Volume I, Book 1, Chapter 1
Introduces Monseigneur Bienvenu Myriel, the Bishop of Digne, whose goodness defines the novel's ethical center.
Read in Books4Free →Opening Passage
From Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
The novel opens not with Valjean but with an extended portrait of Bishop Myriel, establishing the moral framework against which all subsequent action will be measured.
Author's Preface (1862)
Hugo's famous prefatory declaration: 'So long as there shall exist, by reason of law and custom, a social condemnation...books like this cannot be useless.'
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