf.”

In Chinese, Magloire calls him 大人, a term used to refer to people one respects/people of a higher status, and also used in a "Your Excellency" etc. kind of way. 大人 also literally means Big Man, which makes Myriel's response just as good:

“请您搬张椅子给我。本大人还‘大’不到那块木板呢。”

(Please bring over a chair; Your Excellency is not yet "big" enough to reach the shelf)

大人 can also be used to refer to adults/grown ups in contrast to 小孩 (young kids), so Myriel making fun of how he's not "big" enough yet reminds me of how he's said to have "the laugh of a schoolboy". So many different references!