bookshelves: winter-20132014, fraudio, published-1874, historical-fiction, france, tbr-busting-2014, revolution, lit-richer, execution, epic-proportions, gr-library, channel-islands, victorian, translation, seven-seas
Read from January 05 to 27, 2014
Description:
Ninety-three, the last of Victor Hugo's novels, is regarded by many including such diverse critics as Robert Louis Stevenson and André Maurois as his greatest work.
1793, Year Two of the Republic, saw the establishment of the National Convention, the execution of Louis XVI, the Terror, and the monarchist revolt in the Vendée, brutally suppressed by the Republic. Hugo's epic follows three protagonists through this tumultuous year: the noble royalist de Lantenac; Gauvain, who embodies a benevolent and romantic vision of the Republic; and Cimourdain, whose principles are altogether more robespierrean.The conflict of values culminates in a dramatic climax on the scaffold."Was it a Blue; was it a White?"
"It was a bullet"
Trivia:
The former priest who is considered by some to be the novel's villain, Cimourdain, purportedly "made a deep impression on a young Georgian seminarian named Dzhugashvili, who was confined to his cell for reading Ninety-Three and later changed his name to Stalin", according to a biographer of Hugo. (wiki sourced)
Daniel Vierge, illus. from "Ninety-three"
Achille-Isidore Gilbert, from Ninety-three vol. 1
Tellmarch. Jules Férat, from Ninety-three vol. 1
Charlotte Corday killing Marat. Frédéric Théodore Lix, from Ninety-three vol. 1
Imânus. A. Lançon, from Ninety-three vol. 2
She walked towards the tower. Édouard Riou, from Ninety-three vol. 2
Wow, this was rich pickings indeed, and delivered in that wry way that Hugo does to great aplomb. A great listen; fully recommended.
5* Les Misérables
3* The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
5* The Man Who Laughs
4* Ninety-Three
TR The Toilers of the Sea
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