Les Misérables

The bishop's candlesticks, one act of absurd trust rebuilt a man. Forgiveness is an investment class.

Hugo paused the plot for fifty pages on the Paris sewers and I devoured every brick.

Javert couldn't survive mercy. The law has no page for grace.

Fantine sold her hair, then her teeth, then her daughter's comfort. Poverty invoices in that order.

Gavroche in the sewer singing. The bravest eleven-year-old in any century.

Éponine's On My Own before the musical existed. Unrequited love's original architect.

The barricade of the Rue de la Chanvrerie, idealism stacked high enough to shoot at.

Marius survived on Valjean's shoulders. Fathers don't need credit, but he got mine.

To love another person is to see the face of God, sung first by a book.

Carried out of it: a second chance, fully used, weighs nothing and lifts everything.