- Paperback: 225 pages
- Publisher: French & European Pubns (1 Oct 1971)
- Language French
- ISBN-10: 0785910727
- ISBN-13: 978-0785910725
- Product Dimensions: 16.3 x 10.9 x 1.3 cm
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Product details
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Victor Hugo was one of the greatest personalities of French literature. Though not without the faults and eccentricities which frequently characterize great geniuses, he never entered any field of literature without excelling in it. The novel, the lyric, the drama, criticism, all fell from his facile pen without apparent effort.
Hugo died in Paris on May 22, 1885. He was given at his death a national funeral. It was attended by two million people. Victor Hugo is buried in the Pantheon. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
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I have adopted the twelve syllable metre of rhyming verse, because it is the nearest approach possible to the great original, and carries out the design I had from the first, namely: to render into English the form, as well as, if possible, the spirit of the great French drama.
End of quote.
The story is of court intrigue in Spain in the late seventeenth century but Victor Hugo is writing about human nature in general. Not a pretty sight !
It is strange for the modern reader to be presented with social attitudes of a bygone age and they are rather difficult for us to appreciate but that is, presumably what it was like in those days. How the world has changed !
Rather frustratingly, we do not know the translator's name or when the work was done but I am impressed with his effort.
In my opinion, this is certainly worth reading for it's own sake as well as being an excellent pre-cursor to reading it French.