1.
Victor Hugo
–
Victor Marie Hugo was a French poet, novelist, and dramatist of the Romantic movement. He is considered one of the greatest and best-known French writers, outside France, his best-known works are the novels Les Misérables,1862, and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame,1831. In France, Hugo is known primarily for his collections, such as Les Contemplations. He produced more than 4,000 drawings and also campaigned for causes such as the abolition of capital punishment. He is buried in the Panthéon in Paris and his legacy has been honoured in many ways, including his portrait being placed on French currency. Victor Hugo was the son of Joseph Léopold Sigisbert Hugo and Sophie Trébuchet, his brothers were Abel Joseph Hugo. He was born in 1802 in Besançon in the region of Franche-Comté. On 19 November 1821, Léopold Hugo wrote to his son that he had conceived on one of the highest peaks in the Vosges Mountains. This elevated origin, he went on, seems to have had effects on you so that your muse is now continually sublime, Hugos childhood was a period of national political turmoil. Napoleon was proclaimed Emperor of the French two years after Hugos birth, and the Bourbon Monarchy was restored before his 13th birthday, since Hugos father was an officer, the family moved frequently and Hugo learned much from these travels. On a childhood trip to Naples, Hugo saw the vast Alpine passes and the snowy peaks, the magnificently blue Mediterranean. Though he was five years old at the time, he remembered the six-month-long trip vividly. They stayed in Naples for a few months and then headed back to Paris, at the beginning of her marriage, Hugos mother Sophie followed her husband to posts in Italy and Spain. Thereafter she dominated Hugos education and upbringing, as a result, Hugos early work in poetry and fiction reflect her passionate devotion to both King and Faith. It was only later, during the leading up to Frances 1848 Revolution. Young Victor fell in love and, against his mothers wishes, because of his close relationship with his mother, Hugo waited until after her death to marry Adèle in 1822. Adèle and Victor Hugo had their first child, Léopold, in 1823, on 28 August 1824, the couples second child, Léopoldine was born, followed by Charles on 4 November 1826, François-Victor on 28 October 1828, and Adèle on 24 August 1830. Hugos eldest and favourite daughter, Léopoldine, died aged 19 in 1843, on 4 September, she drowned in the Seine at Villequier, pulled down by her heavy skirts when a boat overturned
Victor Hugo
–
Woodburytype of Victor Hugo by
Étienne Carjat, 1876.
Victor Hugo
–
Illustration by
Luc-Olivier Merson for
Notre-Dame de Paris (1881), showing the recently restored
galerie des chimères.
Victor Hugo
–
Victor Hugo in 1853
Victor Hugo
–
Portrait of "
Cosette " by
Émile Bayard, from the original edition of
Les Misérables (1862)
2.
Baudelaire
–
Charles Pierre Baudelaire was a French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist, art critic, and pioneering translator of Edgar Allan Poe. His most famous work, Les Fleurs du mal, expresses the nature of beauty in modern. Baudelaires highly original style of prose-poetry influenced a generation of poets including Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud. He is credited with coining the term modernity to designate the fleeting, ephemeral experience of life in a metropolis. This obsessive idea is all a child of giant cities. Baudelaire is one of the innovators in French literature. He made Paris the subject of modern poetry and he would bring the citys details to life in the eyes and hearts of his readers. Baudelaire was born in Paris, France, on April 9,1821 and his father, François Baudelaire, a senior civil servant and amateur artist, was 34 years older than Baudelaires mother, Caroline. François died during Baudelaires childhood, in 1827, the following year, Caroline married Lieutenant Colonel Jacques Aupick, who later became a French ambassador to various noble courts. He stated in a letter to her that, There was in my childhood a period of passionate love for you, Baudelaire regularly begged his mother for money throughout his career, often promising that a lucrative publishing contract or journalistic commission was just around the corner. Baudelaire was educated in Lyon, where he boarded, Baudelaire was erratic in his studies, at times diligent, at other times prone to idleness. Later, he attended the Lycée Louis-le-Grand in Paris, studying law and he began to frequent prostitutes and may have contracted gonorrhea and syphilis during this period. He also began to run up debts, mostly for clothes, upon gaining his degree in 1839, he told his brother I dont feel I have a vocation for anything. His stepfather had in mind a career in law or diplomacy and his mother later recalled, Oh, what grief. If Charles had let himself be guided by his stepfather, his career would have very different. He would not have left a name in literature, it is true and his stepfather sent him on a voyage to Calcutta, India, in 1841 in the hope of ending his dissolute habits. The trip provided strong impressions of the sea, sailing, and exotic ports, on returning to the taverns of Paris, he began to compose some of the poems of Les Fleurs du Mal. At 21, he received an inheritance but squandered much of it within a few years
Baudelaire
–
Charles Baudelaire by
Étienne Carjat, 1863
Baudelaire
–
Portrait of Baudelaire, painted in 1844 by Emile Deroy (1820–1846)
Baudelaire
–
The first edition of
Les Fleurs du mal with author's notes
Baudelaire
–
Illustration cover for Les Épaves, by Baudelaire's friend
Félicien Rops
3.
Lyrical poetry
–
Lyric poetry is a formal type of poetry which expresses personal emotions or feelings, typically spoken in the first person. The term derives from a form of Ancient Greek literature, the lyric, the term owes its importance in literary theory to the division developed by Aristotle between three broad categories of poetry, lyrical, dramatic and epic. Much lyric poetry depends on regular meter based either on number of syllables or on stress, the most common meters are as follows, Iambic – two syllables, with the short or unstressed syllable followed by the long or stressed syllable. Trochaic – two syllables, with the long or stressed syllable followed by the short or unstressed syllable, in English, this metre is found almost entirely in lyric poetry. Pyrrhic – Two unstressed syllables Anapestic – three syllables, with the first two short or unstressed and the last long or stressed, dactylic – three syllables, with the first one long or stressed and the other two short or unstressed. Spondaic – two syllables, with two successive long or stressed syllables, some forms have a combination of meters, often using a different meter for the refrain. For the ancient Greeks, lyric poetry had a technical meaning, verse that was accompanied by a lyre, cithara. Because such works were sung, it was also known as melic poetry. The lyric or melic poet was distinguished from the writer of plays, the writer of trochaic and iambic verses, the writer of elegies, the scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria created a canon of nine lyric poets deemed especially worthy of critical study. These archaic and classical musician-poets included Sappho, Alcaeus, Anacreon, archaic lyric was characterized by strophic composition and live musical performance. Some poets, like Pindar extended the metrical forms to a triad, including strophe, antistrophe, among the major extant Roman poets of the classical period, only Catullus and Horace wrote lyric poetry, which however was no longer meant to be sung but instead read or recited. What remained were the forms, the meters of the Greeks adapted to Latin. Catullus was influenced by both archaic and Hellenistic Greek verse and belonged to a group of Roman poets called the Neoteroi who spurned epic poetry following the lead of Callimachus, instead, they composed brief, highly polished poems in various thematic and metrical genres. The varying forms of the new Chu ci provided more rhythm, originating in 10th-century Persian, a ghazal is a poetic form consisting of couplets that share a rhyme and a refrain. Formally, it consists of a short lyric composed in a meter with a single rhyme throughout. Notable authors include Hafiz, Amir Khusro, Auhadi of Maragheh, Alisher Navoi, Obeid e zakani, Khaqani Shirvani, Anvari, Farid al-Din Attar, Omar Khayyam, and Rudaki. The ghazal was introduced to European poetry in the early 19th century by the Germans Schlegel, Von Hammer-Purgstall, and Goethe, lyric in European literature of the medieval or Renaissance period means a poem written so that it could be set to music—whether or not it actually was. A poems particular structure, function, or theme might all vary, the lyric poetry of Europe in this period was created by the pioneers of courtly poetry and courtly love largely without reference to the classical past
Lyrical poetry
–
Henry Oliver Walker 's 1896 Lyric Poetry in the
Library of Congress 's
Thomas Jefferson Building
Lyrical poetry
–
Alcaeus and
Sappho depicted on an
Attic red-figure
kalathos c. 470 BC
Lyrical poetry
–
Benjamin Haydon 's 1842 portrait of
William Wordsworth
4.
Epic poetry
–
An epic poem, epic, epos, or epopee is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. Milman Parry and Albert Lord have argued that the Homeric epics and these works form the basis of the epic genre in Western literature. Nearly all Western epic self-consciously presents itself as a continuation of the tradition begun by these poems, classical epic employs dactylic hexameter and recounts a journey, either physical or mental or both. Epics also tend to highlight cultural norms and to define or call into question cultural values, another type of epic poetry is epyllion, which is a brief narrative poem with a romantic or mythological theme. The term, which means little epic, came into use in the nineteenth century, the most famous example of classical epyllion is perhaps Catullus 64. The first epics were products of preliterate societies and oral history poetic traditions, in these traditions, poetry is transmitted to the audience and from performer to performer by purely oral means. Early twentieth-century study of living oral traditions in the Balkans by Milman Parry. What they demonstrated was that oral epics tend to be constructed in short episodes, each of equal status, interest and this facilitates memorization, as the poet is recalling each episode in turn and using the completed episodes to recreate the entire epic as he performs it. Parry and Lord also contend that the most likely source for written texts of the epics of Homer was dictation from an oral performance, poets in literate societies have sometimes copied the epic format. The earliest surviving European examples are the Argonautica of Apollonius of Rhodes and Virgils Aeneid, other obvious examples are Nonnus Dionysiaca, Tulsidas Sri Ramacharit Manas. In his work Poetics, Aristotle defines an epic as one of the forms of poetry, contrasted with lyric poetry, an attempt to delineate ten main characteristics of an epic, Begins in medias res. The setting is vast, covering many nations, the world or the universe, Begins with an invocation to a muse. Begins with a statement of the theme, contains long lists, called an epic catalogue. Shows divine intervention on human affairs, features heroes that embody the values of the civilization. Often features the tragic heros descent into the Underworld or hell, the hero generally participates in a cyclical journey or quest, faces adversaries that try to defeat him in his journey and returns home significantly transformed by his journey. The epic hero illustrates traits, performs deeds, and exemplifies certain morals that are valued by the society the epic originates from, many epic heroes are recurring characters in the legends of their native culture. Conventions of epics, Preposition, Opens by stating the theme or cause of the epic and this may take the form of a purpose, of a question, or of a situation. Invocation, Writer invokes a Muse, one of the nine daughters of Zeus, the poet prays to the Muses to provide him with divine inspiration to tell the story of a great hero
Epic poetry
–
Tablet containing a fragment of the
Epic of Gilgamesh
Epic poetry
–
The first page of the
Beowulf manuscript, 8th to 10th century.
Epic poetry
–
Statue of Iranian poet
Ferdowsi in Rome, Italy. Ferdowsi's national epic
Shahnameh played an important role in revival of Iranian
patriotism and the
Persian language after both were systematically suppressed by the Arab occupation of Iran
Epic poetry
–
The Knight in the Panther's Skin by
Shota Rustaveli, one of the greatest Georgian poets.
5.
Les Contemplations
–
Les Contemplations is a collection of poetry by Victor Hugo, published in 1856. It consists of 156 poems in six books, most of the poems were written between 1841 and 1855, though the oldest date from 1830. Memory plays an important role in the collection, as Hugo was experimenting with the genre of autobiography in verse, the collection is equally an homage to his daughter Léopoldine Hugo, who drowned in the Seine
Les Contemplations
–
Les Contemplations
6.
Pierre-Jules Hetzel
–
Pierre-Jules Hetzel was a French editor and publisher. He is best known for his extraordinarily lavishly illustrated editions of Jules Vernes novels highly prized by collectors today, born in Chartres, Eure-et-Loir, Hetzel studied law in Strasbourg, and founded a publishing company in 1837. He was the publisher of Honoré de Balzac, whose Comédie humaine began to be appear in 1841, in 1843, he founded the Nouveau magazine des enfants. Hetzel was a republican, and in 1848 he became chief of cabinet for Alphonse de Lamartine. When the political regime was changed in France, he returned home and published Proudhon, an important edition of the tales by Charles Perrault, illustrated by Gustave Doré, dates from this period. He founded the Bibliothèque illustrée des Familles, which was renamed to fr and his goal was to have scientists, authors, and illustrators collaborating to create educational works for the whole family. Hetzels fame comes mostly for his editions of the Voyages Extraordinaires by Jules Verne, the stories were originally published in biweekly chapters as a series in his Magasin. Once all chapters of a story were printed there, the story would appear in book form, typically this happened towards the end of the year so the books could be purchased as Christmas presents for older children. It is the last edition that is now popular among book collectors. Hetzel discovered Jules Verne, but scholars still debate to what extent Hetzel made Verne, each benefited from the other, and their relationship went beyond that of author and publisher. Verne locked the manuscript away and no longer wrote futuristic, dystopian stories, paris in the Twentieth Century was first published in France in 1994. Pierre-Jules Hetzel was also an author for the youth, under the pseudonym P. -J, Hetzel died in Monte-Carlo in 1886. After his death, the business was directed by his son. For more examples of the featured in the books, Captain Nemo Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea Nautilus Les Cartonages Hetzel. An authoritative site to identify a Jules Verne book, Pierre-Jules Hetzel and Elisée Reclus Hetzel and Verne, Collaboration and Conflict Works by P. -J. Stahl at Project Gutenberg Works by or about P. -J, stahl at Internet Archive Works by or about Pierre-Jules Hetzel at Internet Archive
Pierre-Jules Hetzel
–
Pierre-Jules Hetzel
Pierre-Jules Hetzel
–
A typical
Jules Verne book cover as published by Hetzel. The edition is Les Aventures du Capitaine Hatteras au Pôle Nord, type " Aux deux éléphants ".
7.
Brussels
–
Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, is a region of Belgium comprising 19 municipalities, including the City of Brussels which is the capital of Belgium. The Brussels-Capital Region is a part of both the French Community of Belgium and the Flemish Community, but is separate from the region of Flanders or Wallonia. The region has a population of 1.2 million and an area with a population of over 1.8 million. Brussels is the de facto capital of the European Union as it hosts a number of principal EU institutions, the secretariat of the Benelux and the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are also located in Brussels. Today, it is considered an Alpha global city, historically a Dutch-speaking city, Brussels has seen a language shift to French from the late 19th century onwards. Today, the majority language is French, and the Brussels-Capital Region is a bilingual enclave within the Flemish Region. All road signs, street names, and many advertisements and services are shown in both languages, Brussels is increasingly becoming multilingual with increasing numbers of migrants, expatriates and minority groups speaking their own languages. The most common theory of the origin of Brussels name is that it derives from the Old Dutch Broekzele or Broeksel, meaning marsh, Saint Vindicianus, the bishop of Cambrai made the first recorded reference to the place Brosella in 695 when it was still a hamlet. The origin of the settlement that was to become Brussels lies in Saint Gaugericus construction of a chapel on an island in the river Senne around 580. The official founding of Brussels is usually situated around 979, when Duke Charles of Lower Lotharingia transferred the relics of Saint Gudula from Moorsel to the Saint Gaugericus chapel, Charles would construct the first permanent fortification in the city, doing so on that same island. Lambert I of Leuven, Count of Leuven gained the County of Brussels around 1000 by marrying Charles daughter, as it grew to a population of around 30,000, the surrounding marshes were drained to allow for further expansion. The Counts of Leuven became Dukes of Brabant at about this time, in the 13th century, the city got its first walls. After the construction of the city walls in the early 13th century, to let the city expand, a second set of walls was erected between 1356 and 1383. Today, traces of it can still be seen, mostly because the small ring, Brabant had lost its independence, but Brussels became the Princely Capital of the prosperous Low Countries, and flourished. In 1516 Charles V, who had been heir of the Low Countries since 1506, was declared King of Spain in St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral in Brussels. Upon the death of his grandfather, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor in 1519 and it was in the Palace complex at Coudenberg that Charles V abdicated in 1555. This impressive palace, famous all over Europe, had expanded since it had first become the seat of the Dukes of Brabant. In 1695, during the Nine Years War, King Louis XIV of France sent troops to bombard Brussels with artillery, together with the resulting fire, it was the most destructive event in the entire history of Brussels
Brussels
–
A
collage with several views of Brussels, Top: View of the
Northern Quarter business district, 2nd left: Floral carpet event in the
Grand Place, 2nd right:
Brussels City Hall and
Mont des Arts area, 3rd:
Cinquantenaire Park, 4th left:
Manneken Pis, 4th middle:
St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral, 4th right:
Congress Column, Bottom:
Royal Palace of Brussels
Brussels
–
Charles of Lorraine founded what would become Brussels c. 979
Brussels
–
Grand Place after
the 1695 bombardment by the French army
Brussels
–
Episode of the
Belgian Revolution of 1830,
Wappers (1834)
8.
Les travailleurs de la mer
–
Toilers of the Sea is a novel by Victor Hugo published in 1866. The book is dedicated to the island of Guernsey, where Hugo spent 15 years in exile, Hugo uses the setting of a small island community to transmute seemingly mundane events into drama of the highest calibre. Les Travailleurs de la Mer is set just after the Napoleonic Wars, the story concerns a Guernseyman named Gilliatt, a social outcast who falls in love with Deruchette, the niece of a local shipowner, Mess Lethierry. When Lethierrys ship is wrecked on the Roches Douvres, a perilous reef, Gilliatt eagerly volunteers, and the story follows his physical trials and tribulations, as well as the undeserved opprobrium of his neighbours. A woman arrives in Guernsey, with her son Gilliat, the boy grows up, the woman dies. Gilliat becomes a fisherman and sailor. People believe him to be a wizard, in Guernsey also lives Mess Lethierry – a former sailor and owner of the first steamship of the island, the Durande – with his niece Deruchette. One day, near Christmas, when going to church, she sees Gilliat on the road behind her and he sees this and becomes obsessed with her gesture. In time he falls in love with her and goes to play the bagpipes near her house, sieur Clubin, the trusted captain of Durande, sets up a plan to sink the ship on the Hanois reef and flee with a ship of Spanish smugglers, Tamaulipas. He gets in touch with Rantaine, a swindler who had stolen a large sum of money from Mess Lethierry many years ago, Clubin takes the money from Rantaine at gunpoint. In thick fog, Clubin sails for the Hanois reef from where he can swim to the shore, meet the smugglers. Because of the fog he has arrived at the Douvres reef. Left alone on the ship, he is terrified, but he sees a cutter, at that moment he is grabbed by the leg and is pulled down to the bottom. Everybody in Guernsey finds out about the shipwreck, Mess Lethierry is desperate to get the Durandes engine back. His niece declares she will marry the rescuer of the engine, Gilliat immediately takes up the mission, enduring hunger, thirst, and cold trying to free the engine from the wreck. In a battle with an octopus, he finds the skeleton of Clubin, eventually he succeeds in returning the engine to Lethierry, who is very pleased and ready to honour his promise. He arranges their wedding and helps them run away on the sailing ship Cashmere. In the end, with all his dreams shattered, Gilliat decides to wait for the sitting on the Gild HolmUr chair
Les travailleurs de la mer
–
Illustration by
François Chifflart; engraved by
Fortuné Méaulle
Les travailleurs de la mer
–
Octopus that Gilliatt faces (
ink wash painting by author, 1866)
Les travailleurs de la mer
–
La Durande (ink wash painting by author, 1866)
Les travailleurs de la mer
–
Gilliatt and the Octopus by
Joseph Carlier
9.
1877 in poetry
–
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nations poetry or literature. In the annals of poetasting,1877 stands out as a historic year, so wrote William Topaz McGonagall a Scottish weaver, actor, and poet who would become comically renowned as one of the worst poets in the English language. Also this year Poetaster Julia A. Moore, following up on the renown of her first book of verse, The Sweet Singer of Michigan Salutes the Public of 1876, decided to appear before her public. She gave a reading and singing performance, with accompaniment, at a Grand Rapids, Michigan. Moore managed to interpret the jeering as criticism of the orchestra
1877 in poetry
–
Muhammad Iqbal
10.
Paris Commune
–
The Paris Commune was a radical socialist and revolutionary government that ruled Paris from 18 March to 28 May 1871. Following the defeat of Emperor Napoleon III in September 1870, the French Second Empire swiftly collapsed, in its stead rose a Third Republic at war with Prussia, which laid siege to Paris for four months. A hotbed of radicalism, Frances capital was primarily defended during this time by the often politicized. In February 1871 Adolphe Thiers, the new executive of the French national government, signed an armistice with Prussia that disarmed the Army. Soldiers of the Communes National Guard killed two French army generals, and the Commune refused to accept the authority of the French government, the regular French Army suppressed the Commune during La semaine sanglante beginning on 21 May 1871. Debates over the policies and outcome of the Commune had significant influence on the ideas of Karl Marx, on 2 September 1870, after Frances unexpected defeat at the Battle of Sedan in the Franco-Prussian War, Emperor Napoleon III surrendered to the Prussian Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. When the news reached Paris the next day, shocked and angry crowds came out into the streets, Empress Eugénie de Montijo, the Emperors regent, fled the city, and the Government of the Second Empire swiftly collapsed. Republican and radical deputies of the National Assembly went to the Hôtel de Ville, proclaimed the new French Republic, though the Emperor and the French Army had been defeated at Sedan, the war continued. The German army marched swiftly toward Paris, in Paris, however, the republican candidates dominated, winning 234,000 votes against 77,000 for the Bonapartists. Only about 40,000 were employed in factories and large enterprises, most were employed in industries in textiles, furniture. There were also 115,000 servants and 45,000 concierges, in addition to the native French population, there were about 100,000 immigrant workers and political refugees, the largest number being from Italy and Poland. The working class and immigrants suffered the most from the lack of activity due to the war. The Commune resulted in part from growing discontent among the Paris workers and this discontent can be traced to the first worker uprisings, the Canut Revolts, in Lyon and Paris in the 1830s. Many Parisians, especially workers and the classes, supported a democratic republic. They also wanted a more just way of managing the economy, if not necessarily socialist, socialist movements, such as the First International, had been growing in influence with hundreds of societies affiliated to it across France. In early 1867, Parisian employers of bronze-workers attempted to de-unionize their workers and this was defeated by a strike organized by the International. Later in 1867, a public demonstration in Paris was answered by the legal dissolution of its executive committee. The International had considerable influence even among unaffiliated French workers, particularly in Paris, the killing of journalist Victor Noir incensed Parisians, and the arrests of journalists critical of the Emperor did nothing to quiet the city
Paris Commune
–
A barricade on Rue Voltaire, after its capture by the regular army during the Bloody Week
Paris Commune
–
Louis Auguste Blanqui, leader of the Commune's far-left faction, was imprisoned for the entire time of the Commune.
Paris Commune
–
Eugène Varlin led several thousand National Guard soldiers to march to the Hotel de Ville chanting 'Long Live the Commune!".
Paris Commune
–
Revolutionary units of the National Guard briefly seized the Hotel de Ville on 31 October 1870, but the uprising failed.
11.
Napoleon III
–
Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte was the only President of the French Second Republic and, as Napoleon III, the Emperor of the Second French Empire. He was the nephew and heir of Napoleon I and he was the first President of France to be elected by a direct popular vote. He remains the longest-serving French head of state since the French Revolution, during the first years of the Empire, Napoleons government imposed censorship and harsh repressive measures against his opponents. Some six thousand were imprisoned or sent to penal colonies until 1859, thousands more went into voluntary exile abroad, including Victor Hugo. From 1862 onwards, he relaxed government censorship, and his came to be known as the Liberal Empire. Many of his opponents returned to France and became members of the National Assembly, Napoleon III is best known today for his grand reconstruction of Paris, carried out by his prefect of the Seine, Baron Haussmann. He launched similar public works projects in Marseille, Lyon, Napoleon III modernized the French banking system, greatly expanded and consolidated the French railway system, and made the French merchant marine the second largest in the world. He promoted the building of the Suez Canal and established modern agriculture, Napoleon III negotiated the 1860 Cobden–Chevalier free trade agreement with Britain and similar agreements with Frances other European trading partners. Social reforms included giving French workers the right to strike and the right to organize, womens education greatly expanded, as did the list of required subjects in public schools. In foreign policy, Napoleon III aimed to reassert French influence in Europe and he was a supporter of popular sovereignty and of nationalism. In Europe, he allied with Britain and defeated Russia in the Crimean War and his regime assisted Italian unification and, in doing so, annexed Savoy and the County of Nice to France, at the same time, his forces defended the Papal States against annexation by Italy. Napoleon doubled the area of the French overseas empire in Asia, the Pacific, on the other hand, his armys intervention in Mexico which aimed to create a Second Mexican Empire under French protection ended in failure. Beginning in 1866, Napoleon had to face the power of Prussia. In July 1870, Napoleon entered the Franco-Prussian War without allies, the French army was rapidly defeated and Napoleon III was captured at the Battle of Sedan. The French Third Republic was proclaimed in Paris, and Napoleon went into exile in England, charles-Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, later known as Louis Napoleon and then Napoleon III, was born in Paris on the night of 20–21 April 1808. His presumed father was Louis Bonaparte, the brother of Napoleon Bonaparte. His mother was Hortense de Beauharnais, the daughter by the first marriage of Napoleons wife Joséphine de Beauharnais, as empress, Joséphine proposed the marriage as a way to produce an heir for the Emperor, who agreed, as Joséphine was by then infertile. Louis married Hortense when he was twenty-four and she was nineteen and they had a difficult relationship, and only lived together for brief periods
Napoleon III
–
Napoleon III
Napoleon III
–
Louis Bonaparte (1778–1846), the younger brother of
Napoleon Bonaparte, the King of Holland, and father of Napoleon III.
Napoleon III
–
Hortense de Beauharnais (1783–1837), the mother of Napoleon III, in 1808, the year Napoleon III was born.
Napoleon III
–
The lakeside house at Arenenberg, Switzerland, where Napoleon III spent much of his youth and exile.
12.
French Third Republic
–
It came to an end on 10 July 1940. Harsh reparations exacted by the Prussians after the war resulted in the loss of the French regions of Alsace and Lorraine, social upheaval, and the establishment of the Paris Commune. The early governments of the Third Republic considered re-establishing the monarchy, but confusion as to the nature of that monarchy, thus, the Third Republic, which was originally intended as a provisional government, instead became the permanent government of France. The French Constitutional Laws of 1875 defined the composition of the Third Republic and it consisted of a Chamber of Deputies and a Senate to form the legislative branch of government and a president to serve as head of state. The period from the start of World War I to the late 1930s featured sharply polarized politics, Adolphe Thiers called republicanism in the 1870s the form of government that divides France least, however, politics under the Third Republic were sharply polarized. On the left stood Reformist France, heir to the French Revolution, on the right stood conservative France, rooted in the peasantry, the Roman Catholic Church and the army. The Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871 resulted in the defeat of France, after Napoleons capture by the Prussians at the Battle of Sedan, Parisian deputies led by Léon Gambetta established the Government of National Defence as a provisional government on 4 September 1870. The deputies then selected General Louis-Jules Trochu to serve as its president and this first government of the Third Republic ruled during the Siege of Paris. After the French surrender in January 1871, the provisional Government of National Defence disbanded, French territories occupied by Prussia at this time did not participate. The resulting conservative National Assembly elected Adolphe Thiers as head of a provisional government, due to the revolutionary and left-wing political climate that prevailed in the Parisian population, the right-wing government chose the royal palace of Versailles as its headquarters. The new government negotiated a settlement with the newly proclaimed German Empire. To prompt the Prussians to leave France, the government passed a variety of laws, such as the controversial Law of Maturities. The following repression of the communards would have consequences for the labor movement. The Orléanists supported a descendant of King Louis Philippe I, the cousin of Charles X who replaced him as the French monarch in 1830, his grandson Louis-Philippe, Comte de Paris. The Bonapartists were marginalized due to the defeat of Napoléon III and were unable to advance the candidacy of any member of his family, the Bonaparte family. Legitimists and Orléanists came to a compromise, eventually, whereby the childless Comte de Chambord would be recognised as king, consequently, in 1871 the throne was offered to the Comte de Chambord. Chambord believed the monarchy had to eliminate all traces of the Revolution in order to restore the unity between the monarchy and the nation, which the revolution had sundered apart. Compromise on this was if the nation were to be made whole again
French Third Republic
–
A French propaganda poster from 1917 is captioned with an 18th century quote: "Even in 1788, Mirabeau was saying that War is the National Industry of Prussia."
French Third Republic
–
Flag
French Third Republic
–
The
Sacré-Cœur Basilica was built as a symbol of the Ordre Moral.
French Third Republic
–
In France, children were taught in school not to forget the lost provinces of
Alsace-Lorraine, which were coloured in black on maps.
13.
Juliette Drouet
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Juliette Drouet, born Julienne Josephine Gauvain, was a French actress. She abandoned her career on the stage after becoming the mistress of Victor Hugo, to whom she acted as a secretary, Juliette accompanied Hugo in his exile to the Channel Islands, and wrote thousands of letters to him throughout her life. She was born Julienne Josephine Gauvain on 10 April 1806 in Fougères, Ille-et-Vilaine, the daughter of Julien Gauvain, a tailor, and Marie Marchandet and she had two older sisters, Renee and Thérèse, and a brother Armand. Orphaned from her mother a few months after her birth, and her father the year, Gauvain was raised by her uncle. She was educated in Paris at a boarding school and considered a precocious child, having learned to read. At the age of ten, Gauvain was already proficient in literature, around 1825, she became the mistress of sculptor James Pradier, who represented her in a statue symbolizing Strasbourg, at the Place de la Concorde in Paris. They had a daughter together, Claire, on the advice of Pradier, she started an acting career in 1829, initially in Brussels, then in Paris. It was about that time Gauvain began using her uncles surname, Drouet had limpid, bright eyes, a fine, chiseled nose, a small, crimson mouth, set in an oval face, framed by a mass of blue-black hair. In 1833, while playing the role of Princess Négroni in Lucrezia Borgia and she abandoned her theatrical career afterwards to dedicate her life to her lover. Her last stage role was of Lady Jane Grey in Hugos Marie Tudor and she became Hugos secretary and travelling companion. For many years she lived a life, leaving home only in his company. In 1852, she accompanied him in his exile on Jersey and she wrote thousands of letters to him throughout her life, which testify to her writing talent according to Henri Troyat who wrote her biography in 1997. Juliette Drouet died in Paris on 11 May 1883 at the age of 77, ISBN 0-393-31443-X Juliette Drouet, Evelyn Blewer, Victoria Tietze Larson. My Beloved Toto, Letters from Juliette Drouet to Victor Hugo 1833-1882, state University of New York Press ISBN 0-7914-6572-1 Graham Robb,1999. Juliette Drouet, La prisonnière sur parole, ISBN 2-08-067403-X Works by Juliette Drouet at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Juliette Drouet at Internet Archive Archival material at Leeds University Library
Juliette Drouet
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A portrait of Juliette Drouet painted by Charles-Emile-Callande de Champmartin, 1837
Juliette Drouet
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Juliette Drouet as Princess Negroni in Lucrèce Borgia
14.
Wikisource
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Wikisource is an online digital library of free content textual sources on a wiki, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikisource is the name of the project as a whole and the name for each instance of that project, the projects aims are to host all forms of free text, in many languages, and translations. Originally conceived as an archive to store useful or important historical texts, the project officially began in November 24,2003 under the name Project Sourceberg. The name Wikisource was adopted later that year and it received its own domain name seven months later, the project has come under criticism for lack of reliability but it is also cited by organisations such as the National Archives and Records Administration. The project holds works that are either in the domain or freely licensed, professionally published works or historical source documents, not vanity products. Verification was initially made offline, or by trusting the reliability of digital libraries. Now works are supported by online scans via the ProofreadPage extension, some individual Wikisources, each representing a specific language, now only allow works backed up with scans. While the bulk of its collection are texts, Wikisource as a whole hosts other media, some Wikisources allow user-generated annotations, subject to the specific policies of the Wikisource in question. Wikisources early history included several changes of name and location, the original concept for Wikisource was as storage for useful or important historical texts. These texts were intended to support Wikipedia articles, by providing evidence and original source texts. The collection was focused on important historical and cultural material. The project was originally called Project Sourceberg during its planning stages, in 2001, there was a dispute on Wikipedia regarding the addition of primary source material, leading to edit wars over their inclusion or deletion. Project Sourceberg was suggested as a solution to this, perhaps Project Sourceberg can mainly work as an interface for easily linking from Wikipedia to a Project Gutenberg file, and as an interface for people to easily submit new work to PG. Wed want to complement Project Gutenberg--how, exactly, and Jimmy Wales adding like Larry, Im interested that we think it over to see what we can add to Project Gutenberg. It seems unlikely that primary sources should in general be editable by anyone -- I mean, Shakespeare is Shakespeare, unlike our commentary on his work, the project began its activity at ps. wikipedia. org. The contributors understood the PS subdomain to mean either primary sources or Project Sourceberg, however, this resulted in Project Sourceberg occupying the subdomain of the Pashto Wikipedia. A vote on the name changed it to Wikisource on December 6,2003. Despite the change in name, the project did not move to its permanent URL until July 23,2004, since Wikisource was initially called Project Sourceberg, its first logo was a picture of an iceberg
Wikisource
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The original Wikisource logo
Wikisource
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Screenshot of wikisource.org home page
Wikisource
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::: Original text
Wikisource
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::: Action of the modernizing tool
15.
The Last Day of a Condemned Man
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The Last Day of a Condemned Man is a short novel by Victor Hugo first published in 1829. The novel recounts the thoughts of a man condemned to die, Victor Hugo wrote this novel to express his feelings that the death penalty should be abolished. Victor Hugo saw several times the spectacle of the guillotine and was angered at the spectacle that society can make of it, the book was published in February 1829 by Charles Gosselin without the authors name. Three years later, on 15 March 1832, Hugo completed his story with a long preface, a man who has been condemned to death by the guillotine in 19th-century France writes down his cogitations, feelings and fears while awaiting his execution. He does not betray his name or what he has done to the reader, on the day he is to be executed he sees his three-year-old daughter for the last time, but she no longer recognizes him, and she tells him that her father is dead. The novel ends just after he briefly but desperately begs for pardon and curses the people of his time, le Dernier Jour dun Condamné at Project Gutenberg The Last Day of a Condemned public domain audiobook at LibriVox
The Last Day of a Condemned Man
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1829 illustration from the first edition
16.
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
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The Hunchback of Notre-Dame is a French Romantic/Gothic novel by Victor Hugo, published in 1831. The original French title refers to Notre Dame Cathedral, on which the story is centered, English translator Frederic Shoberl named the novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame in 1833 because at the time, Gothic novels were more popular than Romance novels in England. The story is set in Paris, France in the Late Middle Ages, for instance, the medieval stained glass panels of Notre-Dame de Paris had been replaced by white glass to let more light into the church. This explains the large sections of the book, which far exceed the requirements of the story. A few years earlier, Hugo had already published a paper entitled Guerre aux Démolisseurs specifically aimed at saving Paris medieval architecture. The agreement with his publisher, Gosselin, was that the book would be finished that same year. In the summer of 1830 Gosselin demanded that Hugo complete the book by February 1831, beginning in September 1830, Hugo worked nonstop on the project thereafter. The book was finished six months later, the gypsy Esmeralda captures the hearts of many men, including those of Captain Phoebus and Pierre Gringoire, but especially Quasimodo and his guardian Archdeacon Claude Frollo. Frollo is torn between his obsessive lust for Esmeralda and the rules of the Notre Dame Cathedral and he orders bandits to kidnap her, but the hunchback is captured by Phoebus and his guards, who save Esmeralda. The following day, Quasimodo is sentenced to be flogged and turned on the pillory for one hour, Esmeralda, seeing his thirst, approaches the public stocks and offers him a drink of water. It saves him, and she captures his heart, later, Esmeralda is arrested and charged with the attempted murder of Phoebus, whom Frollo actually attempted to kill in jealousy after seeing him trying to seduce Esmeralda. She is sentenced to death by hanging, as she is being led to the gallows, Quasimodo swings down by the bell rope of Notre-Dame and carries her off to the cathedral under the law of sanctuary, temporarily protecting her from arrest. Frollo later informs Gringoire that the Court of Parlement has voted to remove Esmeraldas right to sanctuary so she can no longer seek shelter in the cathedral and will be taken away to be killed. Clopin, the leader of the Gypsies, hears the news from Gringoire and rallies the citizens of Paris to charge the cathedral, when Quasimodo sees the Gypsies, he assumes they are there to hurt Esmeralda, so he drives them off. Likewise, he thinks the Kings men want to rescue her and she is rescued by Frollo and her phony husband Gringoire. But after yet another failed attempt to win her love, Frollo betrays Esmeralda by handing her to the troops, when Frollo laughs during Esmeraldas hanging, Quasimodo pushes him from the heights of Notre Dame to his death. Quasimodo later goes to Montfaucon, a graveyard in Paris where the bodies of the condemned are dumped. About eighteen months later, the tomb is opened, and the skeletons are found, as someone tries to separate them, they crumble to dust
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
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1st edition cover
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
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Illustration from Victor Hugo et son temps (1881)
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
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Characters
17.
Toilers of the Sea
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Toilers of the Sea is a novel by Victor Hugo published in 1866. The book is dedicated to the island of Guernsey, where Hugo spent 15 years in exile, Hugo uses the setting of a small island community to transmute seemingly mundane events into drama of the highest calibre. Les Travailleurs de la Mer is set just after the Napoleonic Wars, the story concerns a Guernseyman named Gilliatt, a social outcast who falls in love with Deruchette, the niece of a local shipowner, Mess Lethierry. When Lethierrys ship is wrecked on the Roches Douvres, a perilous reef, Gilliatt eagerly volunteers, and the story follows his physical trials and tribulations, as well as the undeserved opprobrium of his neighbours. A woman arrives in Guernsey, with her son Gilliat, the boy grows up, the woman dies. Gilliat becomes a fisherman and sailor. People believe him to be a wizard, in Guernsey also lives Mess Lethierry – a former sailor and owner of the first steamship of the island, the Durande – with his niece Deruchette. One day, near Christmas, when going to church, she sees Gilliat on the road behind her and he sees this and becomes obsessed with her gesture. In time he falls in love with her and goes to play the bagpipes near her house, sieur Clubin, the trusted captain of Durande, sets up a plan to sink the ship on the Hanois reef and flee with a ship of Spanish smugglers, Tamaulipas. He gets in touch with Rantaine, a swindler who had stolen a large sum of money from Mess Lethierry many years ago, Clubin takes the money from Rantaine at gunpoint. In thick fog, Clubin sails for the Hanois reef from where he can swim to the shore, meet the smugglers. Because of the fog he has arrived at the Douvres reef. Left alone on the ship, he is terrified, but he sees a cutter, at that moment he is grabbed by the leg and is pulled down to the bottom. Everybody in Guernsey finds out about the shipwreck, Mess Lethierry is desperate to get the Durandes engine back. His niece declares she will marry the rescuer of the engine, Gilliat immediately takes up the mission, enduring hunger, thirst, and cold trying to free the engine from the wreck. In a battle with an octopus, he finds the skeleton of Clubin, eventually he succeeds in returning the engine to Lethierry, who is very pleased and ready to honour his promise. He arranges their wedding and helps them run away on the sailing ship Cashmere. In the end, with all his dreams shattered, Gilliat decides to wait for the sitting on the Gild HolmUr chair
Toilers of the Sea
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Illustration by
François Chifflart; engraved by
Fortuné Méaulle
Toilers of the Sea
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Octopus that Gilliatt faces (
ink wash painting by author, 1866)
Toilers of the Sea
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La Durande (ink wash painting by author, 1866)
Toilers of the Sea
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Gilliatt and the Octopus by
Joseph Carlier
18.
The Man Who Laughs
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The Man Who Laughs is a novel by Victor Hugo, originally published in April 1869 under the French title LHomme qui rit. It was adapted into a popular 1928 film, directed by Paul Leni and starring Conrad Veidt, Mary Philbin and it was recently adapted for the 2012 French film LHomme Qui Rit, directed by Jean-Pierre Améris and starring Gérard Depardieu, Marc-André Grondin and Christa Theret. Hugos working title for this book was On the Kings Command, in late 17th-century England, a homeless boy named Gwynplaine rescues an infant girl during a snowstorm, her mother having frozen to death whilst feeding her. They meet an itinerant carnival vendor who calls himself Ursus, and his pet wolf, Gwynplaines mouth has been mutilated into a perpetual grin, Ursus is initially horrified, then moved to pity, and he takes them in. Fifteen years later, Gwynplaine has grown into a young man. The girl, now named Dea, is blind, and has grown into a beautiful, by touching his face, Dea concludes that Gwynplaine is perpetually happy. Ursus and his surrogate children earn a living in the fairs of southern England. Gwynplaine keeps the half of his face concealed. In each town, Gwynplaine gives a performance in which the crowds are provoked to laughter when Gwynplaine reveals his grotesque face. The spoiled and jaded Duchess Josiana, the daughter of King James II, is bored by the dull routine of court. Her fiancé, David Dirry-Moir, to whom she has engaged since infancy. Josiana attends one of Gwynplaines performances, and is aroused by the combination of his virile grace, Gwynplaine is aroused by Josianas physical beauty and haughty demeanor. Later, an agent of the royal court arrives at the caravan, Gwynplaine is ushered to a dungeon in London, where a physician named Hardquannone is being tortured to death. Hardquannone recognizes Gwynplaine, and identifies him as the boy whose abduction, a flashback relates the doctors story. Upon the barons death, the King arranged the abduction of his son and legitimate heir. The King sold Fermain to a band of wanderers called Comprachicos, criminals who mutilate and disfigure children, confirming the story is a message in a bottle recently brought to Queen Anne. The message is a confession from the Comprachicos, written in the certainty that their ship was about to founder in a storm. The message explains how they renamed the boy Gwynplaine, and abandoned him in a snowstorm before setting to sea, David Dirry-Moir is the illegitimate son of Lord Linnaeus
The Man Who Laughs
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Azerbaijani actress
Marziya Davudova as Duchess Josiana (1929-1930).
19.
Ninety-Three
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Ninety-Three is the last novel by the French writer Victor Hugo. It is divided into three parts, but not chronologically, each tells a different story, offering a different view of historical general events. The action mainly takes place in Brittany and in Paris and she explains that her husband and parents have been killed in the peasant revolt that started the insurrection. The troop’s commander, Sergeant Radoub, convinces them to look after the family, meanwhile, at sea, a group of Royalist “Whites” are planning to land the Marquis de Lantenac, a Breton aristocrat whose leadership could transform the fortunes of the rebellion. While at sea, a sailor fails to secure his cannon. The sailor risks his life to secure the cannon and save their ship, Lantenac awards the man a medal for his bravery and then executes him for failing in his duty. Their corvette is spotted by ships of the Republic, Lantenac slips away in a boat with one supporter, and the corvette distracts the Republican ships by provoking a battle the damaged ship cannot win. The corvette is destroyed, but Lantenac lands safely in Brittany, Lantenac is hunted by the Blues, but is protected by a local beggar, to whom he gave alms in the past. He meets up with his supporters, and they launch an attack on the Blues. Part of the troop with the family is captured, Lantenac orders them all to be shot, including Michelle. He takes the children with him as hostages, the beggar finds the bodies, and discovers that Michelle is still alive. He nurses her back to health, Lantenac’s ruthless methods have turned the revolt into a major threat to the Republic. In Paris, Danton, Robespierre and Marat argue about the threat and they promulgate a decree that all rebels and anyone who helps them will be executed. Cimourdain, a revolutionary and former priest, is deputed to carry out their orders in Brittany. He is also told to keep an eye on Gauvain, the commander of the Republican troops there, unknown to the revolutionary leaders, Cimourdain was Gauvain’s childhood tutor, and thinks of him as a son. Lantenac has taken control of Dol-de-Bretagne, in order to secure a place for British troops to be sent to support the Royalists. Gauvain launches an attack and uses deception to dislodge and disperse them. Forced to retreat, Lantenac is constantly kept from the coast by Gauvain, with British troops unavailable his supporters melt away
Ninety-Three
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1st edition, 1874
20.
Hernani (drama)
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Hernani is a drama by the French romantic author Victor Hugo. The play opened in Paris on 25 February 1830, today, it is more remembered for the demonstrations which accompanied the première and for being the inspiration of Verdis opera Ernani than it is for its own merits. Hugo had enlisted the support of fellow Romanticists such as Hector Berlioz and it is used to describe the magnitude and elegance of Prince Prosperos masquerade in Edgar Allan Poes short story, The Masque of the Red Death. Gillenormand in Les Misérables criticizes Hernani, set in a fictitious version of the Spanish court of 1519, it is based on courtly romance and intrigues. Three men — two noblemen and a mysterious bandit — are in love with the same woman, what follows in the ensuing chaos of action prompted the biographer of Hugo, J. P. Houston, to write. And a résumé will necessarily fail, as in the case of Notre-Dame de Paris, in the first scenes Hugo introduces Don Carlos, King of Spain sneaking into the bedchamber of Doña Sol. He forces her maid to help conceal him within the room, shortly thereafter, Doña Sol enters to welcome her lover Hernani. Hernani and Sol discuss their situation − Doña Sol is about to be forced to marry her elderly uncle, Hernani and Doña Sol plot to run away together, but Don Carlos emerges from the cabinet where he was hiding, disrupting them. The two men clash swords, but are interrupted by Sols uncle and fiancé Don Ruy Gomez de Silva and he demands to know why both men are in Sols private chambers. Don Carlos had overheard Sol and Hernanis plans to run away together, Doña Sol recognizes him and rejects him. Infuriated, Don Carlos attempts to abduct her, as Don Carlos and Doña Sol struggle over a dagger, Hernani arrives with his own sixty men having overtaken the kings three friends. He explains his hatred for the king over the death of his own father and this time, the King is aware of Hernanis identity as a bandit, and he refuses a duel, but challenges Hernani to murder him. Hernanis sense of honor prevents him from attacking a man who wont fight back, the King escapes, and sends his men to arrest Hernani and his band of thieves. Hernani escapes after a farewell to Doña Sol, Doña Sol and Ruy Gomez prepare for their wedding, and hear news that Hernanis men have all been murdered. Hernani arrives at the house in disguise, and Ruy Gomez takes him in as a guest, Hernani − apparently suicidal − reveals his identity and tries to provoke the servants to arrest him, but Ruy Gomez still insists on protecting him. Hernani admonishes Doña Sol for agreeing to the marriage, but when she reveals that she plans to kill herself on the night, he has a change of heart. Ruy Gomez is appalled to learn of Sol and Hernanis relationship, considering it a betrayal of his hospitality, but he still continues his protection. The King arrives to arrest Hernani, but Ruy Gomez refuses to him, citing laws of hospitality
Hernani (drama)
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The audience fights during the premiere
21.
La Esmeralda (opera)
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La Esmeralda is a grand opera in four acts composed by Louise Bertin. The libretto was written by Victor Hugo, who had adapted it from his novel Notre-Dame de Paris, the opera premiered at the Théâtre de lAcadémie Royale de Musique in Paris on 14 November 1836 with Cornélie Falcon in the title role. Despite the lavish production, the premiere was a failure, and La Esmeralda proved to be the last opera composed by Bertin, partially paralyzed from birth, and basically chair-bound, Louise Bertin had been somewhat of a child prodigy. She painted, wrote poetry, and when she was only 19 composed her first opera, Guy Mannering for which she wrote the libretto based on Sir Walter Scotts novel. Two of her operas were produced at the Opéra-Comique, Le loup-garou in 1827. Although many of Victor Hugos plays and novels were adapted as operas, La Esmeralda was the first. Shortly after he completed Notre-Dame de Paris in 1830, Hugo began sketching out an operatic adaptation, the success of the novel had brought him many offers from composers anxious to turn it into an opera, including Meyerbeer and Berlioz. He had declined those proposals, but according to Hugos wife, in September 1832, while Hugo was staying with the Bertins, Louise, supported by her father Louis-François Bertin, asked him for permission to create an opera from the work. He immediately commenced work on a libretto, completing it on his return to Paris, the process of preparing the final libretto was slow, and rehearsals for the opera did not begin until over three years after Hugo wrote the first lines. Bertins requests for lines of various lengths to fit the music contributed to this as well as the task of condensing a long novel into a four-hour opera. The main protagonist of the novel, Quasimodo, has a reduced role in the opera. At Bertins request, the ending of the novel was changed with Esmeralda escaping execution. In 1834, Notre-Dame de Paris had been placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, the opera libretto was submitted to the censors in January 1836 who required the title to be changed to La Esmeralda and all references to Claude Frollo as a priest to be removed. No expense was spared for the production, the four principal roles were assigned to the reigning stars of the Paris Opera, Cornélie Falcon, Adolphe Nourrit, Nicolas Levasseur and Jean-Étienne Massol. The well known interior and theatrical designers Humanité-René Philastre and Charles-Antoine Cambon designed the sets, Bertins limited mobility made it difficult for her to participate in the rehearsals, and her father commissioned Berlioz to conduct the rehearsals and direct the singers. The singers and orchestra were unenthusiastic, and showed it during the rehearsals and he wrote to Franz Liszt, What an inferno that whole world is, an ice-cold inferno. Hugo was travelling in Brittany and absent for almost all the rehearsals, according to Adèle Hugo, on his return he was not pleased with the set and costume designs in which he found nothing rich nor picturesque. In particular, he found the use of new cloth to clothe the beggars and vagabonds inappropriate
La Esmeralda (opera)
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Louise Bertin, the composer of La Esmeralda, in a portrait by
Victor Mottez
La Esmeralda (opera)
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Victor Hugo, the librettist of La Esmeralda, in an 1832 portrait by Alphonse-Léon Noël
La Esmeralda (opera)
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Hector Berlioz, who supervised and conducted the rehearsals for La Esmeralda, in an 1832 portrait by
Émile Signol
La Esmeralda (opera)
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Théâtre de l'Académie Royale de Musique where La Esmeralda premiered in 1836
22.
Les Orientales
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Les Orientales is a collection of poems by Victor Hugo, inspired by the Greek War of Independence. They were first published in January 1829, of the forty-one poems, thirty-six were written during 1828. The fashionable subject ensured the books success, the poems are also intended to undermine the classicists exclusive claim on antiquity. The depiction of Turks in Les Orientales mixes condemnation, idealisation and it is often cited as an example of the Orientalist attitudes typical of French literature. The thirty-fourth poem of Les Orientales is Mazeppa and this poem, written in May 1828, deals with the legendary story of Ivan Mazeppa who was punished because he was caught in a love affair with a Polish noblemans wife. The poem is organized in two parts, the first one is about Mazeppas physical travel across the plains of Russia on the horses back, until its death. The second part is about his travel to get back to life. The poem cites Byron and is dedicated to Louis Boulanger
Les Orientales
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Illustration by Gérard Seguin
