LES MISÉRABLES BY VICTOR HUGO PART PREMIER FANTINE AUTHORIZED TRANSLATION BY SIR LASCELLES WRAXALL. _BOSTON:_ LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. 1887 [Illustration: VICTOR HUGO (1828)] PUBLISHERS' PREFACE. The present edition of "LES MISÉRABLES," in five volumes, has been made with the special object of supplying the work in a proper form for library use, embodying the two great requisites, clear type and handy size. It is in the main a reprint of the English translation, in three volumes, by Sir Lascelles Wraxall, which was made with the sanction and advice of the author. Chapters and passages omitted in the English edition have been specially translated for the present issue; numerous errors of the press, etc., have been corrected; and the author's own arrangement of the work in five parts, and his subdivisions into books and chapters, have been restored. BOSTON, _Sept_. 1, 1887. PREFACE So long as, by the effect of laws and of customs, social degradation shall continue in the midst of civilization, making artificial hells, and subjecting to the complications of chance the divine destiny of man; so long as the three problems of the age,--the debasement of man by the proletariat, the ruin of woman by the force of hunger, the destruction of children in the darkness,--shall not be solved; so long as anywhere social syncope shall be possible: in other words, and from a still broader point of view, so long as ignorance and misery shall remain on earth, books like this cannot fail to be useful. HAUTEVILLE-HOUSE, 1862. TABLE OF CONTENTS. FANTINE. BOOK I. A JUST MAN. I. M. MYRIEL II. M. MYRIEL BECOMES MONSEIGNEUR WELCOME III. A GOOD BISHOP AND A HARD BISHOPRIC IV. WORKS RESEMBLING WORDS V. MONSEIGNEUR'S CASSOCKS LAST TOO LONG VI. BY WHOM THE HOUSE WAS GUARDED VII. CRAVATTE VIII. PHILOSOPHY AFTER DRINKING IX. THE BROTHER DESCRIBED BY THE SISTER X. THE BISHOP FACES A NEW LIGHT XI. A RESTRICTION XII. MONSEIGNEUR'S SOLITUDE XIII. WHAT HE BELIEVED XIV. WHAT HE THOUGHT BOOK II THE FALL. I. THE CLOSE OF A DAY'S MARCH II. PRUDENCE RECOMMENDED TO WISDOM III. THE HEROISM OF PASSIVE OBEDIENCE IV. CHEESEMAKING AT PONTARLIER V. TRANQUILLITY VI. JEAN VALJEAN VII. A DESPERATE MAN'S HEART VIII. THE WAVE AND THE DARKNESS IX. NEW WRONGS X. THE MAN AWAKE XI. WHAT HE DID XII. THE BISHOP AT WORK XIII. LITTLE GERVAIS BOOK III. IN THE YEAR 1817. I. THE YEAR 1817 II. A DOUBLE QUARTETTE III. FOUR TO FOUR IV. THOLOMYÈS SINGS A SPANISH SONG V. AT BOMBARDA'S VI. IN WHICH PEOPLE ADORE EACH OTHER VII. THE WISDOM OF THOLOMYÈS VIII. THE DEATH OF A HORSE IX. THE JOYOUS END OF JOY BOOK IV. TO CONFIDE IS SOMETIMES TO ABANDON. I. TWO MOTHERS MEET II. A SKETCH OF TWO UGLY FACES III. THE LARK BOOK V. THE DESCENT.