Victor Hugo's Novels
If you came to this site without any previous knowledge about Victor Hugo, I envy you. You have so much to discover. But you are not unique; Hugo has become an obscurity in our age. For over a century, it has been a blasphemy to favour any writer who has the nerve to suggest that Man has the capability to change the course of his life. For political and philosophical reasons. None of our modern ideologies or regimes, democratic or dictatorial, wants a people running around thinking they are individuals responsible for their actions. It is better to have Man believe he is a victim of circumstance, just another piece in a larger social context. Such men are easier to handle, easier to govern. Such men can be found in the writings of naturalists and realists hailed in literature class. Maybe that is the reason why opening a Hugo novel is so refreshing to the mind and the soul. In the writings of Hugo, men do not do what they are supposed to, they don't act as they are expected to.
Victor Hugo entered the literary scene in a period when the printing industry boomed; cheaper books were printed in larger editions than ever, supplying literature to a rapidly growing mass of people able to read. Of Hugo's work, it was the novels that became available to readers outside the French-speaking world. Thus, it is through his novels he became known all over the world. If you had lived 150 years ago, you would have been unique if you had never heard of Victor Hugo.
It is the translations of his novels that are easiest to come by today. Some, like Les Miserables and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, are literary standards and new translations and editions are published continuously. Others, like The Man Who Laughs, can only be found in second-hand bookshops.
As I've noted in other sections of this site, my intention is not to provide the visitor with summaries and take-away schoolessays. You have to read him yourself. So the information you find here is restricted to the circumstances under which the novels were written and other related facts.
Some of the novels can be downloaded from the internet. I do not provide links to those because I think a book should be read as it was intended - and Hugo's writings definately have a given place in any bookshelf.
1829 THE LAST DAYS OF A CONDEMNED MAN
