CHAPTER II—WHAT IS TO BE DONE IN THE ABYSS IF ONE DOES NOT CONVERSE

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• Les Misérables   FOOTNOTES:

  1 (return) [ Patois of the French Alps: chat de maraude, rascally marauder.] 2 (return) [ Liège: a cork-tree. Pau: a jest on peau, skin.] 3 (return) [ She belonged to that circle where cuckoos and carriages share the same fate; and a jade herself, she lived, as jades live, for the space of a morning (or jade).] 4 (return) [ An ex-convict.] 5 (return) [ This parenthesis is due to Jean Valjean.] 6 (return) [ A bullet as large as an egg.] 7 (return) [ Walter Scott, Lamartine, Vaulabelle, Charras, Quinet, Thiers.] 8 (return) [ This is the inscription:— 9 (return) [ A heavy rifled gun.] 10 (return) [ “A battle terminated, a day finished, false measures repaired, greater successes assured for the morrow,—all was lost by a moment of panic, terror.”—Napoleon, Dictées de Sainte Hélène.] 11 (return) [ Five winning numbers in a lottery] 12 (return) [ Literally “made cuirs”; i. e., pronounced a t or an s at the end of words where the opposite

• Les Misérables    LETTER TO M. DAELLI

  Publisher of the Italian translation of Les Misérables in Milan.You are right, sir, when you tell me that Les Misérables is written for all nations. I do not know whether it will be read by all, but I wrote it for all. It is addressed to England as well as to Spain, to Italy as well as to France, to Germany as well as to Ireland, to Republics which have slaves as well as to Empires which have serfs. Social problems overstep frontiers. The sores of the human race, those great sores which cover the globe, do not halt at the red or blue lines traced upon the map. In every place where man is ignorant and despairing, in every place where woman is sold for bread, wherever the child suffers for lack of the book which should instruct him and of the hearth which should warm him, the book of Les Misérables knocks at the door and says: “Open to me, I come for you.”At the hour of civilization through which we are now passing, and which is still so sombre, the miserable’s name is Man; he is ago

• Les Misérables    CHAPTER VI—THE GRASS COVERS AND THE RAIN EFFACES

  In the cemetery of Pere-Lachaise, in the vicinity of the common grave, far from the elegant quarter of that city of sepulchres, far from all the tombs of fancy which display in the presence of eternity all the hideous fashions of death, in a deserted corner, beside an old wall, beneath a great yew tree over which climbs the wild convolvulus, amid dandelions and mosses, there lies a stone. That stone is no more exempt than others from the leprosy of time, of dampness, of the lichens and from the defilement of the birds. The water turns it green, the air blackens it. It is not near any path, and people are not fond of walking in that direction, because the grass is high and their feet are immediately wet. When there is a little sunshine, the lizards come thither. All around there is a quivering of weeds. In the spring, linnets warble in the trees.This stone is perfectly plain. In cutting it the only thought was the requirements of the tomb, and no other care was taken than to make the

• Les Misérables    CHAPTER V—A NIGHT BEHIND WHICH THERE IS DAY

  Jean Valjean turned round at the knock which he heard on his door.“Come in,” he said feebly.The door opened.Cosette and Marius made their appearance.Cosette rushed into the room.Marius remained on the threshold, leaning against the jamb of the door.“Cosette!” said Jean Valjean.And he sat erect in his chair, his arms outstretched and trembling, haggard, livid, gloomy, an immense joy in his eyes.Cosette, stifling with emotion, fell upon Jean Valjean’s breast.“Father!” said she.Jean Valjean, overcome, stammered:“Cosette! she! you! Madame! it is thou! Ah! my God!”And, pressed close in Cosette’s arms, he exclaimed:“It is thou! thou art here! Thou dost pardon me then!”Marius, lowering his eyelids, in order to keep his tears from flowing, took a step forward and murmured between lips convulsively contracted to repress his sobs:“My father!”“And you also, you pardon me!” Jean Valjean said to him.Marius could find no words, and Jean Valjean added:“Thanks.”Co

• Les Misérables    CHAPTER IV—A BOTTLE OF INK WHICH ONLY SUCCEEDED IN WHITENING

  That same day, or to speak more accurately, that same evening, as Marius left the table, and was on the point of withdrawing to his study, having a case to look over, Basque handed him a letter saying: “The person who wrote the letter is in the antechamber.”Cosette had taken the grandfather’s arm and was strolling in the garden.A letter, like a man, may have an unprepossessing exterior. Coarse paper, coarsely folded—the very sight of certain missives is displeasing.The letter which Basque had brought was of this sort.Marius took it. It smelled of tobacco. Nothing evokes a memory like an odor. Marius recognized that tobacco. He looked at the superscription: “To Monsieur, Monsieur le Baron Pommerci. At his hotel.” The recognition of the tobacco caused him to recognize the writing as well. It may be said that amazement has its lightning flashes.Marius was, as it were, illuminated by one of these flashes.The sense of smell, that mysterious aid to memory, had just revived a whol

• Les Misérables    CHAPTER III—A PEN IS HEAVY TO THE MAN WHO LIFTED THE FAUCHELEVENT’S CART

  One evening Jean Valjean found difficulty in raising himself on his elbow; he felt of his wrist and could not find his pulse; his breath was short and halted at times; he recognized the fact that he was weaker than he had ever been before. Then, no doubt under the pressure of some supreme preoccupation, he made an effort, drew himself up into a sitting posture and dressed himself. He put on his old workingman’s clothes. As he no longer went out, he had returned to them and preferred them. He was obliged to pause many times while dressing himself; merely putting his arms through his waistcoat made the perspiration trickle from his forehead.Since he had been alone, he had placed his bed in the antechamber, in order to inhabit that deserted apartment as little as possible.He opened the valise and drew from it Cosette’s outfit.He spread it out on his bed.The Bishop’s candlesticks were in their place on the chimney-piece. He took from a drawer two wax candles and put them in the can