Great Writers : We of Victor Hugo. By Frank T.
Marzials. (Walter Scott.)—In spite of a fantastic style which constantly draws the reader's attention to its eccentricities, this is an in- teresting volume, and shows that the writer understands his subject, if, indeed, any Englishman, save Mr. Swinburne, can be credited with understanding Victor Hugo. The poet's personal character is more easily read than his genius. His faults lie on the surface, and it is evident that he was a singularly self-conscious man, with, as his biographer admits, "a strong element of theatricality" in his nature. In life he did not know the virtue of moderation, in literature he failed to see the merit of simplicity. As a politician, he loved the "falsehood of extremes," and by his wild utterances in 1851, which made Montalembert cry out that he was crazy, he served the cause of the man whom he came to hate the most. To exaggerate Hugo's oratorical and polemical extravagances would be difficult; his eloquent invective was like the sudden glare of fireworks. To see the events and persons he describes in the clear light of day was not given to Victor Hugo. Mr. Marziah3 calls " L'Homme qui Hit" "a preposterous and im- possible book ;" but much of the poet's conduct as a man of affairs may be quite as justly calledipreposterons. Genius of the highest order is almost invariably combined with sanity; but Hugo rants
when he should argue, and betrays a frequent contempt for the most familiar facts. Of this incapacity for apprehending truth Mr. Marzials gives some striking illustrations, but at the same time he does full justice to Hugo's amazing genius as an imagina- tive writer. Readers who want to know the events of the poet's life will find them sufficiently stated in these pages, and Mr. Mar- zials' criticism is generous and discriminating. The series of "Great Writers" has the immense advantage of a bibliography, by Mr. Anderson, of the British Museum, and in the case of a foreign poet like Victor Hugo, this will be found of considerable service to the student.
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