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by Marilyn Green Faulkner

  Can a Work of Art Change Your Life?

  Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo

  Les Miserables, the great national novel of France and Victor Hugo’s masterpiece, is a unique work of art that has touched millions of hearts, inspired various theatrical adaptations, and even spawned a religious movement of its own. This saga of one man’s journey from sin to sanctification is both unapologetically sentimental and brutally realistic. The grotesque is coupled with the sublime, and spiritual epiphanies are reported with the same journalistic detail as battle scenes. The novel strives to represent the complete life of a spiritual man, with both seen and unseen forces at work.

  Victor Hugo was always active politically, and as a result he was often in trouble with the government, and spent nearly twenty years in exile in Brussels. In 1861, while still an expatriate, he resumed work on a novel he had begun two decades before. Working feverishly, standing at a desk with a cup of hot chocolate beside him each day, he completed the 1200-page work in fourteen months. In a remarkable marketing effort, he arranged to have the book translated into English the same year it was published in France. (C.E. Wilbur’s translation still stands as the definitive Les Miserables) The double release added to the great popularity of the work. Panned by critics for its sentimentality and condemned by government representatives for its harsh criticism of the legal system, the novel found an immediate place in the hearts of people everywhere.

  Synopsis

  Jean Val Jean (a true “everyman’s” name) is a simple laborer who steals a loaf of bread to feed his sister’s children. For this he is sent to prison, and his repeated attempts to escape result in nineteen years at grinding labor, only to be released with the dreaded “yellow passport” that ensures his rejection from every inn and workplace. His fate, however, is not unavoidably tragic (as later more realistic novels would have painted this scenario) because in this story there are heavenly forces at work to save Val Jean. God intervenes to save his soul through a humble priest that Val Jean has robbed, and as a result Val Jean becomes a new man. In his new guise he becomes a successful businessman, a mayor, and then once again a criminal when he steps forward to reveal his past in order to save an innocent man. He adopts the orphan child of a factory worker he had inadvertently harmed, and devotes his life to her care. Throughout the story, Val Jean is pursued by a relentless minister of justice named Javert. Their struggle, played out against the backdrop of the French revolution, forms the action of the novel. The private spiritual journey of one man is placed against the public history of a nation embroiled in a revolution (inspired by our own) that seesawed back and forth between monarchy and republic.

  What Makes it Great?

  Les Miserables poses two fundamental questions: First, can man really change for the better? Second, will society as it exists aid, abet, or even allow such change? Hugo’s answers are respectively yes, and no. His goals for the work were nothing if not ambitious, as expressed in the introduction:

  “So long as there shall exist, by reason of law and custom, a social condemnation which, in the midst of civilization, artificially creates a hell on earth, and complicates with human fatality a destiny that is divine; so long as the three problems of the century—the degradation of man by the exploitation of his labor, the ruin of women by starvation, and the atrophy 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 still broader point of view, so long as ignorance and misery remain on earth, there should be a need for books such as this.” (Preface)

  There are so many layers to this novel that it is challenging to approach it critically. One of its most interesting facets is the use of the physical settings to portray the spiritual struggles of the characters. The physical settings careen up and down, like a roller coaster, in a mirror of his spiritual journey. Val Jean travels from the tops of trees where he works as a pruner to the depths of the streets where he hides in flight, then back up into the welcoming arms of the Bishop who transforms his life. Later he sinks from the height of prosperity into labor on a ship’s galley.

  Did You Know?

  Hugo spent nearly twenty years in exile in Brussels, and during this time he searched for a spiritual philosophy that incorporated his firm faith in God and his passion for social justice and reform. He consulted spiritualists and spent many sessions with mediums, attempting to “channel” the spirits of great figures of the past. There is currently a sect of Buddhism, called Cao Dai, which originated in Vietnam and is based on the writings of Hugo during this period. They believe that Hugo and his two sons return to earth as reincarnated beings occasionally. There are over two thousand temples and millions of followers of this strange faith, another illustration of the tremendous impact of Hugo’s work.

  He then climbs to the top of the riggings to rescue a sailor, then plunges back into the sea, into a new death, to begin yet another life in exile. Another time, fleeing the relentless Javert (ultimate symbol of blind justice) he climbs straight up a wall, and then drops into the safety of a convent. Later he descends into a coffin to make an escape.

  The pattern of rising and falling is repeated over and over throughout the narrative, and with each incarnation Val Jean strips away more of his benighted, bitter, carnal self and takes on the image the of Master he has vowed to serve. The climactic moment in the novel is symbolic of the death and resurrection of Christ, as Val Jean carries his future son-in-law into the depths of the sewers of Paris, then brings him forth, raising him to life. This final, selfless act completes his progression, as he gives all to save one who will take from him his only joy, his daughter Cosette.

  The tremendous physicality of Hugo’s writing is one of the reasons we respond to it; it reaches us on a visceral level. Hugo, like Dickens and Dumas, was a visual writer, cinematic (long before cinema existed) as well as literary. People don’t just talk in this novel, there is always something happening. It was this combination of inner and outer drama, no doubt, that inspired Alain Boubil and Claude-Michel Schoenberg to create their rock-opera, Les Miserables, which has been performed more times than any musical in history. Faithful to the spirit of the work, it strives to portray the inner struggle of the man as well as the action of the novel, and succeeds beautifully.

  The Making of a Masterpiece

  By showing the redemption of one man Hugo strives to convince us that redemption for the human race is possible, and that social justice is the first essential step toward that possibility. As the novel draws to a close, Hugo makes its central focus crystal clear:

  “The book which the reader has now before his eyes is, from one end to the other, in its whole and in its details, whatever may be the intermissions, the exceptions, or the defaults, the march from evil to good, from injustice to justice, from the false to the true, from night to day, from appetite to conscience, from rottenness to life, from brutality to duty, from Hell to Heaven, from nothingness to God. Starting point: matter; goal: the soul. Hydra at the beginning, angel at the end . . .” (1242)

  Though its themes are universal, this is definitely a novel in, of and about Paris, and love for the city and its inhabitants is part of its essence. Whenever possible Hugo roots the action in the city he loves, whether he evokes the beauty of a spring day or describes the unique personality traits of its inhabitants:

  “That day was sunshine from start to finish. All nature seemed to be on a vacation. The flower beds and lawns of Saint-Cloud were balmy with perfume; the breeze from the Seine vaguely stirred the leaves; the boughs were gesticulating in the wind; the bees were pillaging the jasmine; a whole bohemian crew of butterflies had settled in the yarrow, clover, and wild oats. The stately park of the King of France was invaded by a swarm of vagabonds, the birds.” (p. 127)

  “The Parisian is to Frenchmen what the Athenian was to Greeks: Nobody sleeps better than he, nobody is more frivolous and idle than he, nobody seems to forget things more easily than he; b
ut best not trust him nonetheless; he has adapted to all sorts of indolence, but when there is glory to be gained, he is wondrous at every kind of fury.” (p. 131-132)

  War Within and Without

  The action of the novel takes place within the context of the revolutions that shook France over several years. Val Jean finds himself embroiled in battle more than once, and the pitched conflicts on the barricades mirror the internal battles that he fights and wins. Hugo explains:

  “Life, misfortunes, isolation, abandonment, poverty, are battlefields that have their heroes; obscure heroes, sometimes greater than the illustrious heroes.” (p. 679)

  The tumultuous times in which the tale is set make the narrative thrilling on its own; we would be entertained merely with the amount of action involved. However, Hugo’s ambitious attempt to portray a truly good man holds us spellbound. As he is relentlessly pursued by Javert, we wonder how much Val Jean can suffer before his integrity gives way. His sweet relationship with his adopted daughter Cosette reveals more weaknesses, as he struggles with a jealous desire to keep her for himself and a more generous desire to have her experience a life separate from his. Hugo takes this opportunity to give us a sweet love story with Marius and Cosette, who remind us that love always brings hope in its wake. His descriptions of the gorgeous couple are unabashedly romantic:

  “They were living in that ravishing condition that might be called the dazzling of one soul by another.” (p. 1004)

  “Love almost replaces thought. Love is a burning forgetfulness of everything else.” (p. 1009)

  “Marius and Cosette did not ask where this would lead them. They looked at themselves as arrived. It is a strange pretension for men to ask that love should lead them somewhere.” (p. 1010)

  In stark contrast to the self-questioning Val Jean and the star-struck lovers is the orthodox Javert, a man committed to justice above all else. As Val Jean’s unselfish goodness impresses itself upon him, he is unable to reconcile it with his life view. He is destroyed, not by evil, nor by good, but by uncertainty about which is which:

  “Before him he saw two roads, both equally straight; but he did see two; and that terrified him—he who had never in his life known anything but one straight line. And, bitter anguish, these two roads were contradictory.” (p. 1320)

  “Javert’s ideal was not to be humane, not to be great, not to be sublime; it was to be irreproachable. Now he had just failed.” (p. 1324)

  Val Jean is foiled at every turn, yet triumphs. Javert continually triumphs over him, yet fails. Cosette and Marius find true love, yet in their selfish preoccupation with each other they neglect the father that brought them together. What is it about this story that so captivates us? I think it is the very size of the thing; the novel is big, the emotion is over the top, the spiritual dimension is deep and the scope of the story encompasses a wide swath of human history. Hugo put it all in here, and we love it. Through the suffering and redemption of one man Hugo reminded a nation, “He who does not weep does not see.” (p. 1220)

  Quotations taken from Les Miserables. Signet Classics Edition, London. 1987.

  Talk About It

  In what ways does Jean Val Jean teach his newly found values to Cosette, or does he? Does the comfortable, cushioned lifestyle we create for our children keep them from developing character?

  About the Author: Victor Hugo

  Victor Hugo’s life was even more dramatic than his novels. He was born in 1802. His father, a general in Napoleon’s army separated from his mother when he was very young, and his mother took her three sons to live in Paris. Victor fell in love with the girl next door, Adele Foucher, and married her after the death of his mother, who opposed the match. His brother Eugene also desperately loved the girl, and flew into a psychotic rage at their wedding. He spent the rest of his life in an institution. After the births of their four children, Adele refused to live with Hugo as man and wife any longer, and began a relationship with his best friend. Hugo took a mistress, Juliette Drouet, who remained his companion for the next fifty years. (The morals of this family were so decidedly “French” that when Hugo fled to Brussels as a political exile, he took the wife, the family, and the mistress along with him!)

  Hugo was a devoted father, and was devastated by the death of his daughter, pregnant with his grandchild, and her husband in a boating accident soon after their marriage. His other daughter survived the accident but suffered mental damage. He lived to see her committed to an institution and to watch both of his sons die within three years of each other. Hugo was active in the government and served in the legislature, and was most famous for his poetry and plays. His masterwork was not published until he was sixty years old, but it was an instant success.

  Hugo finally returned to Paris in 1870 and received a hero’s welcome. When he died in 1885 at the age of 83, two million Frenchmen passed by his coffin under the Arch de Triomphe. He was buried in the Pantheon, the first of a series of cultural heroes to be entombed there. June 1 was declared a national day of mourning and in 1902, on the centenary of his birth, the Maison de Victor Hugo museum was opened in the apartment where he had once lived and worked.

  Source: Wikipedia

  A Man Without Guile:

  The Warden, by Anthony Trollope

  In the summer of 1851, Anthony Trollope visited the Salisbury Cathedral. Though he was living comfortably in Ireland with a secure job as a mid-level official in the Postal Service, with a wife and two sons, he was not a happy man. For him, his provincial existence was a prison, and he longed to raise his station in life.

  But Trollope had a plan for escape. His chaotic upbringing—a series of catastrophes induced by his father’s many financial failures—had been devastating, but also suggested a means of advancing his fortunes. When his family was forced to flee to France to escape their debts, his mother had supported the family by her writing, and Trollope decided that if she could do it, so could he. Determined to succeed as a novelist, he set a goal to write a certain amount every day, and adhered to it with remarkable tenacity. (By the end of his life, he completed 47 novels, several plays and an autobiography.) The first three novels were miserable failures. Then, while on a trip to Salisbury, Trollope toured the cathedral and conceived of the idea for a novel about a clergyman, that would explore what happens when a good man becomes mired in a corrupt system (in this case, the Anglican church.) In 1855, Trollope published The Warden, his first successful novel and his first attempt to write about a “truly good man.” It was the first in a series of novels that made Trollope famous and established him as one of the premier novelists of his time.

  Synopsis

  The Warden is the first novel in Trollope’s series called the Chronicles of Barsetshire. The story revolves around the Reverend Septimus Harding, who is the warden of Hiram’s Hospital, a charity home for twelve elderly pensioners. For four hundred years the charity hospital has been funded by the estate on which it stands. Over the years the estate has become so profitable that the warden has a generous salary, which allows Reverend Harding to raise his daughters in comfort and ease. Harding’s younger daughter is in love with John Bold, a young doctor who begins a campaign against the hospital because he thinks it is a part of a corrupt system that enriches church leaders at the expense of the poor.

  Did You Know?

  Though The Warden appears to be a tame tale about a humble cleric, it takes a humorous shot at nearly everyone. Basically, Trollope is satirizing the power of the church, reformers, the tabloid press, and the power of the sensational novelists of the time—especially Charles Dickens (referred to as “Mr. Popular Sentiment”). Throughout his novels, Trollope uses hilarious and thinly veiled pseudonyms. Besides Mr. Popular Sentiment, The Warden includes characters called Rev. Quiverful and Sir Abraham Haphazard.

  Harding’s other daughter is married to the Archdeacon Grantly, who eagerly wages a battle against the young doctor, which eventually reaches the national press. Reverend Harding’s patients begin to
distrust him and he, a very sensitive man, begins to feel doubt about his position and then guilt. Eventually he resigns his position, and although his daughter persuades Bold to drop his opposition, the hospital is neglected. Without the care of their warden, the old pensioners seem to be the real losers in the “moral crusade,” but Rev. Harding feels peaceful as he leaves his home. He has been true to his conscience.

  What Makes it Great?

  One of the most prolific writers of his time, Anthony Trollope had his finger on the pulse of Victorian society. His descriptions of everyday life are so detailed and ingenious that through them we have entry into a world now closed to us. Trollope’s novels are invariably filled with social settings; parties, balls, and dinners. Yet each seems to have as a contrast a lonely, struggling individual, often ostracized from the very society Trollope describes so well. The juxtaposition of these two realities creates the tension and accounts for much of the genius in Trollope’s work. Critic Robyn Gilmour writes: “Just as contemporaries found in Trollope the man a sensitive nature and feeling heart beneath the bluff, gregarious manner, so the reader of his novels soon becomes accustomed to moving from the comic outer action of the densely realized community to the inner action of the solitary individual.” (The Warden, Penguin Classics Edition, xiii.)

  Like Hugo, Trollope has a poetic sense of setting, and reflects the inner struggles of his hero with the outer landscape of his environment. When Dr. Harding imagines leaving his lovely home, his thoughts run in the course of nature:

  “It was so hard that the pleasant waters of his little stream should be disturbed and muddied by rough hands; that his quiet paths should be made a battlefield; that the unobtrusive corner of the world which had been allotted to him, as though by Providence, should be invaded and desecrated, and all within it made miserable and unsound.” (45)