Victor Hugo: Four Plays

by Victor Hugo, Claude Schumacher (Editor / Introduction), William Driver Howarth (Translator)

Four previously untranslated plays for the World Classics series



Here are four characteristic and hugely important dramas by one of the most famous and influential European writers of the last two hundred years, translated into English for the first time, and in highly playable versions. An essential collection for students of both French and Drama

448 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2004

About the author

After 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.

Reviews

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just read "Marion de Lorme" and "Lucrece Borgia" out of this book since I'd read the other two plays before. If I were reviewing "Lucrece Borgia" on its own, I'd give it five stars. It was everything a tragedy should be, with a reveal you could see coming a mile away but still really enjoy getting to. It was, in my opinion, Hugo's finest play. Even better, it never bogs down with Hugo's own overt insertion of counter-criticism and "oh that devil Victor Hugo writes the most horrid things about us" dandy fop characters. "Marion de Lorme", on the other hand, just gets three stars. I get tired of the "I love you. Now I hate you. Now I love you again. Now I'm dead" turn-on-a-dime plots. I know that is necessary to some extent to move a play along but it's harder to ignore when reading, well-written though it may be.