'93, 1874
Original title: Quatrevingt-treize
Victor Hugo started writing on his last novel on 21 November 1872. The title alluded to the year when Louis XVI was decapitated and Robespierre adapted terror to further the Revolution. Hugo had evaded the subject until now; it was the conflict between white and blue, between his revolutionary father and royalist mother, between his own beliefs as a young man and the convictions he came to cherish later in life - a conflict of France as well as a conflict of Hugo's self. The novel, however, was not about the torments of a soul, but of the battle between men, of the greatness and cruelty found in both camps. It was the third part of Hugo's series, depicting the birth of democracy - he obviously skipped part two about monarchy. Ironically, it is said that one of the characters in Ninety-Three, the ex-priest Cimourdain, inspired what was to become one of the most brutal champions of terror in history, Josef Stalin.
Hugo was very familiar with the settings of the plot. Fougéres and its surroundings was Juliette's birthplace and he had traveled with her to the area in 1836. He even gave one of the characters her birth name, Gauvain.
Notes:
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Ninety-Three was adapted for cinema in 1920.
