The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1878-03-29
Victor Hugo's Latest Book.

ElcC0r hugo 3 LateSt bOOks
The literary sensation of the day is the
| publication of the second and concluding
part of Victor Hugo's "History of Crime''
which made its appearance in Paris on the
14th inst, and was first seen in this country
Monday last Despite its brilliancy of epi-
gram the work is a profound disappointment,
gaudy in rhetoric and quite uncouth in
| method. The description of Sedan will
never provoke second reading. It is bonn
bastic, and that is all. The better passages
of the book are in the first section, ''The
Massacre" in which we are treated to some
mastery invective. The pictures drawn of
the Conspirators of December are terrible
but would be far more effective could we
bring ourselves to believe them to be por-
traits. We have long ceased to expect Victor
Hugo to paint any man as he is.
One naturally compares Hugo's description
of St. Arnaud with that given by Klnglake.
The Englishman's picture is the better, the
Frenchman's the more striking. Hugo says
"He was loafer turned pirate. He died
Marshal of France" As sayagely unjust
are the descriptions of the other men OF the
coup Getat. They are all described in epi.
grams. Thus he speaks of Prosper Merimee,
one of the most admirable OF French authors,
and of de Morny, the hero of "The Nabob:"
IN. Merimee was vile by nature. We must
not blame him. As for NJ. de Morny, that is
quite another thing. He was better man.
There was something of the highwayman in
him. M. de Morny had courage. Brigand-
age oblige. M. Merimee has incorrectly given
out that he was one of the confdants of the
coup d. etot, not that it was anything to
boast about. The truth is that nothing was
confded to NJ. Merimee, Louis Bonaparte
had no useless condolences. Morny and
Merimee were both intimate at the Elysee,
but differently. We can believe Morny, but
not Merimee. Morny was in the great secrets
Merimee in the little ones. n The
Elysee wanted literary ornament. A dash
OF the Academy does not ill become a rob
ber's cave. M. Merimee was in the market.
1t was in his destiny to write himself the
Empress's jester. She presented him to
Louis Bonaparte who liked him and completed
his court with this cringing writer of talent"
Gould there be more unjust comparison
Another great French writer, the author of
the Cduseries du Lundi, fares little better:
There too, was Sainte-Beuve, a distin-
guished and inferior man, having that envy
which is pardonable in ugliness'. All the
intimates of the Elysee come in for denuncia-
tiono "There too," he says, "was Malitourre,
not bad friend, obscene and sincere"
"There too, was Mocquart,an ancient Adonis
of the Dutch court. Mocquart had romances
in his souvenirs. By age, and perhaps other.
wise, he might have been Louis Bonapart's
father. He was a lawyer. He had had
brains about 1929" "There too, was Billault,
having some resemblance to an orator, wan
dering with facility and making mistakes
authoritatively. Reputed statesman. What
makes statesman is certain superior me-
diocrity." "History, however proud she may
be is condemned to know that the Eysee ex-
listed. At this epoch 1t was sinister place.
1t had not one virtue left. You looked for
conscience and found Baroche, for religion,
and found Montalembert." Besides the
faithful, who were for service, there were
women-(the flying squadron), sometimes
men - Saint-Arnaud, Espinasse, Saint
Georges, Maupas; sometimes neither men
nor women-the Marquis de Caux."
Aside from this brilliant blackguardism
there is little to interest in the book, and
even the epigrammatic personalities be-
come tiresome when we learn the trick of
them. The story of the barricades is dull.
1t makes us long for "Gavroche." As for the
battle OF Sedan it is tedious beyond endur-
ance. The account is loaded down with pro
sale details. But there are occasional flashes
OF lurid rhetoric, of brilliant bombast, as
these for example: "The battle of Sedan is
something more than battle delivered-it
Is syllogism which completes itself-re-
doubtable premeditation of destiny. Destiny
never hurries. but always gets there. At her
appointed hour, behold her. She allows
years to pass by, then, at the moment when
fatal Unlooked-for." ssTurenne
and Vauban were both present, this in his
citadel, that in his statue. The statue and
the citadel assisted at that frightful capitu-
latlon. These two virgins, one of bronze,
the other of granite, felt themselves defow-
cred. Oh, august countenance of the coun-
try! Oh, everlasting blushr' n
"God alone could afford Sedan. To propor-
ton everything is his law. To worse than
Brumaire a worsel than Waterloo was
needed" "He who had no
army made war. He who had only Rouher
provoked Bismarck. He who had but
Lebouf attacked Won Moltke. He confided
Strasburg to Uhrich and placed Metz in ahe
keeping OF Bazaine. This convict was not
worthy to face his doom; he hung his head
and turned his back and God executed him
degrading him. Napoleon Ill, as Emperor,
was entitled to the thunderbolt, but upon
him the thunderbolt conferred infamy. He
was thunder-kicked behind-a a etc foudroye
par derriere."
With this ridiculous phrase the, story ends
"a phrase that no one but Victor Hugo
could afford to write.
hat c.