Les Misérables' Victor Hugo: 10 quotes on his birthday

In France, Victor Hugo is today most cherished as a poet. But in the English-speaking world of 2013, he is certainly best known as the author of 'Les Misérables' – the novel from Tom Hooper's Oscar-winning 2012 film was adapted. A political firebrand in his time, Hugo left France in 1852 (after Napoleon III's coup), landing on the island of Guernesy in 1855 and remaining there for almost 20 years. He finally returned to his homeland in 1870. He was welcomed as a hero. For the next 15 years, Hugo continued to champion the rights of the downtrodden in society – even requesting that he be buried in a pauper's coffin. This request was granted, though he was also given a national funeral and buried as a hero in the Pantheon. 

1. What fame brings

Fame must have enemies, as light must have gnats.

From Villemain

1 of 10

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.