Although it took some time to decide on the quotes for this publication on love, I kept coming back to Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables. Love seems to be a gentle current that runs constantly beneath us and only becomes apparent when the forces of the human condition propels it into our view. Victor Hugo seems an expert at explaining this human condition through his work.
Interestingly, Leo Tolstoy, in his book What is Art?, had the following to say about Victor Hugo’s works: “If I were asked to give modern examples of each of these kinds of art, then, as examples of the highest art, flowing from love of God and man (both of the higher, positive, and of the lower, negative kind), in literature I should name The Robbers by Schiller: Victor Hugo’s Les Pauvres Gens and Les Miserables [...].”
The quotes from Les Misérables have been set against a backdrop called nature. The images include the beautiful blossoms of stone fruit trees such as peaches, plums, cherries, apricots, almonds and nectarines. With nature, as with love, blossoms are a keen indicator of the season to come.
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