| 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 |