I read an unabridged translation of Les Miserables, which means I began my experience with a fifty page meditation on a character who goes by the name “Father Bienvenu, as his parish refers to him. Father Bienvenu, the Bishop of a diocese by the time we encounter him, was impoverished by the Revolution, but remains self-sufficient if not wealthy. He devotes his life and his income to doing good in his parish, and while the character dies early in the novel, this good man’s moral and upright life sets the stage for Jean Valjean’s narrative journey.

Father Bienvenu gives Jean Valjean his first place to sleep after he completes his sentence. Valjean, we see, is rejected by all because of his convict’s yellow passport (an identification card).

Despairing of finding a place to stay, Valjean settles down to spend his night in a public square. Father Bienvenu’s. kindness isn’t immediately transformative, a cruel world has left its mark and Jean Valjean defaults to his baser side. But Father Bienvenu’s steady kindness has its intended impact, transforming Valjean into a man who strives to do good in the world throughout the narrative despite steady persecution by the judicial system and the French people, who are shaped by their imperfect society.

QOTD: What is one character in a novel who emblematizes goodness?

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I’m going to be spending some time on the sadder themes of Les Miserables, but I want to note this novel is immensely popular, and the storytelling balances the harrowing with the triumphant, so it isn’t all misery. Here are some quotes to give you a feel for the beauty of Victor Hugo’s prose.

”I will weep for the children of kings with you, if you will weep with me for the little ones of the people.”

”Be it true or false, what is said about men often has as much influence upon their lives, and especially upon their destinies, as what they do.”

”The bishop’s palace at D—was contiguous to the hospital. The palace was a spacious and beautiful edifice, built of stone near the beginning of the last century by Monseigneur Henri Pujet, a doctor of theology of the Faculty of Paris, abbé of Simore, who was bishop of D— in 1712. The palace was in truth a lordly dwelling: there was an air of grandeur about everything, the apartments of the bishop, the saloons, the chambers, court of honour, which was very large, with arched walks after the antique Florentine style, and a garden planted with magnificent trees.”

”Madame Magloire usually called him Your Greatness. One day he rose from his armchair, and went to his library for a book. It was upon one of the upper shelves, and as the bishop was rather short, he could not reach it. ‘Madame Magloire,’ said he, ‘bring me a chair. My greatness does not extend to this shelf.’”

”Liberation is not deliverance. A convict may leave the galleys behind, but not his condemnation.”

QOTD: What do you think of the prose of Victor Hugo?

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Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo, is a 1400 page novel that defies description. Originally published in serial form, I read the Everyman’s edition, which described it as the story of Jean Valjean, and insofar as his story anchors the narrative throughout, that is an accurate description.

But the novel is really epic in proportion, weaving many characters lives together while trying to capture the moment of revolution and the lead up to it.

It is a deep reflection on society and humanity, starting from a reflection on the impact that those who act selflessly can have on the community around them, the corrupting rather than reformative power of the modern carceral system, how a cruel society creates the very people it identifies as aberrations.

While its digressions can at times become tedious, the narrative overall is captivating, propulsive, and in terms of its social commentary, remains deeply relevant to our society today. Perhaps because, despite our striving, we remain in the modern era that Hugo wrote about.

I’ll be spending the next two months on this momentous novel. Come along if you like.

QOTD: Have you read Les Miserables?

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I’m sure you all have seen the TikTok debates about whether books are political or not. In the case of José Rizal and his body of work, his two novels were not only resoundingly political and anticolonial, but Rizal himself was executed by the Spanish colonial regime in the Philippines not because he was a part of the planning of the Philippine Revolution of 1896 (He was not), but because of his novels. The military claimed his novels had incited the revolution.

Imagine being such a powerful storyteller that a corrupt state decides to execute Yu on the grounds that your novels moved people to action. That is the power of storytelling and literature.

Of course, this story remains deeply resonant and relevant not only to the Philippines, but in the U.S., where efforts to ban books rage on, revealing how threatened some officials feel by the power of storytelling even as we’re told that studying literature is frivolous.

Remember José Rizal, and take some comfort in knowing the power of words and the power of communication to effect change.

There is undoubtedly more to be said about the relationship between the novel and the nation, but I’ll leave this month’s series at: I hope you’ll consider reading Rizal.

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