Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Why the digression on the barricades of 1848 (5.1.1.961-6)?

2 comments:

Jane Orr said...

Possibly Hugo wanted to assuage his conscience, since he had helped to put down the 1848 rebellion, by writing a respectful description of its participants. Also, he might simply have included it because it was an outcome of the 1832 barricade, such an important part of the story. It is yet another manifestation of the spirit of revolution against the privileged, which the whole book is about.

Cheryl Suchors said...

I'm with Jane on this one,on both counts, but I tend to weigh more strongly her first reason, that he wanted to atone for his own actions in 1848.