lost815

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The fandom here on Tumblr that best exemplifies this ridiculous trend that needs to sexualize every character and relationship in order for it to be relevant is Les Mis. Jean Valjean is my favorite character, not only from the novel, but also from literature. But every time I look for content about him, 8 out of 10 times I only find the ship valvert (which I find problematic in itself, but let's agree to disagree). In any case, it's frustrating not to have a variety of interpretations. To tell the truth, the vast majority of the fandom is obsessed with the young students Les Amis and the countless ships between them. I really like the guys, but it sucks to see secondary characters getting so much more attention than the more multifaceted ones. Anyway, just a rant... because in the end youth and sex always sell more. All that's left is to enjoy what the minority of the community has to offer...

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Sometimes I think about how sad it is that Gregor Samsa turned into a bug overnight but was only worried about getting to work.

And then I remember how many times I have come to work while being extremely ill or injured and I decided to mind my business.

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Victor Hugo's fathers and their adopted children:

Claude Frollo and Quasimodo:

[ Then it was that he approached the unhappy little creature, which was so hated and so menaced. That distress, that deformity, that abandonment, the thought of his young brother, the idea which suddenly occurred to him, that if he were to die, his dear little Jehan might also be flung miserably on the plank for foundlings,—all this had gone to his heart simultaneously; a great pity had moved in him, and he had carried off the child. When he removed the child from the sack, he found it greatly deformed, in very sooth. […] Claude’s compassion increased at the sight of this ugliness; and he made a vow in his heart to rear the child for the love of his brother, in order that, whatever might be the future faults of the little Jehan, he should have beside him that charity done for his sake. ]

Vol.I - Book.IV - Ch.I NOTRE-DAME DE PARIS (1831)

Jean Valjean and Cosette:

[ Jean Valjean had never loved anything; for twenty-five years he had been alone in the world. He had never been father, lover, husband, friend. […] When he saw Cosette, when he had taken possession of her, carried her off, and delivered her, he felt his heart moved within him. All the passion and affection within him awoke, and rushed towards that child. He approached the bed, where she lay sleeping, and trembled with joy. He suffered all the pangs of a mother, and he knew not what it meant; for that great and singular movement of a heart which begins to love is a very obscure and a very sweet thing. Poor old man, with a perfectly new heart! ]

Vol.II - Book.IV - Ch.III LES MISÉRABLES (1862)

Ursus with Gwynplaine and Dea:

[ "Well done, Homo. I shall be father, and you shall be uncle." ]

Vol.I - Book.III - Ch.VI L'HOMME QUI RIT (1869)

Cimourdain and Gauvain:

[ Cimourdain had conceived a passionate love for his pupil. Childhood is so ineffably charming, it absorbs all love. All the power of loving in Cimourdain's nature had, so to speak, concentrated itself upon that child; the heart, condemned to solitude, fed upon this sweet and innocent creature, which it loved with the combined tenderness of a father, a brother, a friend, and a creator. To him he was indeed a son,—not of the flesh, but of the soul; he was not his father, the author of his being, but he was his master, and this was his masterpiece. […] The only being on earth whom he loved was this pupil,—child and orphan as he was. ]

Vol.II - Book.I - Ch.III QUATREVINGT-TREIZE (1874)

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Thomas Hardy, The Mayor of Casterbridge

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the moral of Toilers of the Sea:

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“Robust souls, as we have just said, are sometimes, by certain blows of ill fortune, almost if not wholly, thrown off their bearings. Despair has ascending degrees. From prostration one mounts to despondency, from despondency to affliction, from affliction to melancholy. Melancholy is a twilight. Suffering melts into it in sombre joy. Melancholy is the happiness of being sad.”

— Victor Hugo, The Toilers of the Sea, 1866

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Gilliatt and Valjean would like each other If they had met...

TOILERS OF THE SEA, I.I.IV

That's so Valjean behavior of you, Gilliatt.

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oh save me brazilian literature...

(Brás Cubas & Quincas Borba)

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“It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”  — Sydney Carton, A Tale of Two Cities • Charles Dickens

Edit for my most recently finished book.

Image source: Pinterest

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“it was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair”

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Now, this is the second time you've asked me for your drugs back. Ask me again and it's yours.

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thinking about what it must've been like to be simon, young yet wise beyond your years. you smell the burning wood of the forest and somehow also the scent of scorched flesh before anyone even mentions it. the conch in itself is far too human a law for something so grand to follow. everything was far too grand for everyone but simon. and when he was clueless about nothing, the world wouldn't even let him be clueless about death. he stared it in the face, pig headed, grinning, he stared it in the face, rising and falling. did you realize it then, simon, standing in front of the pilots body, that you were not man, you were boy? that man cannot live with gods knowledge?

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“What he loved in horses was what he loved in men, the blood and the heat of the blood that ran them. All his reverence and all his fondness and all the leanings of his life were for the ardenthearted and they would always be so and never be otherwise.”

All the Pretty Horses - Cormac McCarthy

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overtime my attachment to the kid has being growing and growing

so because of that, ever since then i’ve refused to acknowledge the ending of blood meridian

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He always took his meals alone, with an open book before him, which he read. He had a well-selected little library. He loved books; books are cold but safe friends. In proportion as leisure came to him with fortune, he seemed to take advantage of it to cultivate his mind.

— Les Misérables, I.V.III Illustrated by Rene Giffey (French comic, 1949)

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:( I love m.mabeuf I love my old man book man botanist man I think all the old men of Les mis deserve to have a little book club

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Woah some Les Mis genius just made a tiktok diving into the canonical parallels between Jean Valjean and St Nicholas:

Or watch on tiktok to boost this excellent person in the algorithm! They are clearly trying very hard to produce quality analysis about extremely important Les mis things like “Jean Valjean breaking into people’s houses to secretly give them money,” but do not have a lot of followers yet! :