Victor Hugo is best known as a novelist, but he was also a master illustrator. 70 years before the surrealists, he painted these with ink, soot, coffee, and blood
I love me some Hugo, but the man could go on and on. My favorite was while reading Les Mis (1500 pages of microscopic text) and he spent 60 pages describing the Battle of Waterloo just so one of the main characters could walk onto the battlefield after it was all over and rob the corpses. Then 30 pages describing the history of the sewers of Paris just so a character could escape through them.
What drove me nuts about the sewer part was that he described a bunch of things that changed after the time period of the novel. And then once he's back to the story and people are running through the sewers, he adds bits like "if it had been 30 years later, they could have gone this way, but it hadn't been built yet". Like, why do we need to know how the sewers will be? At least the description of Waterloo was interesting and gave context to the corpse robbing.
Yup. And the sewer part was closer to the end of the novel so it really kind of grated on my nerves. But obviously at that point I was committed to finishing. Great novel, all said and done.
Ahhh I don't know, that was one part I didn't mind - the little character backstories in which you can see the depths a character would go to, despite living their whole life to the contrary. It just goes to show the love they had for Valjean. The build up makes it all the more poignant.
Sewer and Waterloo chapters can fuck off though lol
13 Comments
DarkFuture@lemmy.world · 20 pts · 193d
Pretty good.
I love me some Hugo, but the man could go on and on. My favorite was while reading Les Mis (1500 pages of microscopic text) and he spent 60 pages describing the Battle of Waterloo just so one of the main characters could walk onto the battlefield after it was all over and rob the corpses. Then 30 pages describing the history of the sewers of Paris just so a character could escape through them.
randy@lemmy.ca · 12 pts · 193d
What drove me nuts about the sewer part was that he described a bunch of things that changed after the time period of the novel. And then once he's back to the story and people are running through the sewers, he adds bits like "if it had been 30 years later, they could have gone this way, but it hadn't been built yet". Like, why do we need to know how the sewers will be? At least the description of Waterloo was interesting and gave context to the corpse robbing.
Timecircleline@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 192d
Someone on Lemmy told me that Dumas, because his work was published in serials, was paid by the word. I wonder if Hugo was the same.
DarkFuture@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 192d
Yup. And the sewer part was closer to the end of the novel so it really kind of grated on my nerves. But obviously at that point I was committed to finishing. Great novel, all said and done.
agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works · 8 pts · 193d
Or the 60 pages describing how the some nun never ever lied under any circumstances just so you'd know it was a big deal when she lies to Javert.
OmegaMouse@pawb.social · 2 pts · 192d
Ahhh I don't know, that was one part I didn't mind - the little character backstories in which you can see the depths a character would go to, despite living their whole life to the contrary. It just goes to show the love they had for Valjean. The build up makes it all the more poignant.
Sewer and Waterloo chapters can fuck off though lol
ace_garp@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 192d
These are exceptional!
A most evocative, brooding octopus. Wonderful dynamism in the ocean pieces.
I had no idea Hugo was also skilled artist. He would have been a formidable graphic novel illustrator.
picnicolas@slrpnk.net · 5 pts · 192d
Anyone else seeing a creepy face in the toadstool?!
ace_garp@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 192d
At least one.
picnicolas@slrpnk.net · 2 pts · 192d
The more I look the more creepy faces I see 😳
Eq0@literature.cafe · 5 pts · 193d
I must have read almost all his novels, I didn’t know at all he did illustrations too. These feel so much more fantastical then his writings…
knightly@pawb.social · 1 pts · 192d
Victor Hugo once got so mad he threw a baseball through a dog.
Monstrosity@lemmy.today · 0 pts · 183d
Ink & soot are pretty much the same thing, man.