Sebastien's Reviews > Quatre vingt- treize

What an amazing novel. Beautifully crafted, I love the narrative, with the characters standing in as avatars for ideas, and interplay with symmetry and contrasts between the various characters and ideas. Easy to mess up such a dynamic by rendering it too simplistically, but I think Hugo infuses a great level of nuance and subtlety to the enterprise helping ensure his novel doesn’t turn into a 1-dimensional parody.

Personally I love the stylization of the writing, lyrical and poetic, and so much fantastic imagery (really this part is just awesome!). Sometimes the 19th century novel goes a bit bonkers with meandering descriptions of geography, place, customs, objects. This can be kind of obnoxious, but this book only has a few such moments and I really don’t mind as the quality of the writing and story are too good. But these meanderings in the 19th century novel are just one of those things I try to buttress myself against, I usually don’t mind so much but sometimes it is an avalanche of words that doesn’t advance plot or character (at least doesn't seem to in my eyes) and try as I might it can break my patience. Like I said though, this book only has a few such moments, and usually when this is happening it involves a broader metaphor that seems to make sense for developing the story and message of the book.

This story takes place with the historical backdrop of the French Revolution year 1793, as the Terror is getting under way. It pits two opposing forces, revolutionary and reactionary. Progressive vs traditional. Duality is featured throughout the book. And yet there is nuance to the political analysis and views. And the historical background was very interesting and informative for me (some of the interesting alliances including reactionary alliance between nobles-rural poor/paysans-catholic elements vs revolutionaries emanating from various segments of city society. Of course this wasn't all cut and dry, but there were interesting linkages going on, and internecine struggles for supremacy between the subgroups on each side). The story seems to capture an essence of the times, intertwining legend with history and in doing so approaching a kind of truth that can be hard for one or the other to achieve on its own. This seems to be a theme with Hugo, or at least a manifestation of his philosophy, by combining legend (story) with history we can approach a greater truth. But this is the first book of his I’ve read so I can’t make a strong statement on that, just a guess and intuition.

Hugo strikes me as a humanist who likely had deep sympathies for progressive ideals but he also fairly represents how high ideals can lead to the greatest crimes, with idealists leveraging the excuse of noble ends to justify execrable means. Sidestepping accountability and responsibility because one’s ideals are so noble and just. This critique is applied to both reactionaries and revolutionaries in this story as we see various characters in both camps guilty of this, some of whom stoop to the lowest basest most cynical self-serving justifications for their commitment of crimes against their fellow man. But there is nuance and subtlety, both in the writing and also the representation of the characters. Some characters are presented in a more favorable light than others, but never as pure black or white entities. The moral dilemmas the characters face are great, each individual is anchored by their various strain of idealism. These ideals get smashed and tested against the vortex of reality with crosscurrents tugging the individuals this way and that, each struggle further revealing inner character and nuance of each person...

I would recommend this book for two reasons: first off the magnificent quality of the writing and storytelling. 2ndly the fascinating historical backdrop and information in this book that seems to capture the essence and complexities of this particular historical period. And I could add a 3rd: experiencing Hugo and his sublime sensibility and ideas.

Cannot wait to read more. I’m thinking Les Mis, this will be a grand project, maybe later in the year I’ll try it out. I can’t read as fast in French or with quite as high a comprehension level as in English (but it is a fun challenge), so it will be a doubly huge undertaking if I end up going for it! But I think I’m falling in love with Hugo’s style. It is ornamented a certain way, grand and architectured to a high degree, so certainly not for everyone (I'm guessing he might be one of those love it or hate it kind of writers for people), but it appeals to me and my tastes!

Quote:
"L'homme peut, comme le ciel, avoir une sérénité noire; il suffit que quelque chose fasse en lui la nuit. La prêtrise avait fait la nuit dans Cimourdain. Qui a été prêtre l'est. Ce qui fait la nuit en nous peut laisser en nous les étoiles. Cimourdain était plein de vertus et de vérités, mais qui brillaient dans les ténèbres."