The Essential Victor Hugo

by Victor Hugo

Overview

'To the English, I am "shocking"...What's more, French, which is disgusting; republican, which is abominable; exiled, which is repulsive; defeated, which is infamous. To top it all off, a poet...' Victor Hugo dominated literary life in France for over half a century, pouring forth novels, poems, plays, and other writings with unflagging zest and vitality. Here, for the first time in English, all aspects of his work are represented within a single volume. Famous scenes from the novels Notre-Dame, Les Mis?rables, and The Toilers of the Sea are included, as well as excerpts from his intimate diaries, poems of love and loss, and scathing denunciations of the political establishment. All the chosen passages are self-contained and can be enjoyed without any previous knowledge of Hugo's work. Much of the material is appearing in English for the first time, and most of it has never before been annotated thoroughly in any language.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780191516757
Publisher:	OUP Oxford
Publication date:	06/10/2004
Series:	Oxford World's Classics Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	922,125
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

E. H. and A. M. Blackmore have translated some Hugo poems in their OWC edition, Six French Poets of the Nineteenth Century. Their other translations include Selected Poems of Victor Hugo (2001; winner of the American Literary Translators' Association Prize and the MLA Scaglione Prize for Literary Translation), The Major Epics of Victor Hugo, and Contemplations, Lyrics, and Dramatic Monologues by Victor Hugo.

Date of Birth:

February 26, 1802

Date of Death:

May 22, 1885

Place of Birth:

Besançon, France

Place of Death:

Paris, France

Education:

Pension Cordier, Paris, 1815-18

Table of Contents

	Introduction	xi
	Note on the Text and Translation	xxii
	Select Bibliography	xxiv
	A Chronology of Victor Hugo	xxviii
	Before The Exile I: 1824-1843
	from Odes and Ballads
	The Song of the Circus	3
	To a Traveller	7
	from Orientalia
	Zara Bathing	9
	from Cromwell
	Preface	16
	from Things Seen
	Joanny	53
	from A Blend of Literature and Philosophy
	from Journal of the Ideas and Opinions of a Revolutionary of 1830	54
	from Notre-Dame de Paris
	Notre-Dame	58
	An Impartial Peep at the Magistrates of Old	65
	from Autumn Leaves
	Heard on the Mountain	77
	'Sometimes, beneath the clouds' deceptive twists ...'	81
	from Songs of the Half-Light
	A Ball at the Hotel de Ville	83
	'O that I could fill your deep reverie ...'	85
	'The rest of them drift any way at all ...'	87
	from Sunlight and Shadows
	A Popular Man	89
	'Indian caverns! tombs! monumental arrays ...'	91
	The Shadow	95
	from Contemplations
	Therese's Party	97
	For Dust Thou Art	101
	Written on the Plinth of an Ancient Bas-Relief	103
	'The child saw Grandma busy spinning ...'	105
	from Last Gleanings
	'Life, dear sir, is a comedy ...'	105
	from The Four Winds of the Spirit
	Near Avranches	107
	from Things Seen
	Talleyrand	110
	from Alps and Pyrenees
	Bayonne	111
	Before the Exile II: 1843-1851
	from Things Seen
	King Louis-Philippe	117
	Villemain	117
	from Les Miserables
	A Righteous Man	123
	The Fall	131
	from Things Seen
	The Living Pictures	176
	The Princes	177
	from Contemplations
	Uttered in the Shadows	181
	While Looking at the Heavens One Evening	181
	'At first, oh! I was like a maniac ...'	187
	'While mariners, who estimate and doubt ...'	187
	Veni, Vidi, Vixi	189
	'Tomorrow, when the fields grow light ...'	191
	from Things Seen
	At the Academie francaise	192
	The Death of Balzac	196
	from Deeds and Words
	Balzac's Funeral	200
	from Things Seen
	Pius IX and Louis Bonaparte	203
	from Deeds and Words
	Proposed Grant to Monsieur Bonaparte	204
	from The Whole Lyre
	Postscript	209
	During the Exile: 1851-1870
	from History of a Crime
	Paris Sleeps; the Doorbell Rings	211
	How Dark the Crime Was	212
	from Napoleon the Little
	Biography	214
	5 April 1852	216
	The Littleness of the Master	219
	from Things Seen
	Writing to France	222
	Charles II	223
	from The Empire in the Pillory
	'When, France, you are mere prostrate slaves ...'	225
	'Night--dark night, deep, and full of drowsy things ...'	227
	Apotheosis	227
	The Man Has Laughed	231
	The Joint Commissions	233
	The Black Hunter	233
	'I was in Brussels; it was June ...'	237
	The Last Word	239
	from Contemplations
	The Birds	243
	Unity	247
	Wayside Pause	249
	'I was reading. Reading what? The timeless poem ...'	253
	The Beggar	257
	Lowing of Oxen	257
	Apparition	259
	Cerigo	261
	'The poet's verse-form used to pillage April's basket ...'	265
	The Weather Clears	267
	'The soul dives in the chasm ...'	269
	from The Four Winds of the Spirit
	Storm	271
	from God
	from The Threshold of the Abyss	273
	from The Eagle	285
	from the reliquat of God
	'What do you think of death, you vain philosopher? ...'	291
	'The depths of the I AM are swathed in cloud ...'	293
	from The Legend of the Ages
	The Consecration of Woman	295
	Boaz Asleep	307
	Christ's First Encounter with the Tomb	313
	from Songs of Street and Wood
	Connubial Bliss	319
	'Nature? she's amorous everywhere ...'	321
	from Woman to Heaven	323
	An Alcove in the Sunrise	323
	During an Illness	325
	from Les Miserables
	Waterloo	330
	Grandeur among the Middle Classes	379
	The House in the Rue Plumet	387
	Leviathan's Intestine	392
	from The Toilers of the Sea
	A Turbulent Life and a Tranquil Conscience	410
	The Old Old Story of Utopia	411
	The Story of Utopia, Continued	413
	A Quirk of Lethierry's Character	415
	A Contradiction	418
	from Deeds and Words
	Emily de Putron	419
	from Things Seen
	The Death of Madame Victor Hugo	421
	After the Exile I: 1870-1878
	from Things Seen
	The Return to France	425
	A Prayer	428
	from The Legend of the Ages
	The Vanished City	431
	Orpheus	435
	'I knew Firdausi in Mysore, long since ...'	437
	After the Caudine Forks	437
	from The Art of Being a Grandfather
	For Georges	439
	The Immaculate Conception Revisited	443
	Jeanne Asleep, iv	445
	from The Whole Lyre
	Letter	447
	Waking Impressions	451
	Hail, Goddess, Hail from One about to Die	455
	from Religions and Religion
	'Dante wrote two lines ...'	455
	from History of a Crime
	The Rue Tiquetonne	456
	from Things Seen
	The Emperor of Brazil	458
	from Deeds and Words
	The Hernani Dinner	459
	After the Exile II: 1878-1885
	'Suddenly the door opened ...'	465
	Last Wishes	465
	Last Line	465
Appendix	The Structure of the Contemplations, The Legend of the Ages, and God	466
	Explanatory Notes	473