Archiv der Kategorie: Classics of Fiction (English)

The History of a Crime – Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo wrote this work whilst in exile for taking part in the events herein described. His story is thrillingly told. The world for the first time gets all the details of the coup d’ état by which Louis Napoleon became emperor of France. The book reads like a novel, and yet its action only goes over two days and is all strictly historical. Its publication caused a great excitement in Paris that October, and probably prevented a similar attack upon the liberties of France and the Republic. At all events, it was this fear which caused Victor Hugo to make his testimony public; for he said, “This work is more than … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...

Bug-Jargal – Victor Hugo

The story is a dramatic episode of the revolt of the blacks of St. Domingo in 1791. Bug-Jargal, the hero, is a negro, a slave in the household of a planter. He is secretly in love with his master’s daughter, a poetic child, betrothed to her cousin, Leopold d’Auverney. The latter saves the life of Bug-Jargal, who is condemned to death for an act of rebellion. When the great revolt breaks out, and the whole island is in flames, Bug-Jargal protects the young girl, and saves the life of her lover. He even conducts D’Auverney to her he loves, and then, in the fullness of sublime abnegation, he surrenders himself to the whites, who shoot him … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...

Ninety-Three – Victor Hugo

The Revolution at its apogee, the fatal term of the contest waged by new ideas against the old social order, by liberty against despotism, by law against tyranny; and from this conflict, from this atmosphere of blood, progress and humanity triumphantly disengaging themselves; —such is the essence of the book. The drama, intermingled with graceful episodes and charming situations, is acted upon that ancient Vendéan soil, whose wild, picturesque landscapes are reproduced by the master’s pen. This romance obtained a success equal to that of Les Misérables.

Ninety-Three

Format: Paperback

Ninety-Three.

ISBN: 9783849676940.

Available at amazon.com and other venues.

The Writings of Victor Hugo (from Wikipedia):

Hugo published his first novel the year following his … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...

The Man Who Laughs – Victor Hugo

“The Man Who Laughs” (“L’Homme qui Rit”) was called by its author “A Romance of English History,” and was written during the period Hugo spent in exile in Guernsey. Like “The Toilers of the Sea,” its immediate predecessor, the main theme of the story is human heroism, confronted with the superhuman tyranny of blind chance. As a passionate cry on behalf of the tortured and deformed, and the despised and oppressed of the world, “The Man Who Laughs” is irresistible. Of it Hugo himself says in the preface: “The true title of this book should be “Aristocracy’”—inasmuch as it was intended as an arraignment of the nobility for their vices, crimes, and selfishness. … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...

Les Misérables Volume 2 – Victor Hugo

Les Misérables is widely regarded as the greatest epic and dramatic work of fiction ever created or conceived: the epic of a soul transfigured and redeemed, purified by heroism and glorified through suffering; the tragedy and the comedy of life at its darkest and its brightest, of humanity at its best and at its worst. The novel elaborates upon the history of France, the architecture and urban design of Paris, politics, moral philosophy, antimonarchism, justice, religion, and the types and nature of romantic and familial love. This is part one of two, containing the first two volumes (“Fantine”, “Cosette”) and the first seven books of volume three (”Marius”).

Les Misérables Volume 2

Format: … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...

Les Misérables Volume 1 – Victor Hugo

Les Misérables is widely regarded as the greatest epic and dramatic work of fiction ever created or conceived: the epic of a soul transfigured and redeemed, purified by heroism and glorified through suffering; the tragedy and the comedy of life at its darkest and its brightest, of humanity at its best and at its worst. The novel elaborates upon the history of France, the architecture and urban design of Paris, politics, moral philosophy, antimonarchism, justice, religion, and the types and nature of romantic and familial love. This is part one of two, containing the first two volumes (“Fantine”, “Cosette”) and the first seven books of volume three (”Marius”).

Les Misérables Volume 1

Format: … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...

The Toilers of the Sea – Victor Hugo

A fisherman encounters all the fury, and caprice, and treachery of outer nature in order to win a woman whom on his return he finds to have unconsciously but irrevocably lost her heart to another. But this plainest of stories is worked into genuine tragedy by an exercise of poetic power which, at least in some portions of its display, has very rarely been surpassed in literature. It is difficult to dissent from those who fancy they discover in the author’s three volumes a romance, an epic poem, and a drama of real life. There is also in the volumes a charming idyl, full of grace, sweetness, and simplicity. If there be … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...

Notre-Dame de Paris – Victor Hugo

‘Notre-Dame de Paris’, also known as ‘The Hunchback of Notre-Dame’ is the best-known novel of French romanticist Victor Hugo. The story about the gypsy Esmeralda, who captures the hearts of Captain Phoebus, Pierre Gringoire, the bell-ringer Quasimodo and his guardian Archdeacon Claude Frollo is an all-time classic and a must-read for all fans of French novels.

Notre-Dame de Paris

Format: Paperback

Notre-Dame de Paris.

ISBN: 9783849676834.

Available at amazon.com and other venues.

The Writings of Victor Hugo (from Wikipedia):

Hugo published his first novel the year following his marriage (Han d’Islande, 1823), and his second three years later (Bug-Jargal, 1826). Between 1829 and 1840, he published five more volumes of poetry (Les Orientales, … Read more.../Mehr lesen ...

Hans of Iceland – Victor Hugo

Since the awful times in which Monk Lewis used to chill the blood of the reading public, and revived in persons of mature age the terrors’ of infancy, there was hardly a romance so horrible, and, at the same time, so well written, as Hans of Iceland. The author has not confined himself to natural horrors, but has introduced, in the being who gives name to the work, a sort of half-demon, whose delight is in wickedness and cruelty. The book is a clever specimen of what is popularly known as the “blood and thunder” style of novel.

Hans of Iceland

Format: Paperback

Hans of Iceland.

ISBN: 9783849677176.

Available at amazon.com and other venues.… Read more.../Mehr lesen ...