Part II, Book 1, Chapter 16
Quot Libras in Duce?
Goddammit. This Waterloo slog is so bad that I went ahead and wrote up my post for Chapter 17 without realizing that I hadn’t done a post about Chapter 16. So here I am, doubling back, because heaven forbid I forget this filler chapter in which Hugo editorializes about British people.
Our esteemed author wants us to know that while he has just spent 15 chapters regaling us with the ups and downs of this epic battle, he doesn’t consider said battle any kind of pinnacle of human achievement. I mean, yeah, hard to argue the brilliance of falling into a trench.
No, despite them defeating a Historical Great Man, Hugo doesn’t want us to think that Wellington and Blücher should get much credit. Then, as if worried that by saying so that he’d offend his English and German readers, he assures us that smack-talking their generals doesn’t lessen the greatness of these wonderful countries. Once again this has Twitter thread energy, and also is very funny when you consider the fact that this man was technically living in English territory when he was writing Les Misérables.
“A great intellectual dawn distinguishes our century, and in this advent of light England and Germany have their own magnificent radiance. They have majesty because they think.”
Okay, kiss-ass! I am absolutely stealing “They have majesty because they think,” though.
Given that Germany and England are Thinking Countries, apparently, they have no need to draw any pride or glory from anything as crude as a fight, and so Hugo declares that Waterloo is less a victory and more of a lottery. I’m too tired to fully track this reasoning but I am on board with thinking > fighting, so I’m on board. On the way we get this lovely insight: “Civilized peoples, especially in our own times, neither rise nor fall by the good or bad fortune of a leader.”
Anyway, Waterloo being a “lottery” explains why a “genius” like Napoleon (idk if you can ascribe “throwing lots of guns at the problem” to “genius”) could get so profoundly trounced by a standard strategist like Wellington. Once again, I must remind you that genius won’t stop a death trench!
Hugo goes on to say that “Waterloo is a first-rate battle won by a second-rate commander.” Wow those are some real fighting words, and written on English territory, too! Apparently England’s greatness comes from its common soldiers and not its leaders and is blinded to such, because it is a country that “still cherishes the feudal illusion.”
I…actually agree. The British are a people who, in the 21st century, still have a vestigial monarchy they value way too much. I gotta say, Hugo is not wrong! I do think it’s very funny that this man considers England both a majestic thinking country AND a country that is too dumb to realize its feudal structure is useless. I guess England just contains multitudes!
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