Page:Victor Hugo - The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (tr. Shoberl, 1833).djvu/19

Rh quoted, "the essential improbability of such a character as Bug Jargal, a negro of the noblest moral and intellectual character, passionately in love with a white woman, yet tempering the wildest passion with the deepest respect, and sacrificing even life at last in her behalf and that of her husband, is too violent a call upon the imagination: but, setting aside the defects of the plot, no reader of the tale can forget the entrancing interest of the scenes in the camp of the insurgent chief Biassou, or the death struggle between Habihrah and D'Auverney, on the brink of the cataract. The latter, in particular, is drawn with such intense force, that the reader seems almost to be a witness of the changing fortunes of the fight, and can hardly breathe freely till he comes to the close."

In 1823-4, Victor Hugo produced a poetical miscellany, with the title of La Muse Française. In 1824, his poem "Napoleon" obtained deserved applause. For a narrative of the tour which he made in Switzerland in 1825, in company with Nodier, he has not been able to find a publisher. In 1827, he composed his Ode a la Colonne, which gained him general admiration. His father died in the following year, and his last hours were cheered by the enthusiasm with which his son celebrated the exploits of his emperor.

About this period the hostilities between the adherents of the romantic and the classic school were renewed with vehemence; for a while this quarrel engrossed the attention of the public even in a still greater degree than politics; and Hugo, at the head of a little band, waged war against the numerous host of the classicists with variable success. His drama entitled "Cromwell," (1827) not adapted for the stage, full of admirable passages, but frequently lame, weak, and absurd, was rather a defeat than a victory. The Orientales (1828) gave a severe blow to classicism: never had a Frenchman produced such lyrics. This work is replete with simple, natural feeling, and glowing inspiration.

His next performance, Le dernier Jour d'un Condamné, published in 1829, though it has no pretensions to the character of a regular tale, is, in its way, perhaps, the most