The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-03-15

Victor Hugo's New Novel,
"Ninety-Three."
PARTISAN OPINION ON THE BOOK.

PARIS. March q 1874
Victor Hugo has written q new novel, and 1t is
not success. 1t Is neither q great book nor .
good book; 1t marks q decline in the authors
powers as a writer and thinker, and it exhibits
many errors In taste and Judgment which rebound
little to his credit as man. We must make up
our minds TO 1t, the Victor Hugo who gave us the
"Orentales," 'Ernani," "NOtre Dame 0e Paris"
ana the "Miserables'' Is dead. Instead of him we
have man whom pubic disappointments and
private sorrows have in some sense crazed. Alter
being acknowledged the greatest poet Of his
country at an age when most men are still strug-
CLING for livelihood, Victor Hugo wished to play a
part In politics and to become leader in this
sphere also, as he was in literature. 1t was natural
to his French mind to think that, having ruled over
the minds OF his countrymen, he could gov
ern them In other ways, and the ex-
ample OF Lamartine becoming President
OF Provisional Republic in ls4s helped
to intoxicate him. But he failed. and since then
stung pride has led him to adopt the attitude OF a
man who is misunderstood" All great men have
their hobbies Byron was prouder OF his swim
ming than OF his poetry, and Ingres OF his violin
playing than OF his pictures. Victor Hugo's hobby
Is to be a politician. and when Louis Napoleon took
the liberty to slight him az visionary, Victor
Hugo went into exile with q tempest OF wrath In
his heart. His "Chatiments'' and Napoleon lie
Petit" were like the roars OF a wounded lion; his
"MseraDles" was an explosion OF bitterness
against society-the vlndictive shout OF social re-
former. The shout missed It's enect, however, be-
cause in wanting TO prove TOO much Victor Hugo
proved nothing, and so the book remained q great
literary triumph and little else. But Victor Hugo's
subsequent novels or detached poems were not
even literary successes.
''NINETY-rHREE"
h;ct NAV ho
Ritz" the maddest OF ali in the poets catalogue 1t
is p1an, and in part dirge, over the Reign OF
Terror-a p@an and drge quite uncaled for. No
man Of sense now harbors any illusions as to the
real character OF the men WHO guided the most
sanguinary period OF the Revolution; ana to MAKE
us look upon them, through the prisms Of fine
writing and flashing paradoxes, as heroes is an at
tempt chat has been made before and has broken
down, as 1t will again this time The men of the
Terror were not rtans, but pgmies-cruel and
imbecile plgmies. The best proof OF the emptiness
OF their work is that France has not secured TO
this day the political freedom that they pro.
fessed to establish by means OF the gull
lOtine. Indeed, whenever a sincere attempt
has been made to found liberty, the mere
mention of "1793" has been enough to
stir up whole legion of alarmists. Ninety
three" produced the Napoleons. 1t has engen.
lnnumerable 1t is living and perpetual terror
to all orderly citizens, and RobespIerre Marat and
Danton who are responsible for It's excuses, will
merit the eternal intamy OF having made the mere
names OF republic aud freedom odiOus. Victor
Hugo, however. does not appear to think this, and
his transformation of the three terrorists into
cold, stern, philosophical demigOds Is one Of
those foolish, dangerous proceedings OF which
we may see the results in some future Com
mune. RObesperre was a sallow faced, small
souled hypocrite, vain as only Frenchmen can be,
and implacably vindctve. as Frenchmen also are
when 1t suits their purpose so to be. Marat was q
foul mOuthed, uncOutn hammered mailman, and
Danton believing oull ignorant, brutal and
greedy. Both as
HUMANITARIAN
and as poet Victor Hugo might have piled his in
dignatiOn and satire with fine effect on these
wretched characters but then, as Aforesaid he as
pires to be q politician, anu must stOOp to the
tricks Of party men. II he had attacked the GRIM
inas Of 'Ninetythree" he would have angered their
successors and disciples the Reds OF 1871,
who are his principal political admirers
and who chose him as their parliamentary
candidate at the last general election. Victor
Hugo is not the first man who has made his ge-
MUS subservient TO his popularity. He is not
the first man who might have lightened the dark
ness of his followers, but refrained because the
followers loved their own ignorance and gloried
IN it, We must repeat, "Ninety-Three" is
"a MIsCHIEvOUS BOOK"
and such Is the general opinion OF sensible
Parisians about it. AS the novel has been trans
lated for simultaneous publication IN New York,
London, Berlin, Rome, Madrid, Stockholm, Am
sterdam, Pesth, Prague, warsaw and st. Peters
burg notice of it has probably appeared ere this
In the NEW YORK HERALD. 1t need only, there
fore, be said here that the principal scenes are
laid in the yendee during the war of the royalsts
against the republicans, ana the author has intro
duced three typical characteristic Marquis de
Lantenac, o young nObleman OF the old school ;
CimOurdain, q renegade priest, converted into o
fiery republican, and Gauvain, Cimourdain's pupil
a republican OF the pathetic sort. Lantenac is
sketcned at first as a hotheaded, brutal and fero-
cious person; but towards the end OF the book his
heart melts at the danger OF three children, who
risk being burned in a house, and he saves them.
though by so doing he knows that he will fall q
prisoner into the hands OF his enemies. Not to be
outdone in generosity Gauvain, Lantenac's chief
foe, goes into the cell where Lantenac has been
thrown, helps him to escape, takes his place and
gets condemned to death in his place by Cimour-
dajn his old tutor and friend. Nothing can be
more strained and unnatural than the episode OF
Cimourdan coming into Gauvan's prison and
talking philosophy with HIM throughout the
night preceding the latter's execution. Victor
Hugo has borrowed the notion from Socrates
discoursng wisdom with his disciples up to
the moment when he swallowed the hemlock
but then Socrates did not discourse with the men
who had condemned him to death-least OF all with
a man who, after booming him to the scafrold,
still protested to be his warm friend, his second
father, and to love him. such love as tins it was
that evoked the remark in the Old song:-
Twas all very we'll to disscmble your love,
But why did you kick me down stairs.
After all Clmourdain need not have condemned
Gauvain to death. and his doing SO was but an
alYectation OF that sham stocism which French
men love, but which verges on the grotesque.
There Is passage In one of Bret Harte's most ad-
mirable taes-"Tennessee' Partner''-in which
he says, talking Of Tennessee's execution by a
vvnch court "When the weak foolish deed was