Are there any other writers as good as him when it comes to establishing local scenary and historical atmosphere? I swear, when i read his romances i feel more feelings of whimsy and escapism for 18th century france than i've felt in any fantasy book that tries.

>>24522250 (OP)
>I do not know what led us to purely human factors; R. said Goethe had also tried—in Tasso, for example—to dissociate his characters from historical costume, whereas a similar sort of Venetian play by Hugo is stuffed full of historical local color. R. is inclined to agree with me when I compare Goethe’s Iphigenia with one of Canova’s Greek goddesses. He says the Greeks were fortunate in that their costumes corresponded so well to Nature, whereas in Shakespeare one really believes that men were born the way they appear, with their lordships, etc.

Chateaubriand

>>24522256
Great point. Where's this from? Seems like an interesting read.
>>24522267
Wasnt he one of hugo's biggest inspirations?

>>24522269
>Wasnt he one of hugo's biggest inspirations?
Apparently he wanted to be Chateaubriand or nothing. I've been reading the unabridged memoirs of Chateaubriand on NYRB (3rd volume will be published at the end of this year). I've had Les Miserables for maybe 20 years and never started it lol, I guess now is the time.

>>24522269
>Great point. Where's this from? Seems like an interesting read.
From Cosima's Diaries. An important source for the life and opinions of Richard Wagner, who had a somewhat antagonistic relationship with Victor Hugo, despite them never meeting.

Is Hunchback worth reading if I have no interest in gypsies nor hunchbacks

>>24522372
>Talked in the evening about Victor Hugo. “To the extent that the French can be poets, he is a poet.” R. places his Notre Dame above Les Miserables, if only because of its love and knowledge of old Paris, which was quite unknown to the French before him; its influence extended as far as the Mousquetaires.

>>24522383
Experts and specialists tend to regard him as greater as a poet than as a novelist. I don't think R. has fond of his verse, or French verse in general ("French verse is prose")