The Liberal French Spirit in Lyric Form Victor Hugo is not only known for his complex novels but also for his beautiful poetry. In his poems, Hugo touches a variety of subjects, from religion and royalism to nature and liberalism all striving to be spontaneous and sublime. This Xist Classics edition has been professionally formatted for e-readers with a linked table of contents. This eBook also contains a bonus book club leadership guide and discussion questions. We hope you’ll share this book with your friends, neighbors and colleagues and can’t wait to hear what you have to say about it. Xist Publishing is a digital-first publisher. Xist Publishing creates books for the touchscreen generation and is dedicated to helping everyone develop a lifetime love of reading, no matter what form it takes

"Graham Robb tells the complicated story of this colossal life with authority and sympathy. . . . Unquestionably, a magnificent biography".--"Washington Square Press". of photos.

Victor Hugo is an icon of French culture. He achieved immense success as a poet, dramatist, and novelist, and he was also elected to both houses of the French Parliament. Leading the Romantic campaign against artistic tradition and defying the Second Empire in exile, he became synonymous with the progressive ideals of the French Revolution. His state funeral in Paris made headlines across the world, and his breadth of appeal remains evident today, not least thanks to the popularity of his bestseller, Les Misérables, and its myriad theatrical and cinematic incarnations. This biography, the first in English for more than twenty years, provides a concise but comprehensive exploration of Hugo’s monumental body of work within the context of his dramatic life. Hugo wrestled with family tragedy and personal misgivings while being pulled into the turmoil of the nineteenth century, from the fall of Napoleon’s Empire to the rise of France’s Third Republic. Throughout these twists of fate, he sensed a natural order of collapse and renewal. This unending cycle of creation shaped his ideas about freedom and roused his imagination, which he channeled into his prolific writing and other outlets like drawing. As Bradley Stephens argues, such creative intellectual vigor suggests that Hugo was too restless to sit comfortably on the pedestal of literary greatness; Hugo’s was a mind as revolutionary as the time in which he lived.

For a long time Victor Hugo's novels attracted little critical attention in spite of their obvious power and uniqueness. The eleven essays in this volume bring together various critical approaches from eminent French, British and American scholars, to provide a new point of departure and to provoke new discussion about this subject.

A review from The Dial, Vol. 6, 1886: Mr. Swinburne's critical method is so unlike the one most in vogue that it cannot be appreciated without a sort of mental readjustment on the part of most readers. The critical brotherhood at large finds its account so entirely in the searching out and triumphant parading of flaws in the work of an artist-the greater the artist the more minute the search and the louder the shout of triumph-that it is hardly apt to deal gently with a critic who, like Mr. Swinburne, believes that "the noble pleasure of praising" is the chief function of criticism, and invariably acts upon this belief. Mr. Swinburne's new volume is a study of Victor Hugo, which serves as an acceptable companion-piece to his "Study of Shakespeare." It consists of his "Fortnightly Review " and "Nineteenth Century" articles, republished with some additions, these being mainly in the direction of quoted passages from the work of Hugo. Thus put together and suitably illustrated, the articles form a sort of running commentary upon the entire succession of Victor Hugo's works. As a handbook for those who may desire to acquaint themselves with the great poet of the century, it will be found especially valuable. No other English writer speaks of Victor Hugo with the authority of Mr. Swinburne, and the fervor of his praise does not prevent him from being acutely and subtly discriminative. The one who thus takes up the work of a great and voluminous writer, and tells where its chief beauties are to be sought for, performs a task of much service to many readers. Mr. Swinburne has faithfully fulfilled his apostolic function in this as in many other ways, and it is largely owing to his efforts in and out of season that English people are coming to see, what the rest of the world has seen and admitted for years, that the central figure of the age now drawing to its close is that of the great Frenchman whose death a year ago made the earth seem somehow less fair than it had been. Against the final record of this judgment many will doubtless still protest; those "critics" who cannot scan a line of French verse will be especially vehement, and those others who assert that poetry of the highest order cannot be written in the French language; but the entry will none the less be made, just as similar entries have been made concerning Goethe and Shakespeare and Dante. Mr. Swinburne's style is not at its best in this study. It is more than usually involved and obscure, although still a marvellous word-fabric which would defy all attempts at imitation. The number of misprints in the American edition of the work (published by Worthington Co.) is quite inexcusable. N.B.: The volume for sale here is from the original Chatto & Windus publication, not Worthington Co. edition.