Marius and the Middle: More from Les Miserables

I am still reading Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (Julie Rose translation).  I have just finished Part III on Marius.  Here are a few of my favorite passages.

"Misery is like anything else.  It reaches the point where it is bearable.  It ensues up taking shape and assuming form."  (p. 562)

"Misery, we will say again, had been good for him.  Poverty in youth, when it succeeds, has this magnificent effect:  It turns the whole will toward effort and the whole soul towards aspiration.  Poverty immediately pares down the material life and makes it hideous; hence those inexpressible yearnings for the ideal life.  The rich young man has a hundred brilliant and vulgar distractions, the horse races, hunting, dogs, smoking, gambling, wining and dining, and the rest; occupations for the nether regions of the should at the expense of the higher and more delicate regions.  The poor young man has to toil for his daily bread; he eats, and when he has eaten all he can do is dream.  He gets in for nothing to the show God puts on for him; he looks at the sky, space, the stars, the flowers, children, humanity among whom he suffers, creation in which he shines.  He looks so hard at humanity, he sees its soul; he looks so hard at creation, he sees God." (p. 565-6)

"When his job is done, he returns to ineffable ecstasies, to contemplations, to sheer delights; he lives with his feet in affliction, in impediment, on the cobblestones, in the brambles, sometimes in the mud, but with his head in the light.  He is strong, serene, gentle, peaceful, attentive, serious, content with little, benevolent; and he praises God for having given him these two riches that are lacking in many of the rich: work, which makes him free, and thought, which makes him worthy."  (p. 566)

I love that last line.  As the great-great-granddaughter of pioneer women from Minnesota, I like the idea of work making you free.  Having just wrapped up a full-time volunteer job last year, I am struggling with idle time.  While I am looking forward to finding a new endeavor, I am having a hard time waiting.  I don't like being between or being in a cocoon waiting to come out.

"To be between two religions, one you have not yet emerged from, the other you have not yet embraced, is unbearable; and such gloomy half-light only appeals to bat like souls.  Marius was open-eyed and he needed real light.   The crepuscular* light of doubt hurt him.  Whatever his desire to stay put and to hold out, he was invincibly compelled to move on, to advance, to examine, to think, to go one step further."  (p. 557)

It appears Marius was not a big fan of the middle parts of life, the parts between here and there.  I feel like I am in the twilight, not in terms of approaching death, but not certain what the next few months will contain, let alone the next few years.

I read in the footnotes that Marius most resembles Hugo himself in terms of biography.   I thought that was interesting.  While I know Hugo didn't steal a loaf of bread and go to prison for 19 years, I would have thought Hugo most like the mighty Jean Valjean.

* Crepuscular is one of my daughter's favorite words.
crepuscular |krəˈpəskyələr|
adjectiveof, resembling, or relating to twilight.• Zoology (of an animal) appearing or active in twilight.