The Purchase of a Soul
A Tale of Transformation from Les Misérables
By Victor Hugo
Foreword by Alonzo L. McDonald
(1995)
Few stories capture the dynamic power of gifts better than this celebrated incident in Victor Hugo’s much-loved Les Misérables.
For many people, Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables will always be “Les Miz,” a snatch of a song or Cosette’s haunting, waif-like face on a million posters and album covers. Yet Hugo’s masterwork embodies so much more than even the best musical can portray—an immense drama of human pathos set in the wrenching conditions of nineteenth-century France.
In a culture where giving often seems overwhelmed by buying, it is worth pondering the unique nature of gifts and giving. One great difference between a gift and a possession is that a gift must be passed on. True giving has no expectation of exchange. Giving can therefore have an enormous ennobling benefit when it introduces the one who receives the gift into the new world of undeserved favor—approaching the spiritual wonder of grace.
“The Purchase of a Soul” excerpts an encounter that sets the stage for the full novel. Convict 24601—Jean Valjean, hardened and embittered but newly released from prison—is transformed by his interaction with the Bishop of Digne. The story is one of the most moving incidents in Western literature.
Alonzo L. McDonald introduces this selection and highlights its many applications for today.
“Jean Valjean, my brother, you no longer belong to evil, but to good. It is your soul I am buying for you.”
—Monseigneur Bienvenu, The Bishop of Digne
Category: Readings (No. 12)
