So, I read Les Miserables about a year and a half ago now and I know that it's a book that won't leave me easily. Well, I was restocking my bookshelf earlier today and found a 3 volume set of Les Mis that my mother picked up for me who knows where. Turns out it's an 1862 edition that, if it were not falling apart, might be worth something. Next time I have 500-1000 dollars floating about, I might get them rebound. For now I'll share the Preface, which I guess is from the editor of the Hauteville House in 1862. Or it may be from Hugo, who know?
So long as there shall exist, by reason of law and custom, a social condemnation, which, in the face of civilization, artificially creates hells on earth and complicates a destiny that is divine with human fatality; so long as the three problems of the age - the degredation of man by poverty, the ruin of woman by starvation, and the dwarfing of childhood by physical and spiritual night - are not solved; so long as, in certain regions, social asphyxia shall be possible; in other words, and from a yet more extended point of view, so long as ignorance and misery remain on earth, books like this can not be useless.
And people wonder why I'm an english major.
Wow. I should research before I write. I don't have an 1862 copy...that was just the first publishing date. It's more likely it's the late 19th cen range...but it includes the one of the first Les Mis Cosette illustrations, which is cool. Also, Hauteville house isn't a publishing company, but where Victor Hugo was around the time Les mis was published. So, the preface is Victor Hugo direct, which is still pretty cool!
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