My friend Andrew Wimmer has taken on a translation of Hugo’s Les Misérables. He shared the following in this morning’s email…
“If it had not rained on the night of June 17, 1815, the future of Europe would have been different. A few drops more or less tipped the balance against Napoleon. For Waterloo to be the end of Austerlitz, Providence needed only a little rain, and an unseasonable cloud crossing the sky was enough for the collapse of a world.”
Hugo goes on to say that since Napolean’s strategy relied on artillery, and since it had rained the night before and they had to wait until late in the morning for the ground to dry enough to support the cannon, the course of the battle, and so, history, was changed.
I can only imagine what he would have to say about global climate change.
