Those poor bond-slaves who do the work of the world
without a reward for their toil–God Almighty's outcasts,
I call them.
Among them, I grant you is
virtue in all the flower of its stupidity
but poverty is no less their portion.
At this moment, I think I see the long face
those good folk would pull if God
played a practical joke on them and
stayed away at the Last Judgment.
- Honore de Balzac
The author attributes those words to Vautrin, the "criminal" character of PERE GORIOT.
They are spoken to Rastignac, the "social climber."
____________________________________________________________________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment