Zanoni, a must read

I recently read a book that I immediately believe it should be considered a must read for whoever values our society, progress, our individual values and peace.

It is a novel called Zanoni and it is written by Edward Bulwer-Lytton. It is very meaningful in concern of the importance and the value of the individual and the dangers of violence and revolutions. I Imagined if the story was inspired by a single but important detail about the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution.

The French Revolutionaries decide that at a certain moment a certain number of individuals must be executed under guillotine, 100 people. They have arrested and trialed only 99. They decide that 99 is not a good number, and so they have to find someone else to be executed in order to have a good number. This is a scene in Zanoni novel. The 100th person they choose will definitely be innocent (even though many others were innocent too). It is such a horrible and cruel thing to do. And in fact, in Zanoni, such individual happens to be the main character. The novel talks about such main character, whose life ends for such an awful and unfortunate reason. Imagine if the whole story was built up as an inspiration caused by this detail about the Reign of Terror. The author finds out an individual has been killed for making the number more round and complete; for making the number 100. And therefore, he decides to write an entire novel to tell the story of the individual who suffered such an ending.

It is a tribute of the value of the individual. By condemning to death penalty a certain number of people just to make better number, the Revolutionaries were treating people as numbers.

I think such book is a must read during tumultuous times. It is a reminder of how easily humanity can descent into absurd and dehumanizing cruelty and violence.