I just started this novel. Why is the name of the city the bishop resides in only referred to as "D------?" What is the name of the city supposed to be?
I just started this novel. Why is the name of the city the bishop resides in only referred to as "D------?" What is the name of the city supposed to be?
Personally, I haven't read Les Miserables, but I have read a lot of books where authors do the same thing. Often, they don't want to name a real city/village, so that they can describe it the way they want, or they just make up a place, it's probably not intended to be a real area.
Thank you. You're on the right track, it sounds.
Originally Posted by bibliophile190
Most "experts" on Hugo agree that "D.." is Digne-les-Bains, a town in the French Alps.
In Russian translations the town is also called "Digne".
Also in English translations
One has only one destiny,
He can not choose it.
I read it in French and it says Digne just in the book. The character was also based on a real bishop of Digne as it seems.
One has to laugh before being happy, because otherwise one risks to die before having laughed.
"Je crains [...] que l'âme ne se vide à ces passe-temps vains, et que le fin du fin ne soit la fin des fins." (Edmond Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac, Acte III, Scène VII)
Actually, the character was based upon St. Jean-Marie Vianney, the "Cure d'Ars," who was kind of like the 19th Century's equivalent of Padre Pio. He was assigned a kind of a backwoods parish because he was considered rather dull-witted. He lived a very austere life and was extremely generous to the poor. He also had the gift of reading souls. He spent most of his time in the confessional. People would flock to him from all over Europe to go to Confession to him.
One time, a famous actress came to Ars to meet him. He stopped several feet away from her, and said something to the effect of, "Madame, please step back. The stench of your soul is so horrid I must vomit."
I know what you're talking about. When i had one book it had D--- and M---sur M----, but I bought my own personal copy from Signet Publications and it had Digne and Montreuil sur Mer.
"You're my soul come scavenging for me, I can feel it," said the Witch. "I won't have it, I won't have it. I won't have a soul; with a soul there is everlastingness, and life has tortured me enough."-Elphaba to Dorothy in Gregory Maguire's Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
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