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A remarkable set in three volumes. Exquisitely bound by Alfred Matthews in quarter moroccan leather spine and leather tips with gilt rules; and marbled paper-covered boards. With charming filigree gilt designs, titles, and dates on the spines. Three sturdy volumes very clean and tight through with the atmospheric engravings throughout all three volumes. Extra-illustrated with 215 plates inlaid to size and with descriptions. Marbled endpapers. Top edges gilded. A beautiful and highly readable set with the glorious illustrations and the ALS by Victor Hugo. With an autographed letter signed in ink by Victory Hugo on blue laid paper. "9 X Je suis toujours garde-malade a je n ai aucun liberté l'esprit.Dans your beauté exquite, , vous me pardonne n est-ce pas, madame? Je suis toujours a tu pieds" --Victor HugoTranslation:I am still a nurse and I have no freedom of mind.In your exquisite beauty you forgive me, don t you madame?I am always at your feet. Victor Hugo Upton Sinclairdescribed the novel as "one of the half-dozen greatest novels of the world", and remarked that Hugo set forth the purpose ofLes Misérablesin thePreface: "So long as there shall exist, by reason of law and custom, a social condemnation, which, in the face of civilization, artificially creates hells on earth, and complicates a destiny that is divine with human fatality; so long as the three problems of the age the degradation of man by poverty, the ruin of women by starvation, and the dwarfing of childhood by physical and spiritual night are not solved; so long as, in certain regions, social asphyxia shall be possible; in other words, and from a yet more extended point of view, so long as ignorance and misery remain on earth, books like this cannot be useless."Towards the end of the novel, Hugo explains the work's overarching structure:[8] "The book which the reader has before him at this moment is, from one end to the other, in its entirety and details. a progress from evil to good, from injustice to justice, from falsehood to truth, from night to day, from appetite to conscience, from corruption to life; from bestiality to duty, from hell to heaven, from nothingness to God. The starting point: matter, destination: the soul. Thehydraat the beginning, the angel at the end." Les Misérables is aFrenchhistorical novelbyVictor Hugo, first published in 1862, that is considered one of the greatestnovelsof the 19th century. In the English-speaking world, the novel is usually referred to by its original French title. However, several alternatives have been used, includingThe Miserables,The Wretched,The Miserable Ones,The Poor Ones,The Wretched Poor,The VictimsandThe Dispossessed.[5]Beginning in 1815 and culminating in the 1832June RebellioninParis, the novel follows the lives and interactions of several characters, particularly the struggles of ex-convictJean Valjeanand his experience of redemption.[6]Examining the nature of law and grace, the novel elaborates upon thehistory of France, the architecture and urban design of Paris, politics,moral philosophy,antimonarchism, justice, religion, and the types and nature ofromanticand familial love.Les Misérableshas been popularized through numerousadaptationsfor film, television and the stage, including a musical. (Wikipedia) Third Edition. With "(Copyright)" and "Third Edition" printed on the title page. With "John Childs and Sons, Printers" on the verso of the title page. Seller Inventory # 1131
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