Kindle Edition Download from Smashwords (eBook) The Wisdom of Les Miserables Smashwords Amazon Category:  Literary Fiction Publisher: KDP Amazon Type: Fiction Pages: 360 Copyright: Feb. 25, 2020 ISBN-13: 9780463682784 Price: $2.99 (eBook) Speaking in Bishop Myriel's own voice, the author--ghostwriter--"channels" the book Victor Hugo outlines in Les Miserables but adds that the bishop did not finish the work. "A stunning achievement," says reviewer/author Judith Ingram (Forgiving Day by Day) All  fans of Les Miserables and Victor Hugo will enjoy this story of the man whose wisdom and kindness changed parolee Jean Valjean’s life with these immortal words: “Jean Valjean, my brother: you belong no  longer to evil, but to good. It is your soul that I am buying for you. I withdraw it from dark thoughts and from the spirit of perdition, and I give it to God!” Few Les Miz fans know that Bishop Myriel is the first character to appear in the 1862 novel. Or, that Hugo devoted the novel’s first 90 pages to this backwater bishop. In telling the bishop’s story, Hugo reveals that the bishop intended to write a book on the topic of  Christian Duty.  Hugo provides a detailed outline of the  book, along with the fact that the bishop  never not got to write the book. In Bishop  Myriel, I have taken the liberty of  “channeling” the bishop and writing his  book, as he might have . . . in “his own”  words. Excerpt Why This Story? In the dramatic stage adaptation of Les Miserables, with music by Claude-Michel Schönberg, French lyrics by Jean-Marc Natel and in English by Herbert Kretzmer, Bishop Myriel appears early in Act I for barely a few minutes. During that brief encounter with mendicant Jean Valjean, the bishop bestows upon the wild-looking parolee the inherited Myriel family treasures (silver dinnerware and candlesticks). Before they part ways on stage, the bishop spontaneously “commissions” Valjean with a new calling in life: “Jean Valjean, my brother: you belong no longer to evil, but to good. It is your soul that I am buying for you. I withdraw it from dark thoughts and from the spirit of perdition, and I give it to God!” With that surprising and confusing revelation, the bishop withdraws from the stage not to be seen again until Valjean’s deathbed scene when he appears to the dying man as in a vision. How different the scene in Hugo’s original! The first lines of that sprawling epic present Bishop Myriel front and center as a major player in the story: In 1815, M. Charles Francois Myriel was Bishop of D____. He was a man of seventy-five and had occupied the bishopric of D____ since 1806. Fantine, Book the First, Chapter I, Myriel In the commission scene, the bishop’s final words to Valjean are: “Remember this my brother, you will use this precious silver to become an honest man. By the witness of the martyrs, by the Passion and the Blood, God has raised you out of darkness; I have saved your soul for God.” Soon after being released, however, Valjean robs Petit Gervais, a lone child on a deserted road. Suddenly, he recalls the bishop’s mandate (in this abbreviated form): “. . . you have promised me to become an honest man. I am purchasing your soul; I withdraw it from the spirit of perversity and give it to God Almighty.” Myriel and Valjean never meet again, at least not until Jean Valjean lies on his deathbed. Hugo describes that scene as follows: The portress had come up and was looking through the half-open door. The physician motioned her away, but he could not prevent that good, zealous woman from crying to the dying man before she went” “Do you want a priest?” “I have one,” answered Jean Valjean. And, with his finger, he seemed to designate a point above his head, where, you would have said, he saw someone. It is probable that the Bishop was indeed a witness of his death-agony. Over the century-and-a half of the original novel’s existence, a number of abridged versions of the 1,200-plus pages have appeared. Some publishers made an editorial decision to abridge the text. In doing so, they generally omit the statement that Bishop Myriel was in the process of writing a book on the topic of Christian duty. I am grateful for Charles E. Wilbour’s unabridged English translation (1862, the very year of the novel’s first publication. Wilbour includes Hugo’s detailed, Scripture-based outline of the bishop’s opus-to-be. Random House’s Modern Library Edition of Wilbour’s translation (2000) filled that important gap. We are told by Victor Hugo himself that the work remained unfinished. The bishop’s detailed outline captured my imagination and launched me on a twenty-year inner quest that has resulted, finally, in this historical novel. Probing Les Miserables’ expansive spirit became my passion. I can only hope that I serve the good bishop well by attempting to channel his spirit. And so, I dare to offer what I call a first draft manuscript of Bishop Myriel’s book. In doing so, I have done my best to preserve Duty’s outline as created by the original author. First, I offer a set of reflections on themes given birth in Myriel’s rich and fertile prayer life. Then, I offer my rendering of the book the bishop outlined but never completed. Part the First: The Duties of All addresses key virtues applicable to all people of good will. Part the Second: Duties According to One’s Life offers insight into common obligations applicable to roles being lived by specific segments of Christian and secular society. Throughout, I use a common typeface to convey the Bishop’s interior thoughts—his ponderings—and French Script MT to indicate what he committed to paper. Where applicable and to maintain a connection with the original story, I employ citations at the head of most chapters from Hugo’s original text or relevant citations from the New Testament. I invite and welcome your feedback.

A Stunning Achievement
"Alfred J. Garrotto has composed a novel that ushers Victor Hugo’s fictional character, Bishop Myriel, out from the shadows of the Les Misérables stage play to the front-and-center position to which Hugo’s famous novel assigns him. Hugo hints in his novel that the bishop was writing a volume on Christian duty but left it unfinished. Garrotto steps in to cleverly elaborate on the bishop’s detailed Scriptural outline—thoughtfully provided by Hugo himself—and composes a work of theological reflections as if penned in the good bishop’s own hand.

Calling himself the ghostwriter in this tri-level authorship he shares with Myriel and Hugo, Garrotto quickly immerses his readers in the voice and heart of Bishop Myriel through a series of autobiographical vignettes. The charming formality of the bishop’s narrative and pitch-perfect style befitting an early nineteenth-century writer render the ghostwriter invisible and magically transport the reader to the very feet of this humble priest, wise beyond his years and devoted to Christian service.

After his introductory vignettes, the bishop presents his “completed” work, Duty. While the stories charm and endear the bishop to his readers, Duty stuns with its brilliant, incisive treatment of fundamental truths of Scripture and their application. The bishop laments his own shortcomings, yet his love for Christ and passion for giving himself to others in service outweigh his flaws. The reader is left to wonder whose soul is truly revealed by these deep wells of compassion, understanding, and purity of heart—is it Myriel’s, Hugo’s, or the ghostwriter’s? The bishop might answer that all such beauty must ultimately spring from the Christ Himself, to whom all three authors give first honor."
Judith Ingram, author of Finding Forgiveness Day by Day