Nine Lives

In Les Misérables, Jean Valjean saves at least nine people: two children in Montreuil-sur-Mer from a fire; Fauchelevent from being crushed to death by a cart; Cosette from her troubled life with the Thénardiers; Fantine…

This Is, Because That Is

It seemed as though he dared not kneel directly before God. Everything around him, this quiet garden, these balmy flowers, these children, shouting with joy, these  meek and simple women, this silent cloister, gradually entered…

Availability

Not a door in the house had a lock. The door of the dining-room which, we have mentioned, opened into the cathedral grounds, was formerly loaded with bars and bolts like the door of a…

Today’s One-Liner (#47)

 When he had money his visits were to the  poor; when he had none, he visited the rich.  –On Monseigneur Bienvenu, in Victor Hugo, Les Misérables, 1.1.5

A Briiliant Bit of Victor Hugo

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…