Join Host Bree Carlile as she reads the one hundred twenty-ninth chapter of Les Miserables.

Come with us as we release one bite a day of one of your favorite classic novels, plays & short stories. Bree reads these classics like she reads to her daughter, one chapter a day. If you love books or audiobooks and want something to listen to as you're getting ready, driving to work, or as you're getting ready for bed, check out Bite at a Time Books!

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>> Brie Carlisle: Take it chapter by chapter one

fight at a time

so many adventures and mountains we can

climb

take it.

>> Brie Carlisle: Word for word, line by line,

one.

>> Brie Carlisle: Bite at a time.

>> Brie Carlisle: Welcome to Byte at a time books where we read you your

favorite classics one bite at a time. my name is

Bre Carlisle and I love to read and wanted to

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>> Brie Carlisle: Values today well be

continuing.

les miserables by Victor Hugo

chapter eleven end of the petite

pickpiss at the beginning

of the restoration, the convent of the

petit pickpiss was in its decay.

This forms a part of the general death of the order,

which, after the 18th century, has been

disappearing. Like all the religious orders,

contemplation is like prayer,

one of humanitys needs. But like everything

which the revolution touched, itll be transformed,

and from being hostile to social progress,

itll become favorable to it. The house

of the Petite Picpus was becoming rapidly

depopulated. In 1840, the

little convent had disappeared. The school had

disappeared. There were no longer any old women

nor young girls. The first were

dead. The latter had taken their departure.

The rule of the perpetual adoration is so rigid in its

nature that it alarms, vocations recoil

before it. The order receives no recruits.

In 1845, it still obtained lay

sisters here and there, but of professed

nuns, none at all.

40 years ago, the nuns numbered nearly

115 years ago, there were not more

than 28 of them. How many are there

today? In 1847, the

prioress was young, a sign that the circle of

choice was restricted. She was not 40

years old. In proportion as the number

diminishes, the fatigue increases. The service

of each becomes more painful. The moment

could then be seen drawing near, when there would be but a dozen

bent and aching shoulders to bear the heavy

rule of Saint Benoit. The burden is

implacable and remains the same for the few

as for the many. It weighs

down, it crushes.

Thus they die at the period when the

author of this book still lived in Paris. Two died.

One was 25 years old, the other

23. This latter can say, like

julia alpignola e so,

vixi enos viginti et tres. It

is in consequence of this decay that the convent gave up the

education of girls. We have not

felt able to pass before this extraordinary house without

entering it and without introducing the minds which

accompany us and which are listening to our tale. To the

profit of some perchance of, the melancholy

history of Jean Valjean. We have

penetrated into this community full of those old

practices which seem so novel today.

It is the closed garden. Hortus can

Lucis. We have spoken of the singular

place in detail, but with respect. Insofar

at least as detail and respect are compatible.

We do not understand all, but we insult

nothing. We are equally far removed from the

hosanna of Joseph de Maistre, who wound up by anointing the

executioner. And from the sneer of Voltaire,

who even goes so far as to ridicule the cross

in a logical act. On Voltaires part, we may remark, by

the way, Voltaire would have defended Jesus as

he defended Calus. And even for those who

deny superhuman incarnations. What does the crucifix

represent? The assassinated

sage. In this 19th

century, the religious idea is undergoing a

crisis. People are unlearning certain

things, and they do well, provided that while unlearning them,

they learn this. There is no vacuum in

the human heart. Certain demolitions

take place, and it is well that they do, but on

condition that they are followed by reconstructions.

In the meantime, let us study things which are no

more. It is necessary to know them, if only

for the purpose of avoiding them. The

counterfeits of the past assume false names

and gladly call themselves the future,

the specter. This

past is given to falsifying its own

passport. Let us inform ourselves of the

trap. Let us be on our guard.

The past has a visage, superstition and a

mask. Hypocrisy. Let us denounce

the visage and let us tear off the mask.

As for convents, they present a complex problem,

a question of civilization, which condemns them,

a question of liberty, which protects them.

Thank you for joining Bite at a time books today while

we read a.

>> Brie Carlisle: Bite of one of your favorite classics.

>> Brie Carlisle: Again, my name is Brie Carlisle, and

I hope you come back tomorrow for the next bite

of Le Miserable.

>> Brie Carlisle: Dont forget to sign up for our

newsletter@biteaudatimebooks.com, comma. And check

out the shop. You can check out the show notes or

our website, bite atitimebooks.com, for

the rest of the links for our show. wed love to hear from you on

social media as well.

>> Brie Carlisle: Take a look and a book and let's

see what we can find.

Take it chapter by chapter, one

night at a time

so many adventures and

mountains we can climb

to get worse.

>> Brie Carlisle: Line by line, one bite at a time.