Hernani [Paperback]

Victor Hugo (Author), John E. Matzke (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2001

Since the "Quarrel about the Cid," no play has so completely revolutionized French dramatic art as Victor Hugo's Hernani. Its first representation marks an epoch in the history of the French theatre, and for this reason none is better adapted to study both of the merits and faults of the Romantic movement in France.

This edition is in French, for students of that language, with an extensive introduction and notes by John E. Matzke, who at the time of original publication in 1891, had been Professor of Romanic Languages at Stanford University.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Victor Hugo (1802-1885) was a novelist, poet, and dramatist, and the most important of French Romantic writers. In his preface to his historical play Cromwell (1827) Hugo wrote that romanticism is the liberalism of literature. Hugo developed his own version of the historical novel, combining concrete, historical details with vivid, melodramatic, even feverish imagination. Among his best-known works are The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Les Miserables.

Victor Hugo was one of the greatest personalities of French literature. Though not without the faults and eccentricities, which frequently characterize great geniuses, he never entered any field of literature without excelling in it. The novel, the lyric, the drama, criticism, all fell from his facile pen without apparent effort.

Product Details

• Paperback: 232 pages
• Publisher: University Press of the Pacific (December 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0898756189
• ISBN-13: 978-0898756180
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,944,009 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars A Stirring, Overlooked Drama, September 19, 2010

By 

Bill R. Moore (New York, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hernani (Paperback)

To English readers, Victor Hugo is known almost entirely for his great novels. However, he was also a dramatist - France's most important through much of the nineteenth century and the preeminent force in Romantic drama generally. His plays are still widely admired in France, and anyone who reads Hernani, his first major dramatic work, will see why. Debuting in 1830, it is early Hugo, but much of his greatness is here in near full force: possibly unequaled emotion portrayal, stirring suspense, bittersweet tragedy, high action, grandiloquent dialogue, etc. Anyone who loves these traits in Hugo's novels will enjoy them here. Though not as ambitious, complex, or original as his later prose work, this is a very fine drama that exemplifies Romantic plays and still stands up very well on its own. Those who have been through Hugo's best work and thirst for more would do well to seek out Hernani.