Ninety-Three

Rating:
Summary: A Great Read, But Sounds Too Contrived
Review: As I try to get through the classic novels, I opened this one with great anticipation and curiosity. Unfortunately, I thought it was really bad, with the worst characteristics of the Romantic style.

The book starts off in the sea, with a counter-revolutionary aristocrat about to be delivered to the shores of Brittany. Then there is a whole chapter where a cannon rips free in the ship's hold, so detailed and melodramatic that it can only be there to symbolise something-everything that will fillow in the novel. The tone is surrealistic, with moralising asides thrown in as the cannon crushes sailors left and right. From there, the book just plummets downhill: it turns out that the aristo's ward, who is as good as he is evil, is the opposing representative from Revolutionary France. There is also a Revolutionary hanging judge, a guardian of ideology, who just so happens to have been the boy's tutor who loved him as the son he never had. Etc., etc., getting more and more outlandish as the plot thickens. There is even a section of dialogue, where the guillotine talks of its task and function, also dripping with the crudest symbolism. Of course, the end, which I will leave to the reader's imagination, is supposed to summarise how the Revolution ate its own children, oozing with puerile irony. While there are some good points to the novel - in particular the scenes with Marat, Robespierre, and Danton in debate - they pale in comparison to the ridiculous coincidences and gushing moralistic melodrama.

Hugo may be one of the few classic authors who needed films to edit out the poor plot devices he employed. His work makes great films, but the full novels are simply over the top.

Rating:
Summary: Definetly on par with Les Miserable and Notre Dame de Paris
Review: Hugo again outdoes himself. His ability to go into details, without losing his reader, compares with Hemingway's. But this is not to say that his focus on the detail is at the expense of the big picture. Just the opposite. Ninety-three gives an overall perspective of the French Revolution that I have never realized (not that I claim to be an expert on the subject). Moreover, the battles between the blues (advocates of the Republic) and the whites (the royalist) are gripping. His characters are awe inspiring and the story as a whole moves very well. This is book is a real treat.

Rating:
Summary: History in the making
Review: Hugo was a great novelist with a gift for mixing history with fiction. Just like Dumas, only Dumas is lighter entertainment and less depth. 1793 was a crucial year for the French Revolution, and hence for human History. The Revolutionary regime was unstable, faction-ridden, while the forces of the Ancien Regime were still fighting fiercely (read Balzac's "Les Chouanes" and "A Murky Business" for other great references to alter years of this period). It is also a story of generational fighting, as well as an account of heroism in both sides.

The Marquis of Lantenac is an old aristocrat fighting to restore the Regime, in the La Vendée uprising. He faces his nephew, the Vicomte of Gauvain, who fights for the Revolution. The scenery is the beautiful Bretagne, in Northern France. Hugo rounds up the story magnificently, explaining the reader what is going on in Paris with the different factions and leaders. So the story is not isolated from main historical events. These give it a full context, and in turn the story enlightens us about what the fight is about. The climax comes in the battle of La Tourgue, where uncle and nephew face each other in a dramatic fight. The revolutionaries win, but Lantenac returns to a castle, to rescue three children caught in a fire. He is imprisoned, and here the drama reaches its highest: Gauvain is told to execute his uncle. The ending is a hard confrontation between political reason and personal values, a subject explored in great literature since "Antigona", by Sofocles. It's clear why this eternal confrontation is tragic: no solution is devoid of an extremely high price. A less-known but excellent work by one of the best novelists there has been.

Rating:
Summary: Not Hugo's best, but mediocre Hugo is pretty damn good.
Review: I admit, I prefer Les Mis and Notre Dame de Paris to 93. First, I expected something different than what I got. 93 is about the Marquis de Lantenac, his nephew Gauvain, and Cimourdain, Gauvain's childhood tutor. Gavain and Cimourdain are on the side of Robespierre and the Revolution, the Marquis is definately not. The ideals of the revolution clash with neccesity, and this makes the Civil War we hear little about extremely brutal(one side uses the motto, "No Quarter", the other uses "No mercy"). At any rate, along with a great deal of wonderfully detailed descriptions of a cannon rolling around on a ship in a storm, the tumultuous Convention hall, and a few other things, there are also a great deal of clever sayings. The dialogue between Robespierre, Marat, and Danton is wonderful, though I wished and expected them to be the main characters...they weren't.

This is a step up from "A Tale of Two Cities" when one is considering historical context(Tale of Two Cities is nearly totally one sided in it's opposition to the Revolution, not describing the tremendous danger to Paris posed by Berlin, London, and rebels in Normandy). However I suppose Tale of Two Cities is a step up as far as literary merit.

Rating:
Summary: "Ninety Three":Victor Hugo's most perfect work
Review: I have read four novels of Victor Hugo(and the synopsis of a fifth one)."Ninety Three" is the one in which he has reached perfection.
This specially applies to his plot-structure which is one of the best I've come across.
Hugo's rather naive artrifices and linking devices,which he used for making tight plot structures,but lent an unconvincing coherence in his earlier novels are absent-giving rise to an ingeniously linked sequence of events-where every event,keeping in mind the moral purposes which the novel seeks to achieve and the moral premises and goals of the characters,necessarily leads to the next event,to the climax and the resolution.

The theme,most appropriately pointed out by Ayn Rand is:"Man's loyalty to values."
How every character and every event expresses the theme is the greatest technical virtuosity a writer can achieve.
(However,as I see,Hugo's conscious intention was to dramatize:"The conflict between the logic behind the French Revolution and the philosophy behind the French Revolution.)

The plot-theme is:"The conflict which arises when a ruthless revolutionary(of the French Revolution)-a priest- is sent to keep a watch on a courageous but compassionate revolutionary-the only man he loves in this world- pursuing his granduncle-a proud,haughty,fanatical Royalist-with three innocent children and their helpless mother caught up in the cataclysm of this savage,frantic battle."

The merits of this novel are numerous.First of all,it is one of the best suspense-thrillers among the explicitly philosophical novels of the 19th century.
The neck-breaking speed with which the events suceed one other will keep you biting your nails till the last paragraph.

Secondly,every page-nay,every line in this novel gives a sense of something profoundly important,grand and dramatic.There isn't a sentence,conversation or scene which is trivial,silly or commonplace.Everything is grandiose,with a heightened sense of solemnity and tension.

Thirdly,one cannot overlook Hugo's heroic view of man.Whether it be a literate beggar or an illiterate peasant woman;a wicked rebel who can go to any lengths of inhumanity or a young soldier who has lead an insignificant life-every character has been endowed with such moral courage,focus on one's values and goals,strength of conviction,fearlesness,intransigent integrity and above all,such a capacity to value one's values-that one has to conclude that for Hugo,man was a Titan or a Giant-nothing less than a demi-God.

I would not call "Ninety Three" Hugo's greatest achievement since it's scope is rather small.Further,Hugo's usual obsession to insert long historical and political essays hadn't left him while he was writing "Ninety Three".Luckily,they maybe ignored.Anyway, I would recommend them for their fascinating poetry;compelling,powerful style and tremendous universal significance.

It is strange that although "Ninety Three" is a thoroughly interesting read-moreover glorifying humanitarianism,compassion and non-violence-it is not a well known novel.One of the common criticisms is that,as the critics say,it has "unreal characters" and an "exaggerated sense of heroism".
But let me tell you this reader:If you want to look up with a sense of worship to the image of the Ideal-the Ideal whose essential nature you might not have grasped;if you want to take pride in the fact that you are a man;if you want someone and something to affirm your deep-rooted conviction : "Yes,it is possible",then you ought to read Victor Hugo's "Ninety Three".

Rating:
Summary: I am awed.
Review: I second all the reviews here: Victor Hugo was great, his *Ninety-Three* a masterpiece. Lovers of literature, students of history alike will enjoy this grand epic of the year 1793, its warring ideals and the giants of men who embodied them. Hugo makes history come alive, and heroes are what drive it. Every one of the novel's characters, whether an imperious general or a half-mad-with-grief, rag-clad peasant mother searching desperately for her children, has a quality absent from much of today's literature: dignity. I have read few novels that bless the reader with as pure and exalted a vision of man's majesty as this one.

Rating:
Summary: He did better
Review: In 1793, the immediate after-effects of the French Revolution are being played out: the Republic is beset by assaults both from outside France and by counter-revolutionary forces within its borders. The Marquis de Lantenac arrives in Brittany to lead the counter-revolutionary insurgency which has been centred on the Vendée. The Convention has already sent de Lantenac's nephew, Gauvain, to the Vendée with a force to put down the rebellion.

This is the main thrust of "Ninety-Three", although Hugo weaves several other sub-plots into the novel. The action takes place principally in Brittany, but there are scenes in Paris with interesting vignettes of Danton, Robespierre and Marat.

The main thing to be said about "Ninety-Three" is that it's no "Les Misérables", no "Notre Dame de Paris". It has its strengths, but the faults in the plot and in Hugo's writing made it for me a less satisfying read than those other works. "Ninety-Three" is melodramatic (frequently overly so), the use of coincidence is often outrageous, there are wildly improbable sections (the accurate identification of each ship in a French squadron at night being one early example), there are long sections devoted to descriptions of architecture, and one long part which is merely a list of the members of the Convention.

All these traits are present in other of Hugo's works I've read, and I suppose could be expected of a "romantic" writer, but I felt that in "Ninety-Three" they were out proportion, making up for the ordinariness of the main plot, and outweighing the fine sections of good descriptive writing, of meaningful reflections on morality, political convictions and war.

Overall, not his best, more of a cross between Walter Scott and "The Scarlet Pimpernel".

G Rodgers

Rating:
Summary: One Of The Greatest Masterpieces Of Hugo
Review: It have to be sayed: "93" is one of the greatest works of Hugo! After reading many novels, poems and plays, and analyse some of his letters and other contents, I think that its almost impossible to say that "93" doesnt have passion and skills of one of the greats poets/ romancists of the XIX century. The message that an good society can be created, that every man can be a great being by his own sacrifice is touching and inspiring. "93" is more them a book, or a revolutionary testament, is an piece of art made by a dreamer that believed in a beautiful and possible society, a real humanity.

Rating:
Summary: One Of The Greatest Masterpieces Of Hugo
Review: It have to be sayed: "93" is one of the greatest works of Hugo! After reading many novels, poems and plays, and analyse some of his letters and other contents, I think that its almost impossible to say that "93" doesnt have passion and skills of one of the greats poets/ romancists of the XIX century. The message that an good society can be created, that every man can be a great being by his own sacrifice is touching and inspiring. "93" is more them a book, or a revolutionary testament, is an piece of art made by a dreamer that believed in a beautiful and possible society, a real humanity.

Rating:
Summary: Truly great.
Review: This book show-cases some of the most brilliant writing I've ever read. Hugo is a literary God.

The events of Ninety-Three occur during (and somewhat define) the period of the French Revolution. For this reason, all the characters' actions are tremendously important. The fate of a large part of the world literally hangs on their actions. Toward the end of the book, during the battle at La Tourgue, you can almost see the future itself, balanced on a knife-edge, swaying back and forth with the actions of the main characters.

The characters in Ninety-Three are giants among men. Lantenac, Gauvain, Cimourdain -- all are heroic in their own way. Even minor characters like Radoub the soldier, Tellmarch the beggar, and Halmalo the sailor are honourable and admirable people.

There are scenes in Ninety-Three that are among the best I've read anywhere. (The "loose cannon" on the Claymore and the fire at La Tourgue being good examples.)

The only problem I had in reading Ninety-Three was one of my own making. Hugo makes a lot of historical or mythological references, especially in describing the Convention in Paris, which I didn't fully understand. That was due only to a lack of knowledge on my part -- it is no criticism of Hugo's descriptive genius. I am sure that when I read it next time (as I will), I will take more from the reading.

Ninety-Three is just about perfect. Read it.