The Dramas of Victor Hugo: Mary Tudor, Marion de Lorme, Esmeralda
Hugo, Victor, 1802-1885Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019
Rating 3.8- Word count
- 337K words
- Chapters
- 34
Tags
English Originals Dramatic LiteratureForeign Literature Stage ArtPower GameTragic LoveRomanticismPlay AnthologyFrench LiteratureSummary
Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Dramas of Victor Hugo: Mary Tudor, Marion de Lorme, Esmeralda by Victor HugoAuthor: Hugo, Victor, 1802-1885,Language: English, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Mar 14, 2012Editor's review
This English edition of Hugo's plays brings together Mary Tudor, Marion de Lorme, and Esmeralda, showcasing his Romantic practice in the theatre. Mary Tudor turns on court intrigue and emotional conflict; Marion de Lorme focuses on the fate of social outsiders; and Esmeralda shares a character world with Notre-Dame de Paris and invites cross-textual comparison. The Project Gutenberg e-book is easy to search and excerpt, making it suitable for courses in theatre history and French literature or for independent study. Readers should attend to the tension between Hugo's stark contrasts and lyrical dialogue and their historical setting, and may also consult Chinese translations for fuller understanding.Who it's for
A good fit for
- Literature students studying French Romantic drama and Hugo's work
- Instructors teaching Western theatre history or courses on literary classics
- Literature enthusiasts who wish to read Hugo's plays closely in the original English
- Readers interested in adaptations related to Notre-Dame de Paris
Not a good fit for
- Readers with no English reading ability who seek only light entertainment
- General readers expecting continuous novelistic narrative rather than dramatic texts
- Beginners who need detailed notes and scholarly introductions
Reading tips
- Begin with the cast list and scene descriptions before each play to establish the characters and historical setting.
- Read one play at a time, and after each act note the turning points of conflict and changes in character motivation.
- Compare Esmeralda with related episodes in Notre-Dame de Paris to observe Hugo's strategies of adaptation.
- Consult background materials on the debates over French Romantic drama to understand Hugo's theatrical ideas.
About the publisher
Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.
Contents
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
- 16
- 17
- 18
- 19
- 20
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- 27
- 28
- 29
- 30
- 31
- 32
- 33
- 34
FAQ
Are the three plays connected?
The three plays are independent, but all display the typical interests of Hugo's Romantic drama. Esmeralda shares a character world with Notre-Dame de Paris and can be read intertextually; the other two draw respectively on historical court life and social outsiders, offering a useful contrast in Hugo's range of subjects.How difficult is the English, and is it suitable for beginners?
This is an English translation of nineteenth-century dramatic texts, with lyrical dialogue, long sentences, and historical figures and allusions. A university-level reading ability in English will make it smoother; beginners may first read a Chinese translation or plot summary, then return to selected key scenes in the original.How is the e-book best used?
The Project Gutenberg edition is convenient for full-text searching, copying dialogue, and taking notes, and suits course preparation, checking quotations for papers, and dividing reading tasks in a book club. It is advisable to use pen and paper or note-taking software to organize a character chart rather than only skimming on screen.This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.
About the author
Hugo, Victor, 1802-1885 AuthorHugo, Victor (1802–1885) was a French author renowned for his novels and poetry. The collection holds 54 of his works, including volumes of Les Misérables (such as Jean Valjean and Fantine), Notre-Dame de Paris, and Quatrevingt-Treize. These works center on poverty, justice, revolution, and redemption, weaving the fate of individuals tightly into social reality. His narratives are grand and emotionally rich, combining romantic sweep with deep concern for the poor and marginalized. Classified under inspirational growth, his characters' struggles amid hardship still speak to readers today. Public information is limited; this note describes only the themes and style suggested by the works in the collection.