Hugoliad, or, The grotesque and tragic life of Victor Hugo

Ionesco, Eugène

ISBN 10: 0394541391 ISBN 13: 9780394541396

Publisher: Grove Press, 1987

Synopsis

This is a comic mock epic- Victor Hugo, looked upon as a great romantic poet is seen as a very unromantic charlatan.!

About this title

Language Notes

Text: English, French, Romanian (translation)

From Publishers Weekly

"The only reason for the survival of Hugo's work is that it can't even be read once," writes Ionesco in this sardonic, debunking portrait. In the scathing view of the Rumanian-born playwright (who now lives in Paris), the great French novelist was a ham and an opportunist, a literary tyrant preoccupied with his image, who prized rhetoric over genuine feeling. "Speak less, I beg of you," Hugo's lady-friend implores him as they sojourn in the Pyrenees. Ionesco doesn't care for Hugo's poetry either; his Romantic lyrics are all hammer-blows and commonplaces, charges the author of Rhinoceros. Resurrected from a Rumanian literary journal of the 1930s, this short critical essay drips with sarcasm. Yet, as a polemic against the conservative artistic mentality, it offers valuable insights on sincerity in literature, the nature of genius, the whims of fashion.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Grove Press
• Publication date: 1987
• ISBN 10: 0394541391
• ISBN 13: 9780394541396
• Binding: Unbound
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 126