Les Miserables
His favourite novel. He called it a book of wisdom and recommended it repeatedly, calling Hugo a wise man.
18 - The Words
Books
Scroll
Author and Scholar
Before and alongside his public offices, he was a working scholar. He wrote, translated, and taught throughout his life, and his official biography closes with a list of his books.
Many of the titles below appear in that official book list. Others were compiled from his lectures, memoirs, and statements and published later, several in English translation.
Their subjects show the themes that occupied him for over fifty years: Qur'anic thought, prayer, patience, wilayah, the lives of the Imams, art, Palestine, and tawhid.
His Books
Books he wrote, and books compiled from his lectures and memoirs.
Select a book to read more about it.
The Reader
He read far beyond the seminary. His favourite novel was Victor Hugo's Les Miserables, which he called miraculous among all other novels and urged the young to read.
He recommended Uncle Tom's Cabin to senior state officials as a record of America's history, and The Grapes of Wrath to an audience of writers. He said he had read most of Michel Zevaco's novels, and he spoke of Balzac and the Russian classics from memory.
Novels He Praised
Victor Hugo
Harriet Beecher Stowe
John Steinbeck
Michel Zevaco
Four books he returned to in his own words.
Uncle Tom's Cabin
He told senior officials to read it to understand the history of the United States.
The Grapes of Wrath
He recommended it to an audience of writers and artists as a portrait of poverty and injustice in America.
The Pardaillan novels
He said he had read most of Zevaco's historical adventure novels in his youth.
"It should be cherished accordingly and dedicated to the service of God."Ayatollah Khamenei, on art - July 23, 2001