“ In this century, men attend to business, they gamble on ‘Change, they win money, they are stingy. ”
Victor Hugo, Les Misérables (1862). copy citation
Author | Victor Hugo |
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Source | Les Misérables |
Topic | gambling money |
Date | 1862 |
Language | English |
Reference | |
Note | Translation by Isabel F. Hapgood in 1887 |
Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/135/135-h/135-h.htm |
Context
“in 1787, I predict that all was lost, from the day when I beheld the Duc de Rohan, Prince de Léon, Duc de Chabot, Duc de Montbazon, Marquis de Soubise, Vicomte de Thouars, peer of France, go to Longchamps in a tapecu! That has borne its fruits. In this century, men attend to business, they gamble on ‘Change, they win money, they are stingy. People take care of their surfaces and varnish them; every one is dressed as though just out of a bandbox, washed, soaped, scraped, shaved, combed, waked, smoothed, rubbed, brushed, cleaned on the outside, irreproachable, polished as a pebble, discreet, neat, and at the same time, death of my life, in the depths of their consciences they have dung-heaps and cesspools that are enough to make a cow-herd who blows his nose in his fingers, recoil.”
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