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The Memoirs of Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo (1802-1885) was a novelist, poet and dramatist, most important of the French Romantic writers. Among Hugo's best-known works are The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Les Miserables. Hugo invented his own version of the historical novel, combining the local color and historical detail of Honore de Balzac and the spiritual discourse of George Sand. Hugo died in Paris on May 22, 1885. He was given at his death a national funeral. It was attended by two million people. Victor Hugo is buried in the Pantheon.
408 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1899
About the author
Victor Hugo
6,578 books13.4k followersAfter Napoleon III seized power in 1851, French writer Victor Marie Hugo went into exile and in 1870 returned to France; his novels include
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
(1831) and
Les Misérables
(1862).
This poet, playwright, novelist, dramatist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, and perhaps the most influential, important exponent of the Romantic movement in France, campaigned for human rights. People in France regard him as one of greatest poets of that country and know him better abroad.
This poet, playwright, novelist, dramatist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, and perhaps the most influential, important exponent of the Romantic movement in France, campaigned for human rights. People in France regard him as one of greatest poets of that country and know him better abroad.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
March 10, 2014
This is a good way to get to know who Victor Hugo was as a person. This edition, however, isn't very well annotated, and as a result if you aren't intimately familiar with French history and the more or less obscure French politicians of the time, then you'll have to rely on Wikipedia to keep up with what's going on. Just a warning!
Want to Read
November 24, 2015Free download available at Project Gutenberg.
June 8, 2015
I read this as research for a novel i'm working on in which the Paris revolution of 1848 figures in peripherally, and Victor Hugo was there in the streets and wrote about it in a section of this book. So, i didn't read it for fun but i am glad that i did read it, and i wound up reading the whole thing even beyond the chapters i needed to for the research.
It's interesting to see how this collection was put together, in contrast with contemporary memoirs. The chapters are disparate, random, and the narrative tone varies from didactic to informal. Some of them are selections from Hugo's diaries, and some are more formal essays. There is no connecting theme, beyond the author himself. I found the first-person diary sections regarding politically volatile periods in Paris history to be the most compelling. I expect this kind of disconnectedness was not uncommon with 19th century memoirs, but from the POV of an age in which memoirs are so planned and focused and expressly written with a narrative structure in mind, this book reads more like surfing sidebar tags in a blog. Which, fine.
And, i feel conflicted about Hugo himself when he writes about women, period. It's clear that he would probably have been considered very sympathetic to women at the time, but from a 21st century perspective, he's still such a creature of his times and his views so hidebound by the blind sexism of the age.
But anyway, useful for research, and otherwise interesting as well.
It's interesting to see how this collection was put together, in contrast with contemporary memoirs. The chapters are disparate, random, and the narrative tone varies from didactic to informal. Some of them are selections from Hugo's diaries, and some are more formal essays. There is no connecting theme, beyond the author himself. I found the first-person diary sections regarding politically volatile periods in Paris history to be the most compelling. I expect this kind of disconnectedness was not uncommon with 19th century memoirs, but from the POV of an age in which memoirs are so planned and focused and expressly written with a narrative structure in mind, this book reads more like surfing sidebar tags in a blog. Which, fine.
And, i feel conflicted about Hugo himself when he writes about women, period. It's clear that he would probably have been considered very sympathetic to women at the time, but from a 21st century perspective, he's still such a creature of his times and his views so hidebound by the blind sexism of the age.
But anyway, useful for research, and otherwise interesting as well.
October 14, 2022
Much of this is taken from his personal journals. Sometimes moving, sometimes fascinating, occasionally a bit dull, with a periodic touch of confusion for a reader without detail & intimate knowledge of 19th Century France. Certainly, it is nice to have a look at the human side of history with this personal recounting from an often articulate and interesting writer. There is one rather ugly chapter that is insultingly racist about an uprising of black people in some French colony or something. That really brings the book down for a modern reader and is a shame to see from such an otherwise seemingly level-headed supporter of democracy, peace, and fairness. The rest of the book is worthwhile.
November 4, 2019
A read of famous history
Easy to read and understand, interesting snippets of history, instead of needing to read a whole book on a fact you can read a chapter to get the same result.
Easy to read and understand, interesting snippets of history, instead of needing to read a whole book on a fact you can read a chapter to get the same result.
September 10, 2015
This is a fascinating read but you really need to be up on your mid-1800s French political history.
Some of the book is just character sketches, edited and polished bits from his journal. But the majority of the book is about his participation in the legislative and parliamentary processes before the 1848 Republic, during the ascent of the Second Empire and the fall of the same, and the Franco Prussian war and siege of Paris.
If that interests you this is a first hand account. IF it doesn't, I'd give the book a miss.
Some of the book is just character sketches, edited and polished bits from his journal. But the majority of the book is about his participation in the legislative and parliamentary processes before the 1848 Republic, during the ascent of the Second Empire and the fall of the same, and the Franco Prussian war and siege of Paris.
If that interests you this is a first hand account. IF it doesn't, I'd give the book a miss.
Want to Read
July 27, 2013epub version
August 31, 2016
I didn't care for the style of this memoir. It was very disjointed and every anecdote seemed to start in the middle. I read 20% of it and I consider myself done with it. It just didn't hook me.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews