Thursday, November 1, 2012

No Other Pearl

To love or have loved, that is enough. Ask nothing further. There is no other pearl to be found in the dark folds of life.
~Victor Hugo


Today, art from Victor Hugo's Les Misérables. You probably knew this already, but I didn't realize until I was working on this post that a movie of Les Misérables is coming out on Christmas Day. I hope it's good!

Cosette and the stranger
by Jean Geoffroy

Come in, sir, for you are weary
by Jean-Claude Götting?

Search the blind alley
by Pierre-Georges Jeanniot

Fauchelevant recognizes M. Madeleine
by Pierre-Georges Jeanniot

Javert
after a painting by Gustave Brion

I am Valjean
by Émile Bayard

Cosette
by Émile Bayard

Book covers:






Links:

An extensive Les Misérables gallery
The text of Les Misérables
Victor Hugo on the island of Guernsey
Victor Hugo on his deathbed, a photo by Paul Nadar at the Getty Museum
Art of Victor Hugo

Another quote from Les Misérables: “A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is visible labor and there is invisible labor.”

3 comments:

Harry said...


Amazing how much art can come from one book (and it looks like these predated the musical).

A wonderful variety, but the most striking to me was the last book cover you showed (with Cosette looking directly at the viewer). That is chilling!

Hope the movie is good, too. Wonder if it is a "straight" movie or an adaptation of the musical.

Linda B said...

Loved the book covers, actually. I read this so long ago, I should read it again. Thanks for all , Tabatha. I am looking forward to the movie.

Katya said...

In Russia, just Cosette's story is published as a book for children. The first illustration (Cosette and the Stranger) is used in the book I had. I remember it so vividly.