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Victor Hugo (Magill Book Reviews)

At a glance:

In VICTOR HUGO Graham Robb examines two major aspects of Hugo’s life: his amorous adventures and his gradual transformation from a political conservative who supported the monarchy into a social activist who defended democratic values. Robb’s stress on the adulterous affairs of both Victor Hugo and his wife Adele is perhaps misplaced, but it does demonstrate that the Hugo family was quite dysfunctional. Juliette Drouet was Victor Hugo’s mistress from 1833 until 1883, but Victor and his wife maintained for decades the public facade of a loving and happy couple. Near the end of his life, Victor Hugo even published a very sentimental book about being a grandfather. Robb shows that he was a devoted grandfather only in this work of personal mythmaking.

Robb’s analysis of Victor Hugo’s political evolution is fascinating. Victor Hugo’s father had been a general in the army of Napoleon I. Perhaps as a reaction to his father’s abdication of his paternal responsibilities, Hugo rejected the First Empire and became a fervent supporter of the monarchy. By the end of the 1840’s, however, he changed his political beliefs and became the most eloquent voice of opposition to the dictatorship of Napoleon III during the 1850’s and 1860’s. During the almost two decades of his political exile, Hugo became a profound social critic and composed his masterpiece LES MISERABLES (1862).

This superb biography also includes a thirty-page bibliography to help readers discover for themselves the rich complexity of Victor Hugo’s life and works.

Sources for Further Study

Booklist. XCIV, February 15, 1998, p. 968.

Choice. XXXV, July, 1998, p. 1861.

Library Journal. CXXIII, April 1, 1998, p. 89.

The New Republic. CCXVIII, April 6, 1998, p. 38.

The New York Review of Books. XLV, December 17, 1998, p. 48.

The New York Times Book Review. CIII, February 15, 1998, p. 7.

The New Yorker. LXXIII, January 26, 1998, p. 76.

Publishers Weekly. CCXLV, January 19, 1998, p. 362.

The Times Literary Supplement. October 31, 1997, p. 27.

The Washington Post Book World. XXVIII, February 22, 1998, p. 1.

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