1802-1885.
The foremost literary figure of the century in France. His commanding
influence as the chief of the Romantic school and the champion of a
revolution in literary doctrine and practice has led to his being
generally considered in connection with the movement to which he gave
such a powerful impulse. But he was not merely a great party chief and
a great influence. He was also a great poet, and a great lyric
poet. He was that by reason of the breadth and variety of his lyric
performance, the surprising mastery of form that he showed, the new
capacities for picturesque expression that he discovered in the
language or created for it, the new possibilities of rhythm and melody
that he opened to it, and the range, power, and sincerity of many of
the thoughts and feelings to which he gave so sonorous and musical a
body. No doubt in a large part of his early work, as _les Orientales_,
the body was more to him than the spirit that it lodged. Poetry to
him was an art that had its technical side, like any other. The
development of its technical resources had a charm of its own, and he
had the artist's delight in skillful and exquisite workmanship. The
mastery that he attained was so perfect, he seemed so fully to exhibit
the utmost capacities of the language for the most various effects of
rhythm and harmony, that Théodore de Banville said of _la Légende des
siècles_ that it must be the Bible and the Gospel of every writer of
French verse. But he did not stop with the dexterity and virtuosity of
the craftsman. More and more he used the mastery that he had achieved
not for the mere pleasure of practicing or exhibiting it, but to give
fitting and adequate expression to feelings and to thoughts. The
domestic affections, the love of country, and the mystery of death had
the deepest hold upon him, and whenever he approaches these themes he
is almost sure to be genuine and sincere. His pity for the poor and
unfortunate was very tender, and was the real spring of a great deal
of his democracy, and he had a fine gift of wrathful indignation,
which was called into exercise especially by Napoleon III. No part of
his lyrical production is more spontaneous and genuine than many
poems of _Les Châtiments_. There was from the first a bent towards
philosophical reflection observable in him, and in the latter part
of his life, beginning with _les Contemplations_ and _la Légende des
siècles_, it preponderated more and more over the lyrical impulse,
though the latter was never reduced to silence for long.
Works: _Odes et Poésies diverses_, 1822; _Nouvelles Odes_, 1824;
_Odes et Ballades_, 1826, 1828; _les Orientales_, 1829; _les Feuilles
d'Automne_, 1831; _les Chants du crépuscule_, 1835; _les Voix
intérieures_, 1837; _les Rayons et les ombres_, 1840; _les
Châtiments_, 1853; _les Contemplations_, 1856; _la Légende des
siècles_, 1859, 1876, 1883; _les Chansons des rues et des bois_, 1865;
_l'Année terrible_, 1872; _l'Art d'être grandpère_, 1876; _les Quatre
Vents de l'esprit_, 1881; _Toute la lyre_, 1889, 1893. The most
convenient form in which they are now to be found is the _ne varietur_
edition of Hetzel-Quantin in 16mo, at two francs a volume; the volumes
correspond to those given above, except that the first three are all
included in the one _Odes et Ballades_.
For reference: Sainte-Beuve, _Portraits contemporains_, vol. i; E.
Caro, _Poètes et romanciers_, 1888; A. Barbou, _Victor Hugo_, 1882; E.
Dupuy, _Victor Hugo, l'homme et le poète_, 1887; L. Mabilleau, _Victor
Hugo_, 1893 ; E. Biré, _Victor Hugo avant 1830_, 1883; _Victor Hugo
après 1830_, 2 vols., 1891; _Victor Hugo après 1852_, 1894; A. C.
Swinburne, _Victor Hugo_, London, 1886; C. Renouvier, _Victor Hugo,
le poète_, 1893; E. Dowden, _Studies in Literature_, London, 1878; E.
Faguet, _le Dix-neuvième siècle_, 1887; F. Brunetière, _Évolution de
la poésie lyrique_, 2 vols., 1894.
95. LES DJINNS. August, 1828; from _les Orientales_. The poem is
especially noteworthy from a technical point of view. The quiet
before the descent of the spirits, their approach, their fury, their
receding, and the quiet that follows, are suggested by the movement of
the lines. The motto is from Dante's _Inferno_, Canto v, 46-49; he is
describing the tormented spirits of the carnal malefactors "Who reason
subjugate to appetite." Djinns are spirits of Mohammedan popular
belief, created of fire, and both good and evil. The vowel is not
nasal.