Life of Victor Hugo
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
H1--I71 I L LIN I S UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN PRODUCTION NOTE University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library Brittle Books Project, 2010. COPYRIGHT NOTIFICATION In Public Domain. Published prior to 1923. This digital copy was made from the printed version held by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It was made in compliance with copyright law. Prepared for the Brittle Books Project, Main Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign by Northern Micrographics Brookhaven Bindery La Crosse, Wisconsin 2010 BRAIZY---- OF THE UNIVERSITY Of ILLINOIS f 3 ro "Great Writers." EDITED BY PROFESSOR ERIC S. ROBERTSON, M.A. LIfE OF VICTOR H UGO. LIFE OF VICTOR HUGO FRANK T. ARZIALS LONDON WALTER SCOTT 24 WARWICK LANE, PATERNOSTER ROW 1888 (All rights reserved.) CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE Battle-field of Victor Hugo's life and work; his birth at Besangon, February 26, 1802; his parents; ancestral pretensions; his delicacy in infancy; nursed in the lap of war; at Paris in 1805 ; Colonel Hugo appointed Governor of Avellino ; his wife and children journey thither, October, I807; brigands hung along the road ; life at Avellino; Colonel Hugo follows King Joseph to Spain, June, 1808; the family return to Paris; happy days; the family join General Hugo in Spain, I8II ; adventuresby the way ; schooldays at Madrid; the family again returns to Paris, 1812; Victor's education, political and religious; M. Larivibre; General and Madame Hugo separate; Victor sent to the Pension Cordier et Decotte; he leaves school, August, 1818 . .. ...... II CHAPTER II. First exhibitions of genius; schoolboy versification; competes for the Academy prize for French poetry; honourably mentioned, 1817; resolves to devote himself to literature; General Hugo cuts off supplies; Victor resides with his mother; awarded medals for two odes at the "Floral Games " of Toulouse, 1819; writes for Conservateur Litteraire, December, 1819, to March, 1821; early allegiance to the classic school of poetry; "Odes et Podsies Diverses" published June, 1822 . 35 CONTENTS. CHAPTER III. PAGE Death of Madame Hugo, June, 1821; her opinion of Victor; Victor desolate ; fights a duel; love affairs; receives pension from Louis XVIII., September, 1822; marries in October ; a glimpse of the future; Madame Drouet; hard work ; " Han d'Islande" published, February, 1823 ; pension doubled; domestic sorrow; more odes; contri- butes to the Muse Franaise; Victor Hugo's "ideal novel "; Scott " prosaic "; "Nouvelles Odes," March, 1824; Charles X. adds the Cross of the Legion of Honour to the pension, April, 1825; gradual conversion of Victor Hugo to Romanticism, 1825-7. ...... 47 CHAPTER IV. Romanticism in Germany; England; France; the movement in France ; Chateaubriand, Madame de Stael, Andre Chinier, Lamartine, Alfred de Vigny ; Victor Hugo takes the field with his third volume of Odes, October, 1826; storms the classical position in the preface to " Crom- well," 1827; Victor Hugo's ideal drama; " Cromwell" not a great play; " Chasse du Burgrave" and "Pas d'Armes du Roi Jean," 1828 ; "Orientales," 1829; a superb book; its music; metre; glowing colour; Victor Hugo "Master" of the French Romantic School: its members; the Cenacle. ..... 63 CHAPTER V. Influence of Shakespeare on French stage; Charles Kemble and Edmund Kean in Paris, I827-8; Hugo's drama, "Marion de Lorme," prohibited by the Government, July, 1829 ; " Hernani," Autumn, I829; difficulties attending its production; the Romantic youth; first performance, February 25, 1830; fierce struggle ; vic- tory; the Romantic drama triumphant; a word for the Classicists ; " Marion de Lorme " produced, August, 1831; "Le Roi s'amuse," November, 1832 ; "Lucrece Borgia" and "Marie Tudor," 1833; "Angelo Tyran de Padoue," April, 1835; " Ruy Blas," November, 1838; "Les Burgraves," March, 1843; Victor Hugo's ambition as a dramatist; his social philosophy; history; characters; his plays written for the stage; plots, characters, and dialogue; verbal music; Rachel . 78 CONTENTS. CHAPTER VI. PAGE Novels since "Han d'Islande "; "Bug Jargal," January, 1826; a nigger hero; " Le Dernier Jour d'un Condamn6," February, 1829; capital punishment; Victor Hugo's sympathies on the subject; " N6tre Dame de Paris," February 13, 1831 ; " N6tre Dame " and " Quentin Durward" compared; the world of "N6tre Dame "; a living, terrible book; Victor Hugo an artist in prose as well as verse; holds first place in European literature after 1832; Goethe and " N6tre Dame ". Ioo CHAPTER VII. Victor Hugo as he appeared in 1831 ; a period of sadness; "Les Feuilles d'Automne," 1831; the poet of childhood; prose work, 1831-1848; " Litt6rature et Philosophie Meles," collected papers, 1834; "Claude Gueux," 1834; "Le Rhin," 1842; Poetry: " Les Chants du Crepuscule," 1835 ; " Les Voix Interieures," 1837 ; " Les Rayons et les Ombres," 1840 ; varied character and high quality of verse; elected an Academician, 1841; motives for seeking elec- tion; created a peer, April 13, 1845; his apartments and life in the Place Royale; his hospitality, grace, and courtesy in private life......... .115, CHAPTER VIII. Politics; his royalist tendencies soon wane; approves of the Revolution of 1830; an "opportunist" republican in 1848; the Revolution; elected to the Assemblee Con- stituante June 4th ; his views at the time; Louis Napoleon elected President; Victor Hugo elected member of the Assemblee L6gislative, June, 1849; becomes an extreme Radical; glittering but violent speeches; a prison scene; the Coup d'Etat, December 2, 1851; Hugo takes a promi- nent part in opposing it; he is driven into exile; arrives in Brussels, December 14, 1851 . 130 CHAPTER IX. Hugo's apartment in the Grande Place, Brussels; he writes "Histoire d'un Crime"; publishes "Napoleon le Petit " in summer of 1852; its style; the book causes his ex- pulsion from Brussels; he goes to Jersey; his house in Marine terrace, St. Helier; the family life there; "Les CONTENTS. PAGE Chatiments," 1853; its castigation of Napoleon; anti- imperialist works; the Queen's visit to Napoleon III.; the exiles attack the Queen in "L'Homme"; the Hugos are expelled from Jersey; they leave for Guernsey, October 31, 1855 ........... 146 CHAPTER X. Iauteville House; Victor Hugo's life there; his sons Charles and Francois; " Les Contemplations "; Leopo- dine Hugo drowned in 1843; "La Legende des Sicles "; character of the book ; " Les Miserables "; episodes; the story; resemblance between Marius and Victor Hugo him- self; " William Shakespeare ";Les Chansons des Rues et des Bois "; " Les Travailleurs de laMer"; "L'Homme qui rit"; an impossible book; family life at Hauteville House .......... 162 CHAPTER XI. Fall of the Empire; Victor Hugo returns to France, Sep- tember 5, 1870 ; addresses fruitless appealto the Germans; remains in Paris during the siege; elected to the Assembly at Bordeaux, February, 1871; resigns his seat; death of Charles Hugo ; half-sympathies with the Commune; again expelled from Belgium; "L'Annie Terrible "; "Quatre- vingt Treize"; character of the book; "Actes et Paroles "; second series of " La Legende des Siecles"; several books of verse; grandchildren Georges and Jeanne; hale old age; death on May 22, 1885; public funeral . 190 CHAPTER XII. Victor Hugo's own claim to universal respect ; to what extent admissible; some element of theatricality in his character must be admitted; his political and social philosophy; must be pronounced obsolete; value of his work not affected thereby; genius as a novelist; as a dramatist; as a poet; future of his work .. ...... 208 INDEX . 219 NOTE. HE reader would thank me very little for enume- rating here all the books and periodicals consulted during the composition of this short biography. My sheaf, comparatively small as it is, has been gleaned from many fields. Two debts, however, I feel in honour bound to acknowledge, one to Madame Hugo's "Victor Hugo racont6 par un Timoin de sa vie," and the other to M. Bird's " Victor Hugo avant 1830." F. T. M. LIFE OF VICTOR HUGO. CHAPTER I. T HERE are some men round whose name and fame and work it would almost seem as if human opinion were destined to rage in never-endingstrife. Such a man was Victor Hugo. For upwards of sixty years he remained conspicuous among his contemporaries, an object of passionate admiration, and almost equally passionate dislike. During the earlier portion of that period he stood in the forefront of the great battle be- tween the Romantic and Classical schools in French literature. To his followers he was the man of men, the "impeccable master," the genius of his age, a kind of sun-god dispelling the drear darkness of poetic routine and ancient night. To his adversaries he was a mere savage, a monster, rudely violating his mother tongue,. and setting all sane traditions at defiance. Then, when that battle had in a measiure fought itself out, came even fiercer warfare in the world of politics. The Revolution of 1848, fitful, sudden, erratic, drove Louis Philippe from the throne of France. A short-lived Republic followed. But in the Republic was soon visible what some hailed as the dawn, and others cursed as the coming night of 12 LIFE OF Imperialism. Among those who cursed was Victor Hugo, and his talents in that kind were simply magnifi- cent. What winged words, tipped with venom and flame, did he not discharge at Napoleon III.! And how cordially the Imperialists hated him in return But even when the Empire had been swept into the dust-heap of human failures - even then, amid the shouts that hailed the poet as the laureate of French democracy, discordant voices might still be heard. Not yet had unanimity been reached. A new literary school ,.arose professing to be neither classical nor romantic, but " naturalist." Facts, realism, science, such were, and .are, the watchwords of M. Zola and his Comus-rout. Weighed in a balance that takes no account of what is ideal, or beautiful, or sublime, no wonder if Victor Hugo's work is found lighter than vanity itself.