Hugo's works

Script

"Cromwell", a verse script published in 1827. The "Preface" of the script is considered to be the declaration of the French Romantic drama movement and is Hugo's extremely important literary treatise.

"Hernani" (Egny), its premiere in 1830 was a symbol of the complete victory of French Romanticism over Classicism.

Novel

"Notre Dame de Paris", written in 1831, is Hugo's famous novel and a representative of romantic novels. The two characters in the novel, Quasimodo and Archdeacon Frollo, are in contrast. The former is ugly in appearance, but pure and kind-hearted. The latter is sanctimonious. The heroine Esmond is the embodiment of beauty.

"The Man Who Laughs" was published in 1869. The novel has the same contrast between beauty and ugliness as Notre Dame de Paris. The protagonist Gwen Pulan was born into a noble family, but due to intrigues in the palace, her face was disfigured when she was a child. Later, he was adopted by the folk artist "Xiong" (or transliterated as "Usus"). Therefore, Gwen Pulan is the son of the people. Later, the novel took a turn, and Gwen Pulan's fate experienced great ups and downs. However, due to the death of her lover "Goddess" (transliterated as "Di"), she was completely desperate and threw herself into the river. The creation of "The Laughing Man" marked a big step for the author towards realism.

"Les Misérables" lasted more than thirty years, from conception in 1828 to creation in 1845. It was not until 1861 that Hugo finally completed the book. It is a literary masterpiece that best reflects Hugo's literary techniques and ideas. In the novel, Hugo described the deep suffering of the lower class people. And through the experience of the protagonist Jean Valjean, Hugo's compassionate thoughts are expressed.

"1993" is Hugo's last novel. The two opposing characters in the novel, the revolutionary Guo Wen and the royalist Marquis de Lantenac, are another contrast between good and evil by Hugo. After Guo Wen captured the Marquis of Lantenac, he thought that the Marquis of Lantenac had saved three children, so he even sent himself to the guillotine and let the enemy leader go. This arrangement best reflects Hugo's belief in compassion and pure conscience.

Short story:

"The Disaster of the "Normandy"" tells the story of a shipwreck at sea, creating a dazzling image of a captain. The plot of the story is relatively simple. When the author narrates this event, he unfolds the plot completely in chronological order and in accordance with the logic of the development of the event. The characters gradually become more distinct as the plot unfolds, and finally stand tall in the readers' minds and cannot be forgotten for a long time.

Letters

"My Praise" is a letter written by the famous French writer Victor Hugo in 1861 to Captain Butler of the French Army who participated in the burning of the Old Summer Palace in Beijing. In his letter, Hugo highly praised the history, culture and artistic value of the Old Summer Palace, and angrily denounced the crimes of the British and French invading troops. In fact, through this information, we can understand a period of history between France and China. Reading this book can't help but make people's hearts agitated and unable to calm down for a long time.

At the beginning of the letter, he wrote: Sir, you asked me what I thought of this expedition to China. You think this expedition is worthy of praise. It was a great job and you were very polite and paid great attention to my feelings. . According to your high opinion, this expedition to China under the twin banners of Queen Victoria and Emperor Napoleon is a glory to Britain and France; you want to know how much I appreciate this victory of Britain and France. Since you know your opinion, my reply is as follows:

In a corner of the world, there is a great miracle of mankind, and this miracle is the Old Summer Palace. Art has two origins: one is the idea - from which European art emerged; an almost superhuman nation gathered in the Yuanmingyuan everything that a nation could imagine. The Old Summer Palace is the prototype of a huge fantasy. If fantasy can have a prototype, just imagine an indescribable building, a fairyland like the Moon Palace, that is the Old Summer Palace. Suppose there is a splendid building that embodies the greatest achievements of human imagination. The treasure cave appears in the image of a palace and temple, that is, the Old Summer Palace. In order to build the Old Summer Palace, people worked for two generations for a long time.

So who built this huge, city-like garden that took centuries to build? For the people. Because the passage of time will make everything belong to all mankind. An art master, poet, and philosopher, he only knows the Old Summer Palace. Voltaire spoke of it. They have always compared the Parthenon in Greece, the pyramids in Egypt, the Arena in Rome, Notre Dame in Paris and the Old Summer Palace in the East. If people cannot see the Old Summer Palace with their own eyes, they see it in their dreams. It seems to be a previously unknown and amazing masterpiece vaguely seen in the distant twilight, just like the outline of Asian civilization rising on the European horizon. This airy world is gone now.

Once, two robbers broke into the Old Summer Palace, one started to rob it, and the other set it on fire. It turns out that victory means carrying out abnormal plunder. The victors stole all the wealth of the Old Summer Palace and then divided the spoils among themselves. All these things were done in the name of Elgin. This reminds me of the Parthenon. They treated the Parthenon the same way they treated the Old Summer Palace, but this time they did it more simply and thoroughly, sweeping away everything without leaving anything behind. Even if all the treasures of all the Notre Dame cathedrals in our country are added together, they cannot compare with this large and magnificent Oriental Museum. This Oriental museum houses not only contact art, but also a dazzling array of gold and silver products. This is really a great achievement and a very proud extra money! One of the victors filled his pockets, and the other man did the same thing and filled his trunks. After that, they both returned to Europe hand in hand. This is the experience of these two robbers.

We Europeans always think of ourselves as civilized people. In our eyes, the Chinese are barbarians. However, this is how civilization treats barbarism. When it is handed over to the judgment of history in the future, one of the robbers will be called France; the other - called England. I will protest against them and thank you for giving me the opportunity to protest. The crimes committed by rulers must not be confused with the faults of the people they rule. It is always the government that commits robberies, never the people.

Standing at the height of history, while angrily criticizing the invaders who trampled on human civilization, Hugo once predicted: The French Empire has embezzled half of its treasures. Now, she is so shameless that she repays all the treasures. Identity put these beautiful ancient cultural relics in the Old Summer Palace on public display. I believe that there will come a day when France, which is liberated and cleansed of its dirt, will return its stolen goods to the plundered China.

Let me prove it for now: this robbery was done by these two robbers. Sir, you now finally know that this is my appreciation for the expedition to China.

Collection of Poems

"The Poor Children"

Look at this little son of the earth, he is so great, and he has the most noble character of God. Children before their fleshly birth Are lights alive in the blue sky; He is great; he hath in him God most high. Children before their fleshly birth Are lights alive in the blue sky .

In our frivolous and painful world, they come gracefully and are given by God. Their murmurs speak of God’s teachings and their pure smiles reveal God’s tolerance

In our light bitter world of wrong They come; God gives us them awhile. His speech is in their stammering tongue, And his forgiveness in their smile.

Our eyes dwell in their sweet light! Their right to be happy is so simple! If they are hungry, Paradise weeps If they are cold, Heaven trembles with pain

Their sweet light rests upon our eyes. Alas! their right to joy is plain. If they are hungry Paradise Weeps , and, if cold, Heaven thrills with pain.

But the greed in the world continues to corrode these innocent flowers. Sinful people are judging right and wrong. Mortals have angels in their hands. ah! How come there is angry thunder stirring in the depths of heaven!

The want that saps their sinless flower Speaks judgment on sin's ministers. Man holds an angel in his power. Ah! deep in Heaven what thunder stirs,

The God who overshadows our rest. When God seeks out these tender things Whom in the shadow where we sleep He sends us clothed about with wings, And finds them ragged babes that weep!

Selected Poems

June Night

When the summer day fades, the flowers bloom The plains

are spreading intoxicating fragrance in all directions;

hearing the increasingly distant noises ringing in your ears, close your eyes,

and fall asleep vaguely , into a transparent and bottomless dream.

The stars are getting brighter and brighter, and it is a beautiful night.

The faint sky is covered with hazy colors;

The soft and pale dawn is looking forward to the moment of taking the stage. ,

As if wandering in the distant sky all night long.

September 28, 1837

[Edit this paragraph] Quotes

Character Quotes

Happiness in life is to be sure that someone loves you , someone who loves you for who you are, or more accurately, someone who loves you without asking you how.

The widest thing in the world is the ocean, wider than the ocean is the sky, and wider than the sky is the human mind.

The future will belong to two kinds of people: those who think and those who work. In fact, these two kinds of people are the same kind of people, because thinking is also labor.

Beyond the infallible revolution there is an infallible humanitarianism.

Human wisdom holds three keys, one for numbers, one for letters, and one for notes. Knowledge, thoughts, fantasies are there.

What the world lacks is perseverance, not strength.

Boldness is the price of progress.

You should believe that you are the strong one in life.

The greatest revenge in the world is tolerance.

It is also a good thing that there are many thorns on the road of art. Most people are afraid of it, except those with strong will.

Whoever wastes their years will lose their youth and life will abandon them.

Laughter is like sunshine, driving away the winter on people’s faces.

Reluctantly agreeing is worse than frank refusal.

It is the human heart that releases infinite light, and it is the human heart that creates boundless darkness.

Books are tools for building the soul.

People can survive only if they have material things; people can live life only if they have ideals.

Where the feet cannot reach, the eyes can reach; where the eyes cannot reach, the spirit can fly.

One more school means one less prison.

Life is about facing a smile.

Man has two ears, one hears the voice of God and the other hears the voice of the devil.

I would rather rely on my own strength to open up my future than ask for the favor of a powerful person.

The first hunger of mankind is ignorance.

If you don’t know pain, you are not a good man.

Faith is necessary for people. People who believe in nothing will not be happy.

Caution is much more powerful than boldness.

All kinds of stupid things, under the influence of reading books every day, gradually melt away as if on fire.

Thoughts are power.

Without the storm, the sail is just a rag.

Famous quotes from Hugo's works

What weapon does humanity use? What kind of ordnance is it? It's a cradle.

——"1993"

With a little effort, a nettle can become a useful thing; if you don't care at all, it becomes a harmful thing, so it is eradicated. How many people resemble nettles!

Never be afraid of thieves and murderers. That's the danger outside of yourself, a small danger. Let’s just be afraid of ourselves. Prejudice is a thief; vice is a murderer. The great danger lies within ourselves. What is the danger that threatens our heads or our wallets? Consider the dangers that threaten our souls!

The most sacred generosity of mankind is to atone for the sins of others.

The things that human beings depend on for survival are "definitely" more important than bread.

The human heart is more dazzling and darker than anywhere else; nothing that the spiritual eye can gaze upon is as terrifying, complex, mysterious, or boundless as the human heart. There is a scene that is grander than the ocean, and that is the sky; there is another scene that is grander than the sky, and that is the inner world of man.

Pleasure, what a sad purpose, what a trivial ambition! Only the ignorant enjoy themselves. Think, this is the true victory of the soul.

A monastery is a contradiction. The purpose is eternal happiness; the method is sacrifice.

Monastery is extreme selfishness resulting from extreme self-denial.

Meditating and watching is work; thinking about mysterious sounds is action.

He who never prays really needs someone who is always praying.

There is infinity outside of us, but isn’t there also infinity within us? Don't these two infinities overlap with each other? Isn't the second infinity intrinsic to the first infinity? Is it not another infinite mirror, reflection and echo, with a center point? Does the second infinity also have intelligence? Is it thinking? Will it love? Does it have a wish? If both infinities have intelligence, then each has a will-generating essence. There is an I in the upper infinity, and likewise there is an I in the lower infinity. The one below me is the soul, and the one above me is God.

Thinking, fantasy, and prayer are all huge and mysterious radiations. We should respect it. Where does this magnificent radiance of the soul shine? Shooting into darkness means shooting towards light.

Destroying fanaticism and worshiping the infinite is the right way.

People who are running for their lives cannot cough or sneeze.

Any woman knows this from the day she is born! Her mouth answers to one person, but her eyes answer to another.

——"Les Misérables"

Can laughter and happiness be equated? The bronze statue seems to be laughing, making people laugh, but in fact it is meditating.

All sentient beings have too many brains and end up without thoughts; they have too many eyes and end up seeing nothing; they themselves are the surface, so they always stay on the surface.

The rich man’s paradise is built by the poor out of hell.

The wind is like a lonely person who talks a lot.

The trouble with words is that they represent clearer outlines than ideas. The boundaries of various ideas can cross each other, but words cannot. The mind always has some diffuse angle from which words escape. Expression is limited but thought is unlimited.

The flesh shouts: "Go!" The soul cries: "No!"

I am the terrible Laughing Man. What is the Smiling Man laughing at? Laughing at you, at himself, at everything. What does his smile mean? Means your sins and His sufferings. He throws this sin upon your heads, He spits this pain in your faces. I laugh, which means: I'm crying.

——"The Laughing Man"

Being pulled off the mask is a kind of failure, but taking off the mask yourself is a kind of victory.

Once you fall into the abyss of pain, it sometimes drives you out of the world of the living.

Doing and achieving are two different things. For example, it is easy to dream, but it is difficult to make your dreams come true.

At the end of the abyss, there was a contest between representatives of conspiracy and evil, with beasts on one side and humans on the other. The evil beasts executed the evildoers. What terrible justice.

——"Sea Labor"

Hugo's views on the burning of the Old Summer Palace in "Letter to Captain Butler on the British-French Allied Forces Expedition to China"

1860 , the British and French allied forces burned the Old Summer Palace. He wrote a letter denounced the allied forces as bandits and condemned their criminal behavior of destroying Eastern culture. At this time, Hugo was forced to live in exile on Guenise Island for 19 years. During this period, Hugo refused to return even if Napoleon issued a pardon. After Hugo's death, the French people held a state funeral for him, and his body was buried in the Pantheon, which is dedicated to the burial of great men.

In 1860, the British and French forces burned the Old Summer Palace. The next year, British Captain Butler wrote to Hugo, hoping to know how much Hugo appreciated this victory. Hugo wrote in a long letter replied on November 25:

"There is a miracle in the world, and this miracle is called the Old Summer Palace... People have always regarded the Parthenon in Greece, the pyramids in Egypt, The Colosseum in Rome, Notre Dame in Paris, and the Old Summer Palace in the East... This was an unprecedented and amazing masterpiece. However, this miracle was gone. One day, two robbers broke into the Old Summer Palace.

One robber plundered, another set fire to it... There was a massive looting of the Old Summer Palace, and the loot was divided equally between the two victors... The treasury we have in the church combined cannot compare to this glorious and strange Oriental museum.

We Europeans have always considered ourselves civilized people and regarded the Chinese as barbarians. This is what civilization does to barbarism. One of these two robbers is called France and the other is called England. I protest against this, and I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to protest... The French Empire received half of the spoils from this victory... I hope that France will one day be freed from its burdens, cleansed of its sins, and return these spoils to those who were robbed Plundered China. "

In his letter, Hugo described the splendor and value of the Old Summer Palace in detail, angrily condemned the criminal acts of the invading army to destroy Eastern culture, and at the same time distinguished the French government from the French people. After the failure of the Paris Commune , he called for the amnesty of the Commune fighters. On the day after the Belgian government announced that it would refuse members of the Paris Commune to enter Belgium, Hugo expressed in an open letter to the Belgian Independent that he would dedicate his residence in Brussels to provide refuge for the members of the Commune. But the next night, more than 50 people pretended to be members of the Paris Commune, tricked him into going downstairs to open the door, and then threw big rocks at him. His body was covered with fragments of window glass. Fortunately, he was not injured, but a few days later He was still ordered to be deported by the King of Belgium.

Although Hugo has passed away for more than a century, the humanitarian spirit he advocated throughout his life is still worth carrying forward in today's world and still has practical significance for progress.

In November 1861, he wrote a letter to a captain named Butler, angrily denouncing this scandal.

The following is a summary of his reply.

Mr. You asked me what I thought of this expedition to China. You thought it was a commendable and well-done expedition, and you were very polite and valued my feelings. In your opinion, this expedition was carried out under the double banner of Queen Victoria and Emperor Napoleon. The expedition to China is a glory to Britain and France; you want to know how much I appreciate this victory of Britain and France.

Since you want to know my opinion, my reply is as follows. :

In a corner of the world, there is a great miracle of mankind, and this miracle is the Old Summer Palace. Art has two origins: one is the concept-from which European art is produced; the other is fantasy-from which is the Oriental art. Art. The Old Summer Palace belongs to the art of fantasy. Everything that an almost superhuman nation can imagine is gathered in the Old Summer Palace. It is a fairyland like a moon palace, which is the Old Summer Palace. Suppose there is a treasure island that embodies the greatest achievements of human imagination, and that is the Old Summer Palace. In order to build the Old Summer Palace, people have gone through a long period of two generations. Labor. After centuries of construction, who was it built for? Because the passage of time will make everything belong to all mankind. They all know the Old Summer Palace. Tai also talked about it. People have always compared the Parthenon in Greece, the Pyramids in Egypt, the Coliseum in Rome, Notre Dame in Paris and the Old Summer Palace in the East. If they cannot see it with their own eyes, they will see it in their dreams. It is like a previously unknown and amazing masterpiece vaguely seen in the distant dusk, just like the outline of Asian civilization rising on the horizon of European civilization.

This miracle is now gone. One day, two robbers broke into the Old Summer Palace and looted it, while the other set it on fire. Judging from their behavior, the victors may also be robbers. An unprecedented looting of the Old Summer Palace began, with the two conquerors dividing the loot equally. What a great achievement, a windfall from heaven! One of the two victors filled his pocket, and the other saw it and filled his box. Then, arm in arm and laughing, they returned to Europe. Such is the history of these two robbers.

In the face of history, one of these two robbers is called France and the other is called Britain.

I will protest against them and thank you for giving me the opportunity to protest. The crimes committed by the rulers have nothing to do with the ruled; the government may sometimes be a robber, but the people never will.

The French Empire received half of the loot from this victory, and now it was naive enough to put the glorious plunder of the Old Summer Palace on display as if it were the real owner. I long for the day when France can get rid of its burdens, cleanse its sins, and return these riches to the plundered China.

Sir, this is my appreciation for the expedition to China.

Victor Hugo

Lived in Gaocheng on November 25, 1861

Bartlet was a Frenchman who accompanied the British and French forces to invade China. Army captain, and participated in the plunder of the Old Summer Palace. In his opinion: "This expedition to China under the banner of Queen Victoria and Emperor Napoleon is an honor shared by France and England," and he thought it was a "decent and beautiful job." After returning to China, he wrote to Hugo to ask for his opinion on the so-called "expedition to China". He expected to get some words of praise, but unexpectedly, what he got from Hugo was angry protest and rebuke.