One month ago I started reading Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables (translated by Isabel F. Hapgood). Not only is this novel inspiring me to become a better man, it has amped up my prayer life, rekindled my poetry, and has easily become the greatest source of joy in my life. That being said, I leave you with the preface as an appetizer.
So long as there shall exist, by virtue of law and custom, decrees of damnation pronounced by society, artificially creating hells amid the civilization of earth, and adding the element of human fate to divine destiny; so long as the three great problems of the century–the degradation of man through pauperism, the corruption of woman through hunger, the crippling of children through lack of light–are unsolved; so long as social asphyxia is possible in any part of the world–in other words, and with a still wider significance, so long as ignorance and poverty exist on earth, books of the nature of Les Miserables cannot fail to be of use.
Whether I share more or not as I read has yet to be determined. All I can say now is, there are many occasions where I have to put the book down and pause to take in a masterfully written moment. Oh the power of words!
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Aaron, I love the way you write.
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I read this book (unabridged) in 2015. The musical led me to read the book: I used the musical to motivate me to never give and to understand what was going on despite some difference such as character differences. I wrote in songs and was able to pick on major characters and stuff like that.
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The musical is what drove me to read (in process) the unabridged book as well. : )
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