Ninety-Three

A total feeling for the pulse of the Revolution, and a focus on its core in that fatal year – the end of the Monarchy, the ushering-in of the Reign of terror. Its reverberations spread everywhere. It gave me such a strong sense of the decadence of the ancien régime, and the fury of the populace that aroused.  

This is the last of Hugo’s novels, but regarded as his greatest work. In the book, the author meticulously describes the bloody fighting between the Republic and Royalist during the French Revolution. The monarchist revolt in the Vendee was brutally suppressed by the Republic. The emotional struggle of the three main characters gives readers a heartbroken impact, which shows that these characters were torn between political values and their conscience.

Set at the height of the French Revolution, in the midst of the Terror, this novel by the Romantic writer Victor Hugo depicts the contest between revolutionary “Blues” and counter-revolutionary “Whites” in Brittany.  Emphasizing the ideological conviction of both sides, the novel provides a vivid introduction to the civil war engendered by the Revolution of 1789, between radical Jacobins, on the one hand, and traditionalist nobles, priests, and peasants, especially in the Vendée region of western France, on the other. While it is perhaps a bit melodramatic for modern tastes, this lesser-known novel by one of France’s most celebrated authors… show more.