INTRODUCTION

Les Misérables^ fîrst published in 1862, bas been styled the greatest novel of the century. This is saying a great deal, yet it is not saying ail. For we hâve hère not only a great, but a gôod book, inasmuch as it is pervaded by, and imparts to the reader, the beneficent glow of sympathy with sufiering mankind, together with moral indignation at the inequity and injustice of many of our social institutions, and focuses ail the humane instincts of the âge.

" Tant qu^ il existera^ says the author in his préface, **/ar le fait des lois et des mœurs, une damnation sociale créant artificiellement, en pleine civilisation, des enfers, et compliquant cTune fatalité humaine la destinée qui est divine; tant que les trois problèmes du siècle, la dégradation de P homme par le prolétariat, la déchéance de la femme par la faim, V atrophie de V enfant par la nuit, ne seront pas résolus ; tant que, dans de certaines régions, Vasphyxie sociale sera possible i en d^ autres termes, et à un point de vue plus étendu encore, tant qu^ily aura sur la terre ignorance et misère, des livres de la fiature de celui-ci pourront ne pas être inutiles. '^'^

Les Misérables is a work of faith and charity, a gospel of humanity.

The very first Book, headed Un Juste, at once strikes this keynote. It gives an elaborate portrait of the Bishop of Digne, the idéal priest. It is both touching and elevating, and leaves indelible impressions on the mind of the reader. A recapitulation, however, is not called for hère ; the only point necessary for the understanding of our fragment is that Bishop Myriel, called Monseigneur Bienvenu, after his

vi Introduction,

installation in the spacious episcopal palace, visited the hospital,

an insignifîcant building adjoining, and finding it inadéquate to the

number of its sick inmates, had them moved into his own mansion,

while he himself made his permanent abode in the hospital.

The second Book, entitled La Chute, introduces the sombre

figure of the galley-slave. Jean Valjean is, like Faust, the hero of

a great psychological drama, of which our extract is as it were the

exposition. Though brutalized by his nineteen years' confinement

and maltreatment as a convîct, though reduced to such a state of

moral dégradation and depravity that he robs his own bene£ÊU:tor,

this Soûl of Man is not beyond recovery and not beyond rédemption.

The divine spark is still, though faintly, glowing below the ashes,

and only waiting for a gentle and délicate hand that shall fan and

revive it into a bright and purifying fiame. And we are made to

see this gentle hand at work, and the resuit is Jean Valjean kneel-

ing in repentance and prayer before the Bishop's door. As we

witnessed his fall, so we now see his rise foreshadowed, and the

words —

Ein guter Mensch in seinem dunkeln Drange

Ist sich des rechten Weges wohl bewusst apply to Jean Valjean as well as to Faust.