Sublime

The natural light was burning within him. Misfortune, which also has its illumination, added to the faint glow that existed in his mind. Under the whip, under the chain, in the cell, in fatigue, under the searing sun of the galleys, on the convict’s plank bed, he turned inward to his own conscience, and he thought things over.

À Paris, la cohue de la capitale, la course perpétuelle ou encore les amours inutiles permettaient de couvrir tout bruissement. Bien sûr, il restait les heures creuses de la nuit pour le ressusciter, et il arrivait à Émile de se faire surprendre parfois par une pensée ou un souvenir. Le temps d’écrire à nouveau.

She would have softened a heart of granite; but you cannot soften a heart of wood.

“Inspector Javert,” replied M. Madeleine, “the highest justice is conscience. I have heard this woman’s story. I know what I’m doing.”

Jean Valjean had been dazzled with the idea of liberty, had believed in a new life. He soon saw what sort of liberty comes with a yellow passport.

She had made a mistake, but, deep down, we know she was modest and virtuous. She had a vague feeling of being on the brink of danger, of slipping into the streets. She had to have courage; she had it, and continued bravely.

Mais vous ne vous rendez vraiment compte de rien, s'écria Étienne en s'arrêtant brusquement. Au milieu de tant de gens pourris, de gens qui courent seulement après leur ambition, leur argent ou leur sexe, voilà deux êtres qui sont comme deux exilés. Ils se rencontrent et ils s'aiment, et ils sont heureux l'un par l'autre. Et puis ils réunissent tou

Two seats of slavery; but, in the former, rescue possible, a legal limit always in view, and also, escape. In the second, perpetuity, the only hope at the furthest reaches of the future, that gleam of liberty which men call death. In the first, the captives were chained by chains alone; in the other, chained by faith.