Les Misérables - Volume II - Cosette

Classic from the year 2009 in the subject French Studies - Literature language: English abstract: BOOK SIXTH - LE PETIT-PICPUS***CHAPTER I. NUMBER 62 RUE PETIT-PICPUS***Nothing half a century ago more resembled every other carriage gate than the carriage gate of Number 62 Rue Petit-Picpus. This entrance which usually stood ajar in the most inviting fashion permitted a view of two things neither of which have anything very funereal about them--a courtyard surrounded by walls hung with vines and the face of a lounging porter. Above the wall at the bottom of the court tall trees were visible. When a ray of sunlight enlivened the courtyard when a glass of wine cheered up the porter it was difficult to pass Number 62 Little Picpus Street without carrying away a smiling impression of it. Nevertheless it was a sombre place of which one had had a glimpse.[...]***BOOK SEVENTH. PARENTHESIS***CHAPTER I. THE CONVENT AS AN ABSTRACT IDEA****This book is a drama whose leading personage is the Infinite.Man is the second.Such being the case and a convent having happened to be on our road it has been our duty to enter it. Why? Because the convent which is common to the Orient as well as to the Occident to antiquity as well as to modern times to paganism to Buddhism to Mahometanism as well as to Christianity is one of the optical apparatuses applied by man to the Infinite.This is not the place for enlarging disproportionately on certain ideas; nevertheless while absolutely maintaining our reserves our restrictions and even our indignations we must say that every time we encounter man in the Infinite either well or ill understood we feel ourselves overpowered with respect. There is in the synagogue in the mosque in the pagoda in the wigwam a hideous side which we execrate and a sublime side which we adore. What a contemplation for the mind and what endless food for thought is the reverberation of God upon the human wall![...]