The Hidden Reader: Stendhal, Balzac, Hugo, Baudelaire, Flaubert by Victor Brombert

by Victor Brombert

Victor Brombert is an unrivaled interpreter of French literature; and the writers he considers in this latest book are ones with whom he has a long acqualntance. These essays--eleven of them appearing in English for the first time and some totally new--give us an acute analysis of the major figures of the nineteenth century and a splendid lesson in criticism.

Brombert shows how a text works--its structure and narrative devices, and the symbolic function of characters, episodes, words--and he highlights the distinctive postures and styles of each writer. He gives us a sense of the hidden inner text as well as the techniques writers have devised to lead their readers to the discovery of what is hidden. With wonderful subtlety he unravels the reader's participatory response, whether it be Hugo reading Shakespeare, Sartre reading Hugo, Stendhal reading Rousseau, T. S. Eliot misreading Baudelaire, or Baudelaire, Balzac, and Flaubert reading their own sensibilities. This book is a sterling example of the finest kind of literary criticism--wise, intelligent, responsive, sympathetic--that reveals central aspects of the creative process and returns the reader joyfully to the texts themselves.

Genres: Literature

Unknown Binding

First published February 5, 1988

About the author

Victor Henri Brombert was an American scholar of 19th and 20th century literature, the Henry Putnam University Professor at Princeton University.

Reviews

[booklady · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bought this when I was studying Balzac. Dipped into it at the time but haven't gotten back to it. Looks like an excellent source for comparative analysis of French literature of the 19th century.

[Tom Walsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish I could use the scholarly phrases and intelligent words used in this volume. The discusIons of Realistic Fiction were made impressive through the author’s insight and experienced eye.