Rating: 
Summary: A Great Read, But Sounds Too Contrived
Review: As I try to get through the classic novels, I opened this one with great anticipation and curiosity. Unfortunately, I thought it was really bad, with the worst characteristics of the Romantic style.The book starts off in the sea, with a counter-revolutionary aristocrat about to be delivered to the shores of Brittany. Then there is a whole chapter where a cannon rips free in the ship's hold, so detailed and melodramatic that it can only be there to symbolise something-everything that will fillow in the novel. The tone is surrealistic, with moralising asides thrown in as the cannon crushes sailors left and right. From there, the book just plummets downhill: it turns out that the aristo's ward, who is as good as he is evil, is the opposing representative from Revolutionary France. There is also a Revolutionary hanging judge, a guardian of ideology, who just so happens to have been the boy's tutor who loved him as the son he never had. Etc., etc., getting more and more outlandish as the plot thickens. There is even a section of dialogue, where the guillotine talks of its task and function, also dripping with the crudest symbolism. Of course, the end, which I will leave to the reader's imagination, is supposed to summarise how the Revolution ate its own children, oozing with puerile irony. While there are some good points to the novel - in particular the scenes with Marat, Robespierre, and Danton in debate - they pale in comparison to the ridiculous coincidences and gushing moralistic melodrama. Hugo may be one of the few classic authors who needed films to edit out the poor plot devices he employed. His work makes great films, but the full novels are simply over the top.
Rating: 
Summary: over-done, unbelievable, ridiculously symbolic
Review: As I try to get through the classic novels, I opened this one with great anticipation and curiosity. Unfortunately, I thought it was really bad, with the worst characteristics of the Romantic style. The book starts off in the sea, with a counter-revolutionary aristocrat about to be delivered to the shores of Brittany. Then there is a whole chapter where a cannon rips free in the ship's hold, so detailed and melodramatic that it can only be there to symbolise something-everything that will fillow in the novel. The tone is surrealistic, with moralising asides thrown in as the cannon crushes sailors left and right. From there, the book just plummets downhill: it turns out that the aristo's ward, who is as good as he is evil, is the opposing representative from Revolutionary France. There is also a Revolutionary hanging judge, a guardian of ideology, who just so happens to have been the boy's tutor who loved him as the son he never had. Etc., etc., getting more and more outlandish as the plot thickens. There is even a section of dialogue, where the guillotine talks of its task and function, also dripping with the crudest symbolism. Of course, the end, which I will leave to the reader's imagination, is supposed to summarise how the Revolution ate its own children, oozing with puerile irony. While there are some good points to the novel - in particular the scenes with Marat, Robespierre, and Danton in debate - they pale in comparison to the ridiculous coincidences and gushing moralistic melodrama. Hugo may be one of the few classic authors who needed films to edit out the poor plot devices he employed. His work makes great films, but the full novels are simply over the top.
Rating: 
Summary: The most compelling book I've ever read!
Review: Before reading this superlative book I had thought I had read well. What I found was that I hadn't really read a page-turner before. The book is excellent both from a literary and an historical perspective. A true masterpiece!
Rating:
Summary: Definetly on par with Les Miserable and Notre Dame de Paris
Review: Hugo again outdoes himself. His ability to go into details, without losing his reader, compares with Hemingway's. But this is not to say that his focus on the detail is at the expense of the big picture. Just the opposite. Ninety-three gives an overall perspective of the French Revolution that I have never realized (not that I claim to be an expert on the subject). Moreover, the battles between the blues (advocates of the Republic) and the whites (the royalist) are gripping. His characters are awe inspiring and the story as a whole moves very well. This is book is a real treat.
Rating:
Summary: Definetly on par with Les Miserable and Notre Dame de Paris
Review: Hugo again outdoes himself. His ability to go into details, without losing his reader, compares with Hemingway's. But this is not to say that his focus on the detail is at the expense of the big picture. Just the opposite. Ninety-three gives an overall perspective of the French Revolution that I have never realized (not that I claim to be an expert on the subject). Moreover, the battles between the blues (advocates of the Republic) and the whites (the royalist) are gripping. His characters are awe inspiring and the story as a whole moves very well. This is book is a real treat.
Rating:
Summary: History in the making
Review: Hugo was a great novelist with a gift for mixing history with fiction. Just like Dumas, only Dumas is lighter entertainment and less depth. 1793 was a crucial year for the French Revolution, and hence for human History. The Revolutionary regime was unstable, faction-ridden, while the forces of the Ancien Regime were still fighting fiercely (read Balzac's "Les Chouanes" and "A Murky Business" for other great references to alter years of this period). It is also a story of generational fighting, as well as an account of heroism in both sides. The Marquis of Lantenac is an old aristocrat fighting to restore the Regime, in the La Vendée uprising. He faces his nephew, the Vicomte of Gauvain, who fights for the Revolution. The scenery is the beautiful Bretagne, in Northern France. Hugo rounds up the story magnificently, explaining the reader what is going on in Paris with the different factions and leaders. So the story is not isolated from main historical events. These give it a full context, and in turn the story enlightens us about what the fight is about. The climax comes in the battle of La Tourgue, where uncle and nephew face each other in a dramatic fight. The revolutionaries win, but Lantenac returns to a castle, to rescue three children caught in a fire. He is imprisoned, and here the drama reaches its highest: Gauvain is told to execute his uncle. The ending is a hard confrontation between political reason and personal values, a subject explored in great literature since "Antigona", by Sofocles. It's clear why this eternal confrontation is tragic: no solution is devoid of an extremely high price. A less-known but excellent work by one of the best novelists there has been.
Rating:
Summary: Not Hugo's best, but mediocre Hugo is pretty damn good.
Review: I admit, I prefer Les Mis and Notre Dame de Paris to 93. First, I expected something different than what I got. 93 is about the Marquis de Lantenac, his nephew Gauvain, and Cimourdain, Gauvain's childhood tutor. Gavain and Cimourdain are on the side of Robespierre and the Revolution, the Marquis is definately not. The ideals of the revolution clash with neccesity, and this makes the Civil War we hear little about extremely brutal(one side uses the motto, "No Quarter", the other uses "No mercy"). At any rate, along with a great deal of wonderfully detailed descriptions of a cannon rolling around on a ship in a storm, the tumultuous Convention hall, and a few other things, there are also a great deal of clever sayings. The dialogue between Robespierre, Marat, and Danton is wonderful, though I wished and expected them to be the main characters...they weren't. This is a step up from "A Tale of Two Cities" when one is considering historical context(Tale of Two Cities is nearly totally one sided in it's opposition to the Revolution, not describing the tremendous danger to Paris posed by Berlin, London, and rebels in Normandy). However I suppose Tale of Two Cities is a step up as far as literary merit.
Rating:
Summary: "Ninety Three":Victor Hugo's most perfect work
Review: I have read four novels of Victor Hugo(and the synopsis of a fifth one)."Ninety Three" is the one in which he has reached perfection.
This specially applies to his plot-structure which is one of the best I've come across.
Hugo's rather naive artrifices and linking devices,which he used for making tight plot structures,but lent an unconvincing coherence in his earlier novels are absent-giving rise to an ingeniously linked sequence of events-where every event,keeping in mind the moral purposes which the novel seeks to achieve and the moral premises and goals of the characters,necessarily leads to the next event,to the climax and the resolution. The theme,most appropriately pointed out by Ayn Rand is:"Man's loyalty to values."
How every character and every event expresses the theme is the greatest technical virtuosity a writer can achieve.
(However,as I see,Hugo's conscious intention was to dramatize:"The conflict between the logic behind the French Revolution and the philosophy behind the French Revolution.) The plot-theme is:"The conflict which arises when a ruthless revolutionary(of the French Revolution)-a priest- is sent to keep a watch on a courageous but compassionate revolutionary-the only man he loves in this world- pursuing his granduncle-a proud,haughty,fanatical Royalist-with three innocent children and their helpless mother caught up in the cataclysm of this savage,frantic battle." The merits of this novel are numerous.First of all,it is one of the best suspense-thrillers among the explicitly philosophical novels of the 19th century.
The neck-breaking speed with which the events suceed one other will keep you biting your nails till the last paragraph. Secondly,every page-nay,every line in this novel gives a sense of something profoundly important,grand and dramatic.There isn't a sentence,conversation or scene which is trivial,silly or commonplace.Everything is grandiose,with a heightened sense of solemnity and tension. Thirdly,one cannot overlook Hugo's heroic view of man.Whether it be a literate beggar or an illiterate peasant woman;a wicked rebel who can go to any lengths of inhumanity or a young soldier who has lead an insignificant life-every character has been endowed with such moral courage,focus on one's values and goals,strength of conviction,fearlesness,intransigent integrity and above all,such a capacity to value one's values-that one has to conclude that for Hugo,man was a Titan or a Giant-nothing less than a demi-God. I would not call "Ninety Three" Hugo's greatest achievement since it's scope is rather small.Further,Hugo's usual obsession to insert long historical and political essays hadn't left him while he was writing "Ninety Three".Luckily,they maybe ignored.Anyway, I would recommend them for their fascinating poetry;compelling,powerful style and tremendous universal significance. It is strange that although "Ninety Three" is a thoroughly interesting read-moreover glorifying humanitarianism,compassion and non-violence-it is not a well known novel.One of the common criticisms is that,as the critics say,it has "unreal characters" and an "exaggerated sense of heroism".
But let me tell you this reader:If you want to look up with a sense of worship to the image of the Ideal-the Ideal whose essential nature you might not have grasped;if you want to take pride in the fact that you are a man;if you want someone and something to affirm your deep-rooted conviction : "Yes,it is possible",then you ought to read Victor Hugo's "Ninety Three".
Rating:
Summary: "Ninety Three":Victor Hugo's most perfect work
Review: I have read four novels of Victor Hugo(and the synopsis of a fifth one)."Ninety Three" is the one in which he has reached perfection.
This specially applies to his plot-structure which is one of the best I've come across.
Hugo's rather naive artrifices and linking devices,which he used for making tight plot structures,but lent an unconvincing coherence in his earlier novels are absent-giving rise to an ingeniously linked sequence of events-where every event,keeping in mind the moral purposes which the novel seeks to achieve and the moral premises and goals of the characters,necessarily leads to the next event,to the climax and the resolution. The theme,most appropriately pointed out by Ayn Rand is:"Man's loyalty to values."
How every character and every event expresses the theme is the greatest technical virtuosity a writer can achieve.
(However,as I see,Hugo's conscious intention was to dramatize:"The conflict between the logic behind the French Revolution and the philosophy behind the French Revolution.) The plot-theme is:"The conflict which arises when a ruthless revolutionary(of the French Revolution)-a priest- is sent to keep a watch on a courageous but compassionate revolutionary-the only man he loves in this world- pursuing his granduncle-a proud,haughty,fanatical Royalist-with three innocent children and their helpless mother caught up in the cataclysm of this savage,frantic battle." The merits of this novel are numerous.First of all,it is one of the best suspense-thrillers among the explicitly philosophical novels of the 19th century.
The neck-breaking speed with which the events suceed one other will keep you biting your nails till the last paragraph. Secondly,every page-nay,every line in this novel gives a sense of something profoundly important,grand and dramatic.There isn't a sentence,conversation or scene which is trivial,silly or commonplace.Everything is grandiose,with a heightened sense of solemnity and tension. Thirdly,one cannot overlook Hugo's heroic view of man.Whether it be a literate beggar or an illiterate peasant woman;a wicked rebel who can go to any lengths of inhumanity or a young soldier who has lead an insignificant life-every character has been endowed with such moral courage,focus on one's values and goals,strength of conviction,fearlesness,intransigent integrity and above all,such a capacity to value one's values-that one has to conclude that for Hugo,man was a Titan or a Giant-nothing less than a demi-God. I would not call "Ninety Three" Hugo's greatest achievement since it's scope is rather small.Further,Hugo's usual obsession to insert long historical and political essays hadn't left him while he was writing "Ninety Three".Luckily,they maybe ignored.Anyway, I would recommend them for their fascinating poetry;compelling,powerful style and tremendous universal significance. It is strange that although "Ninety Three" is a thoroughly interesting read-moreover glorifying humanitarianism,compassion and non-violence-it is not a well known novel.One of the common criticisms is that,as the critics say,it has "unreal characters" and an "exaggerated sense of heroism".
But let me tell you this reader:If you want to look up with a sense of worship to the image of the Ideal-the Ideal whose essential nature you might not have grasped;if you want to take pride in the fact that you are a man;if you want someone and something to affirm your deep-rooted conviction : "Yes,it is possible",then you ought to read Victor Hugo's "Ninety Three".
Rating:
Summary: Bracing
Review: I read this because Ayn Rand wrote somewhere that this was one of her favorite novels, even though Hugo was a socialist. I often objected to Rand's twisting her esthetic responses into dogma, but she was right on this one. This is a story of human courage and nobility amidst brutality and suffering. The setting is civil war during the French Revolution in 1793 (thus the title). Several plot threads come together, including a mother desparately seeking her children. Highly recommended. This is the one Hugo novel that would make a film without much distortion, but I don't think Hollywood's ever touched it - which is probably for the best.
|
