Victor Hugo

I am at the part of Les Miserables focusing on Marius.  I am excited to learn more about him, because in the play he is not highlighted much.  I came across this paragraph at the beginning of a chapter.  Wow.  Hugo is great writer.

Life became hard for Marius.  It was nothing to eat his clothes
and his watch.  He ate of that terrible, inexpressible thing that is
called de la vache enrage; that is to say, he endured great hardships
and privations.  A terrible thing it is, containing days without bread,
nights without sleep, evenings without a candle, a hearth without a fire,
weeks without work, a future without hope, a coat out at the elbows,
an old hat which evokes the laughter of young girls, a door which
one finds locked on one at night because one's rent is not paid,
the insolence of the porter and the cook-shop man, the sneers
of neighbors, humiliations, dignity trampled on, work of whatever
nature accepted, disgusts, bitterness, despondency.  Marius learned
how all this is eaten, and how such are often the only things
which one has to devour.  At that moment of his existence when a man
needs his pride, because he needs love, he felt that he was jeered
at because he was badly dressed, and ridiculous because he was poor.
At the age when youth swells the heart with imperial pride,
he dropped his eyes more than once on his dilapidated boots, and he
knew the unjust shame and the poignant blushes of wretchedness.
Admirable and terrible trial from which the feeble emerge base,
from which the strong emerge sublime.  A crucible into which destiny
casts a man, whenever it desires a scoundrel or a demi-god.

Brilliant paragraph and amazing last sentence.