Victor Hugo's Plays

• Date: 1800 - 1849 & 1851 - 1899

• Location: Europe & Russia & Central Asia

• Subject: Political/Economic/Social Opinion

• Medium: Literature & Theatre

• Artist/Author/Producer: Hugo, Victor Marie (1802-1885)

• Confronting Bodies: The Inspector General of Theaters, Napoleon III, The Church, Nicholas I, the French Police

• Dates of action: 1830-1959

• Location: France, Italy, Russia

Description of the Art Work

"Hernani", 1830: Romantic drama, its first performance was February 25 1830. The hero Hernani, is a revolutionary outlaw, dedicated to a passionate love and driven on by inexorable fate. "Notre Dame de Paris", 1831: an evocation of medieval life under the reign of Louis XI. The novel condemned a society that, in the person of Frollo the archdeacon and Phoebus the soldier, heaped misery on the hunchback Quasimodo and gypsy Esmeralda. "Napoleon le Petit", 1851: Satire, and indictment of the "Little Napoleon" (Napoleon III) as opposed to the "great" (Napoleon I). "Les Miserables", 1862: The story centers around the convict Jean Valjean, a victim of society who has been imprisoned for 19 years for stealing a loaf of bread. A hardened and astute criminal upon his release, he eventually softens and reforms, becoming a successful industrialist and mayor of a northern town. Yet he is stalked by the detective Jarret for an impulsive, regretted former crime. A vast panoramic of Parisian society, of the tragedy and comedy of life.

Complete text of Les Miserables (3.2 megabytes)

Description of incident

1830 France-Paris: The Inspector General of Theaters ordered the correction of such passages in "Hernani" as, "Thinkest thou that kings to me have aught of sacredness ?" 1834 Italy-Rome: "Notre Dame de Paris" placed on the Index. 1850 Russia: All works banned by Nicholas I. 1853 France: Copies of "Napoleon le Petit" were seized by the police.

Results of incident

1830 France-Paris: A literary war ensued: classicists hired professional claques. Theophile Gautier organized a troop of volunteers "resolved to take their stand upon the rugged mount of Romanticism, and to valiantly defend its passes against the assault of the Classics." In the end the Romanticism triumphed; but not without a martyr, for a young man died fighting a duel over the play "Hernani". 1853 France: "Napoleon le Petit" was written one year after Hugo had been banished by Napoleon III and began his 20 year exile for criticizing the government. 1864 Italy-Rome: "Les Miserables", published two years earlier, was listed on the Index. Removed from the Index in 1959.

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Record no 253