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VICTOR HUGO:

THE LYRIC POET AND THE NOVELIST

A Thesis Presented by

Muriel Joy Alford to The Faculty of Purdue University

for the

Degree of Bachelor of Science in Science

June 1902 VICTOR HUGO: THE LYRIC POET AND THE NOVELIST

The estimate placed upon a man by his contemporaries is not often a true estimate of his greatness. This is well illustrated by the light in which the English nation viewed their great "Protector" Cromwell, for so long a time. Por more than two hundred years no just estimate of Crom­ well's greatness seems ever to have entered the English mind. Not until Thomas Carlyle rewrote his biography from his personal letters was any just idea formed of Cromwell's greatness. To-day he stands as one of the most revered characters of English history. On the occasion of the cen­ tenary celebration of Dante's birth Victor Hugo wrote: "Let us not say that nations are ungrateful at a given mo­ ment. A man has been the conscience of a people. By glo­ rifying that man, the people attest the existence of its own conscience". Hugo's own words might well be applied to himself. During his life he was many times exalted and many times debased, as the influence of the sentiments which he advocated prevailed or met with defeat. V/e may recall the fact that at one time (1851) he was banished from his country and remained an exile for almost twenty years. Who knows anything of Victor Hugo and does not call to mind that great moment in the Theatre. Francais,(Feb­ ruary 25th, 1830) when his "Hernani" was presented. It was a fierce battle, raging between the Romanticists and Classicists, but Hugo's genius was victorious. Now it is only with the deepest admiration that the world looks upon this drama.

It has been only seventeen years since Hugo's life came to an end, and it is no wonder, then, that it is hard to measure his renown and determine'his place in litera­ ture. The works of real genius appear more and more re­ splendent as we meditate on them, and knowing how recent are the works of Victor Hugo we may barely imagine what Time will do. However it is reasonable to believe that they will receive their just and "true consecration". Few deserve the name of "master" better than Hugo. His contemporaries were simply his disciples. Notwith­ standing those writers who sought to mar his glory - his talent was recognized by his greatest fellow authors. He set forth the highest sentiments and was such an advocate for the people as the world has seldom seen. He raised his voice for humanity in its weakness, oppression and sor­ row and consoled and strengthened it. "He had a great mind and a still greater heart".

America should be particularly interested in Victor Hugo because of the fact that many of his political ideals were in harmony with ours. It might be well to quote from a letter written by Victor Hugo to Mrs. Chapman, who wrote to him for help in the- cause of the Abolitionists. He says: "I agree with you that it is impossible that the United States of America should not within a certain time give up slavery. Slavery in such a country! Was there ever such a monstrous contradiction? ***********Liberty in chains, blasphemy proceeding from the altar, the negro's fetters riveted to the pedestal of Washington's statue. It is impossible. Let all generations take courage ******** The United States must either give up slavery or give up liberty. They will not give up liberty". Born in 1802, Hugo gave to the world his first work in 1817. He was called the poet laureate of the Restoration. He was a member of the Assembly. In 1845 he was made a Peer of France and in 1851 he was banished. After his ex­ ile (1870) he came back and was again in the Assembly, and a few years later he was a member of Senate. Yet how lit­ tle do these incidents show that "Titanic vitality" and boundless energy put into his life. It cannot be said that Hugo was a man of great political genius but rather a man of great imagination together with this great vitality which, one author says, "drove him through life with a touch of demonic energy". Although Hugo had a wealth of imagination he did not possess any great originality of ideas. Everything attacked his imagination and it absorb­ ed his lesser faculties.

Hugo stood for the freedom from personal element in art - which is a lyrical movement itself, and his super!- ority undoubtedly lay in his lyrism. In his works, he brings forth not only his ideas, but also a re-echoing of the world's passion, and because of this he was powerful. In Les Feuilles d'Automne - a work of 1631- Hugo dis­ plays a lyrism of the heart — he is extremely sensitive to "feelings for hearth and home - with a charity for human kind, a faith in God, and a hope of immortality". Fre­ quently in the poem, however, we see the spirit of public indignation break forth.

As a novelist also does Hugo remain famous, and even more so as a dramatist. However it is enough to say, here, that as a lyric poet was he superior, both to anything he has done and certainly to what others have done. Barbou says: "all childish brains are impregnated with the ideas of those who rear them. Parents sow in this fertile soil both convictions and prejudices; seeds which education develops and affection ripens, and which become gigantic plants, that the grown man left to his own reason, rends pitilessly". We may account naturally then for Hugo's early royalistic feelings, though these changed as he be­ came older. Hugo was a royalist in his youth because his mother was a royalist. Hugo's mother, however, ardent roy­ alist as she may have been, did not possess those qualities of mind, which are so evident in the son. Madame Hugo, the wife, said of the mother that while in Spain she felt nothing but the "badness of its roads and the bite of its fleas". She was strangely Hacking in that poetic nature with which Hugo was so endowed. On the other hand let us look at the father of the poet. In his chiefly military writings there is nothing whatever of the genius of the poet, no eloquence, no metaphors or no anthitheses. But there are some traits in the works of the father, which be­ came evident in the works of the son. The principal traits common to both father and son are the high moral ideas. With this glimpse of the mother and father of Hugo, we indeed think it strange, even mysterious, that from them should have sprung the greatest poet of French Literature. He began life an ugly little creature, as we know, but from his youth, it has been said that probably no other "child of genius" was so peculiarly blessed in his education. In his youth were those things which stored up in his mind the material for, what afterward became, "Hernani*,'Les Miser- ables' and still others. There were things that passed un­ observed by his brothers and were scarcely more noticed by his father, but these were the same things which the child afterwards moulded into golden poetry and romantic fiction. We might relate many instances of his childhood and youth which could be easily traced into many of his works. When in Paris the boy's education continued to be a fortunate one. He had, as he afterwards tells us, "three masters, a garden, an old priest and his mother". Every reader of poetry will recall the poem where he immortalizes the old garden. We must mention also, because of its great impor­ tance, the rich and abundant experiences in Spain. These experiences furnished splendid material for his genius to work upon and enriched and strengthened almost all of his most important works. At the time of the separation of Hugo's father and mother, which event made a deep impression upon him, there were found the following words in his diary, "Our fathers see in Napoleon only the man who gave them epaulettes; our mothers see in Bonaparte only the man who took away their sons". It was not for several years after this that the Royalist in Hugo died out - though it burned in him only feebly toward the last. It was after his marriage that Hugo caught the spirit of the new age and the development of his mind was so rapid that it gave the idea of sudden­ ness. A better idea of his change in beliefs can be gainrr ed, by quoting from Hugo himself. He says "My ancient Royalist Catholic creed of 1820 has crumbled away piece by piece. It is nothing now but a religious and poetic ruin. I turn towards it sometimes to consider it with respect, but I go there no more to pray".

The child who was to become the greatest poet in French literature came into the world on February 26th, 1802. He was born at Besancon, in the place Saint-Quentin, in a house known to-day as Barrette- House. The infant /•. was very small and exceedingly frail and sickly. In a poem on his infancy Hugo represents himself forsaken by all, save his mother, whose tender love and care made him doubly her child. He was so ugly in his infancy, that the young­ er brother Eugene, who was just beginning to talk, exclaim­ ed on seeing Victor "Oh, the little monster!" While still very small he was taken with the rest of the family to the Isle of Elba. The first language that Hugo spoke was the Italian of the isles. General Hugo, the father of the poet was at the time of Victor Hugo's birth, a captain in the French army. Real­ izing the hardships of the unsettled life that his family had to lead on his account, Hugo the father, sent his wife with the three little ones to Paris. From this time date the earliest recollections of Victor Hugo. He remembers their house in the Rue de Clichy, the court, the well and the willow tree by it.

During their sojourn in Paris General Hugo had under­ gone many dangers and fatigues in various adventures, and the king as a reward made him governor of Avellino, Italy being pacified; the governor summoned his wife and children to his side. The stay here was scarcely more than a year'5 duration, but nevertheless long enough to make a lasting impression upon the mind of the future poet.

General Hugo must next go to Madrid and so separated from his family sending them again to Paris. This time Madame Hugo chose a home in the alley of the Feuillantines 8

a large place with an immense garden. Here she devoted herself to the education of her sons. The eldest son was sent to a boarding school and the two younger were taught reading, writing and arithmetic by a good and learned man, Pere Lariviere Victor had taught himself his letters and soon learned to write a fine hand and to spell correctly. Madame Hugo certainly fulfilled her mission in the educa­ tion of her sons. Barbou says of her, "She knew how to give her children sound and wholesome lessons, teachings free alike from mys­ ticism and superstition. She aided in making them more worthy of the name they bore. Happy are they who grow up under the shelter of such devotion and such love". It was here in the Feuillantines that Hugo found a great and good friend in General Lahourie , who was intro­ duced as a relative by Madame Hugo and who lodged in an abandoned structure at the foot of the garden. He was in hiding because five years before he had been implicated in General Moreau's conspiracy. He was however discovered and thrown into prison from which he was taken three years lat­ er to be shot. This event made a painful impression upon Hugo's mind.

More tender recollections of the Feuillantines were of the times'v/hen a little girl of the neighborhood came to play by the well and the swing. The little girl was Adele Foucher who afterwards became the wife of Hugo. In the spring*-of 1811 Madame Hugo with her children again left Paris to rejoin General Hugo at Madrid;'.. Of the splendors of Spain, Hugo afterwards wrote in immortal verse. The children gained much from the life in Spain. "The sun of the Sierras, in bronzing their characters, al­ so gilded their imaginationsV In 1813 Madame Hugo return­ ed to Paris. At the age of twelve Hugo wrote his first verses, Ro­ land and Chivalry, being their theme, About this time came the fall of the empire, its invasion and the second Resto­ ration - and with this - the mingling of Hugo's beliefs* During Victor Hugo's school days at the pension Cor*- dier and Decotte, where he was put by his father, he did in truth try his hand at verse making. Everybody at that time wrote verses. Hugo rhymed day and night and on the first page of his last book of rhymes, he wrote later:- "The follies committed before my birth". Such was the childhood of our great Victor Hugo.

Romanticism is briefly "liberalism in literature" and this meaning of the word may be aptly applied to that great movement in France which was the outgrowth of the Revolution, This movement though new in France at that time, had been taken up by other nations of Europe long before. The works of Lessing, Goethe, and Schiller being prominent in Germany, while those of Shakespeare and Byron were famous 10

in England. Chateaubriand was the first of the reformers in literature then Madame de Stael, with her great work 'Germany*, next Lamartine and last Victor Hugo, who was un­ deniably the leader. Under his guidance the whole French drama and all poetry and fiction have been "enrolled under the banner of Romanticism" among the historians of this school there are, in France, Michelet and Augustin Thierry ; while Balzac and George Sand are its romancers and Lamar­ tine, Musset and Gautier, its poets. It is natural for people to be displeased with whatever is new and strange to them in literature. Just such was the condition, at first, when the French public were pre­ vailed upon to accept their new literature. It was not alone from the fact that it was new and strange but in ac­ cepting this they must necessarily throw aside many princi­ ples and conventionalities that they had clung to for so long. The Classicists for a long time held up against the Romanticists. There were fierce struggles — not only a "hurling of epithets ", but real fist combats and even duels. It is hard for us at the present time to realize just what an upheaval there was when the new school of Ro­ manticists began to live. The names given the two parties- the Classicists and Romanticists - by each other are fit - ting in a way, at least they give a very clear notion of the conception in which they held each other. The Roman­ ticists called the Classicists "mummies" and the Classicists 11

on the other hand called the Romanticists "savages". Hugo became the leader of the Romantic school and the stage was freed from all the fetters that bound it before. Victor Hugo was spurred on and encouraged to the writ­ ing of his "Cromwell" by Talma, the 'great actor. In his preface to the work Hugo proclaims for the author "the right of recognizing no rule but his own fancy, of making if i he pleases the. grotesque elbow the sublime, of re­ garding everything from his own personal point of view". After'Cromwell'Hugo wrote 'Marion Delorme' which met with considerable opposition, but not discouraged he set to work and soon brought forth another drama "Hernani" which was received with enthusiasm at the theatre Francais. The pre­ sentation of "Hernani" was a test for the Romanticists who were protesting against the Classicists, who up to that time had held complete control of the French stage. Briefly the drama is this: Hernani, the chief of a company of bandits, Ruy Gomez, an old man and Carlos, King of Spain, are all in love with Dona Sol, who is under the guardianship of Don Ruy Gomez. Dona Sol loves only Hernani and receives him secretly at night. One time as she vows her love for him and declares that she will follow him wherever he goes whether he is demon or angel, she is over­ heard by Don Carlos. He appears and is about to cross swords with Hernani when Don Ruy appears. Don Ruy recog­ nizes the King and Hernani escapes feigning to belong to 12

the King's suite. After a time Don Carlos is made Emper­ or as Charles V. Hernani, who had been conspiring against him is pardoned and with the consent of the King is be­ trothed to Dona Sol. But previous to this, Hernani had on account of a protection given him by Don Ruy Gomez against the same Carlos,- promised to give Don Ruy his life when­ ever he should demand it. Now just at the time of the nuptial festivities, the old duke maddened with jealousy and rage, gives the signal requiring the life of Hernani.

Hernani resigns himself to his death, and Dona Sol takes i the poison from the same vial and they are happy in dying together. The old man witnesses their death and then kills himself. The drama is a magnificent one and contains many ad­ mirable situations, though the unity of action is not per­ fect. It was not until about eight years after its first presentation , however that'Hernani' was greeted with unan­ imous applause, and at that time it had complete triumph.

Victor Hugo, great poet that he was, attained his greatness only through some bitter conflicts but what mat=- ter when victory is at the end.

When he would have brought 'Marion Delorme' before the public M. de Martignac, the Prime Minister chose to ex­ press a view that in the fourth act of the drama- Hugo had ridiculed the King, Louis XIII and that it would lead people to draw comparisons between Louis XIII and the pres- 13

ent King at that time (Charles X), who were in truth, in many ways alike. Hugo eloquently pleaded his cause be­ fore Charles X. He said that it had not been his inten­ tion to "smite a living king in the face but a blow on the cheek of a dead king" and that it was Louis XIII and not Charles X that he wished t$> describe, Nevertheless his plea was of no avail and the representation of the piece was refused him. However "Marion Delorme" was played two years later at the time of the exile of the King. In 1831 when the work was no longer considered an offense it was played at the Theatre Porte-Sainte Martin. After the first representation one critic said of it: "These fine impassioned and superb acts contain everything -- laughter, tears, pity, terror and above all surprise. In fact, VictOB Hugo a powerful and bold innovator had done every­ thing to attain his end. He had to change the public taste, to renew our whole literature, and after unnumbered conflicts, he has built an eternal monument upon the ruins of an old edifice".

After 'Marion Delorme' came 'Le Roi s'Amuse which was written in 1832 and played in the same year at the Theatre Francais. The King represented is Francis I. The King's fool Tribaulet hates the King. Tribaulet has a beautiful daughter whom he seeks to hide but the King takes her from him. In trying to avenge himself on the King, Tribaulet kills his child instead of the monarch, whom he sought to 14

kill.

Just as the ministry of Charles X had felt that Hugos portrayal of Louis XIII in 'Marion Delorme' might reflect on the character of Charles X, so the ministry of Louis Phillipe felt that the portrayal of Francis I in the Roi Amuse might reflect on their King. Hugo had, however, re­ fused to submit his manuscript before its representation. After it was first played great excitement followed. The audience hissed and sneered. The next day a further rep­ resentation was forbidden by ministerial edict, on the grounds of immorality. It is thought that probably this was only the work of revenge on the part of some of the • classic authors who were at that time holding the office of deputies. Hugo again made a stirring and eloquent appeal

but again it was of no avail. 'Lucrece Borgia' a prose drama appeared later. Victor Hugo has clearly given his conception of dram­ atic art in his two great works 'Le Roi s'Amuse' and 'Luc:; crece Borgia'. Of these he says: "These two works so op­ posite in plot, in form and destiny are closely linked in thought. The idea which produced one, produced the other. They were feorn at the same moment, of the same heart-throb.

In 'Le Roi s'Amuse' take the most hideous physical deformity, the most repulsive,most complete, place it where it best belongs, in the most infamous, the lowest, the most desuised story of the social edifice; illumine this wretch 15

ed creature on all sides with a*sinister light of contrast and then endow him with a soul; put into this soul the purest sentiment that can be given to a man — the paternal sentiment; what will happen? This divine sentiment warm­ ed in accordance with certain conditions will transform this degraded creature under your very eyes. This dwarf will become great — this deformed being will become beautiful. In 'Lucrece Borgia' — take the most hideous moral de­ formity, the most repulsive, the most complete, place it where it best belongs, in the heart of a woman with all the conditions of physical beauty and royal grandeur, which give still greater license to crime, and now blend with this moral deformity a sentiment the purest woman can ex­ perience,- the maternal sentiment. Transform your monster into a mother and this monster will interest you, and make you weep; this creature who called forth fear will evoke pity; this deformed soul will become almost beautiful in your eyes. In 'Le Roi s'Amusi' paternity sanctifies physical de­ formity and in 'Lucrece Borgia* maternity sanctifies moral deformity. Hugo believes that social questions are involved in many literary questions and that many moral lessons are to be gained. Hugo's'Ruy Bias' was represented at the theatre 'Re­ naissance' which was devoted to the romantic school. 'Ruy 16

Bias' is a fivie act drama in verse and it gained immediate success. says "its philosophic subject is the people aspiring to higher regions; its human subject is a man who loves a woman; and its dramatic subject is a lackey who loves a queen". 'Ruy Bias* is full of high sentiments and great thoughts. Victor Hugo is a poet different from others in that he is a "student" poet. He is not like Lamartine who is a poet as naturally as he breathes, neither is he like Alfred de Vigney who possesses a nature of abnormal impressionabil­ ity. But Hugo was equally balanced morally and physically and supplemented his talent with labor and energy. We do not find in Hugo as in sov-many:£oets a seemingly spon­ taneous outburst*, but we find rather considerable applica­ tion,. Hugo has devoted his life to his art and has not left it to be taken up at idle moments. "I do not leave to chance what we like to call inspiration" he says. One might feel, that being such 'studied' poetry, Hugo had kept his heart entirely out of his peotry, but it is not so. His whole soul is in his poetry and the varied music

of his lyre ±s delightful. Hugo points well the exterior world and equally as well does he picture moral life. We never find the "ravings of passion" voiced in Hugo because his conception was too high. In whatever he wrote, his purpose was to instruct and moralize. He is an avowed en­ emy to art for art's sake. He is concerned just as much 17

with the moral tendency of his lyrics as with that of his dramas. For Hugo the result of art was in a word "civil­ ization" and he leads up to this by various paths" through the theatre as well as through books, through the novel as well as through the drama, through history as well as through poetry. Though the torch which he leads before the people often wavers in his hand, he at least bears its light toward the highest questions that have agitated our age ". It is as a lyric poet that Hugo stands highest in his own country. No one has done so much for the language as he; no one has such a perfect command of all its resources^ no one can bring such dainty melodies from a formal stiff ness, nor wield it with such surpassing strength that it glows with tender beauty and sweetness. In Hugo's poetry is that unique and magical quality of music so unmistakably his own. Its changes and modulations are infinite, always some new grace of expression. His weird and intense imag­ inations given play in his poems as in his novels. "Never have sweeter words, gentler prayers, or more passionate cries of love come from a poet than have issued from the heart of Victor Hugo".

Unprovided with sufficient subjects from his personal experience, Hugo turned to Greece and Spain. Spain was connected with his boyhood and awakened many tender memo­ ries. 18

The first, of Hugo's-lyrics, is his "Odes and Ballads" and even in these early poems he displays a wonderful wealth of imaginations. His Odes belong really to the tra­ ditions of the 18th century. The collection is somewhat stiff, but many of them, especially the later ones, show a new manner in an easier and freer art. In his Ballads, Hugo has given his imagination a ful­ ler sway. It is said that Hugo became the Troubador of the Middle Ages". Here, too, we have betrayed a taste for color and picturesque effect. Hugo's 'Orientales' as he said were suggested by the setting sun. These poems were written to be beautiful and from that standpoint they are certainly a success. Aside from this there cannot be so much said of them. Three years after his 'Orientales' Hugo wrote his 'Feuilles d'Automne' which seems to come from an entirely different inspiration. We feel that he is, more nearly master of his lyre than ever before. He seems to have freed himself from the narrow beliefs of his childhood. In his 'Chants du Crepuseule'1 there seems to be a veil of obscurity and doubt thrown about. "There are sometimes cries of despair and sometimes songs of love; but his cries are often faltering and his songs broken by plaints" Hugo's 'Voix Interieures* are the echo from the fire­ side, the fields and the street, standing for man,nature, and events. 19

The idea of Independence is brought forth in 'Les Rayons et les Ombres'. He claims for the poet the right to "be free in his affection to those who serve; in his aversion toward wrong-doers; in his pity for those who suffer". In 'Les Rayons et les Ombres' there are some little poems that are especially sweet and tender. The following is a little gem.

La tombe dit a la rose: "Des pleurs dont 1'aube arrose Que fais tu fleur des amours?" La rose dit a la tombe Que fais tu de ce qui tombe Dans ton gouffre ouvert toujours?"

La rose dit: "Tombeau sombre, Des ces pleurs je fais dans 1'ombre Un parfum d'ombre et de miel".

La tombe dit: "Fleur plaintive, De chaque ame qui m*arrive je fais un ange du ciel!"

In this is the retaliation of romantic idealism against the scepticism which characterizes the realistic movement. Hugo's faith in the future and in the people never wavers. "Progress, Liberty and Humanity" are his watchwords. 20

Les 'Contemplations' appear twenty five years after the poems of the first period. In.a preface, Hugo says of them -"Were there no pretensions in the language I might call these 'Contemplations' the 'Memoirs of a Soul'. In reality they are the impressions, the recollections, real­ ities the phantoms - vague, joyous or mournful which belong to my experience, and which I have merged, sigh by sigh, sparkle by sparkle in one long plaint of wailing". The daughter of Victor Hugo having been drowned with her husband a few days after her marriage, he wrote thus, in his sorrow:

"II est temp que je me repose Je suis terasse' par le sort Ne me parley pas d'autre chose Que des te'nebres au 1'on dort ! Helas! cet ange au front si.beau Peut etre a froid dans son tombeau, Peut etre livide at palie Dit elle dans son lit etroit Est ce que mon pere m'oublie II n'est plus la que j'ai si frbid" 21

The novels of Hugo occupy an important place in the history of literature and in order to gain a satisfactory or true estimate of him as a novelist, one should study those novels which treat of different phases of life. 'Les Miserables', for instance, is a study of man's con­ flict with society. 'Toilers of the Sea)'of man's conflict with nature; 'Notre Dame de Paris', of man's conflict with religion and 'Quatrevingt treize ' showing man's conflict with politics. Few novels can take a stronger hold on the reader than 'Les Miserables' and this is probably the best known and appreciated of all Hugo's novels. The work is a di­ rect appeal to the feelings from beginning to end. We find in it that which is so characteristic of Hugo, a ming­ ling of the horrible with the beautiful, and we have it as a true picture of life. 'Les Miserables1 contains the same, and generally monotonous characters, that we see in our modern realistic plays. Javert> the detective is So painted^as to throw all similar characters deep in the shad­ ow. Hugo lenows wonderfully well how to excite physical horror and not a little of his success is due to this very fact. We find this especially true in the case of Fantine, Every one deeply sympathizes with Fantine at the descrip* tions of her suffering. She sells her first hair for money, then her teeth and last of all herself. Hugo brings before us Jean Valjean, the hero of the novel in the same 22

manner. He describes the strong man fettered, and we see him buffeted at every turn, thus all our sympathy is arous­ ed as we read horror after horror in connection with his life. In 'Les Miserables' also we may study a wonderful por­ trayal of human nature. In this Hugo reveals his whole soul, his ardent love for the people, his sense of justice and his indignation against a society that scorns the downtrodden. Jean Valjean is a repentant galley slave who wants to redeem his faults and become honest but the law, not content with having punished him refuses him all roads to respectability or success. Jean Valjean awakens in- us an admiration and respect from the first, or at least from the moment when the Bishop takes him into his house and places the greatest confidence and trust in him. We follow him with intense interest in all his wanderings. We grow to love him, almost worship him as we see him pro­ tect the poor way-faring Fantine, in his sublime treatment of Javert and his tender care of Cosette. Often times he endangers his own life in helping others. Of the despica­ ble characters there are Javert and Thenardier and his wife who had for a time the guargianship of Cosette.

The book is full of pathos, full of truth and high elo­ quence. There is no modern writer, that has depicted mis­ ery as he has and yet has never debased his art — he ever remains the superb artist. 23

In whatever light we may choose to regard Hugo, still there enters as much of the poet as any other feature. Without the poetic element in Hugo to add splendor and b••..:•-.! beauty t6 h&s work, it would be regarded as very mediocre. One critic has said "He was a master-singer of lyrics and a master-maker of satires. His song was as pure as the spring on the hillside and his satire as scorching as the steel when it flows from the crucible. He is mighty in romance and moving in history". 24

REFERENCES.

History of French Literature Van Laun Life and Works of Victor Hugo Barbou 19th Century, 34-733 Harper, 64-322 Atlantic Monthly, 36 Forum -I Scribner -12. " Vol. 21, p. 108 Literary Movement in France Pelissier Outlook, Vol. 70- No. 10