Les Misérables

by Victor Hugo

In fact, when the scaffold is there, all erected and prepared, it has something about it which produces hallucination. One may feel a certain indifference to the death penalty, one may refrain from pronouncing upon it, from saying yes or no, so long as one has not seen a guillotine with one's own eyes: but if one encounters one of them, the shock is violent; one is forced to decide, and to take part for or against. Some admire it, like de Maistre; others execrate it, like Beccaria. The guillotine is the concretion of the law; it is called vindicte; it is not neutral, and it does not permit you to remain neutral. He who sees it shivers with the most mysterious of shivers. All social problems erect their interrogation point around this chopping-knife. The scaffold is a vision. The scaffold is not a piece of carpentry; the scaffold is not a machine; the scaffold is not an inert bit of mechanism constructed of wood, iron and cords.

as I already know the impact execution had on the writer, I was looking forward to it's first entry kin the book. I was not disappointed . This entry was profound and the last few pages have been nothing but a delight.

But you are good-natured princes, and you do not think it a bad thing that belief in the good God should constitute the philosophy of the people, very much as the goose stuffed with chestnuts is the truffled turkey of the poor."

Iike these cheeky banters . Through these lines, the writer is showing the amazing character and charm of the bishop. Like the different world charm.

"I shall die while he sleeps. The two slumbers may be good neighbors."

Beautiful line. Loving the writing style of this book so far.

For the masses, success has almost the same profile as supremacy.

Liberation is not deliverance. One gets free from the galleys, but not from the sentence.

This book is increasingly becoming more and more dramatic in its writing. There are so many lines which are so beautiful.