"This study of Victor Hugo's work aims to uncover the diversity, the thematic and narrative singularity, and the shifting ironies and resistance to interpretative closure of his writing. Novels examined include: ""Notre-Dame de Paris"", ""Les Miserables"", ""Les Travailleurs de la Mer"", ""Quatre vingt-treize"", and ""L'Homme qui Rit"". The 11 essays in the volume bring together various critical approaches from French, British and American scholars, in an attempt to provide a new point of departure and to provoke discussion of Victor Hugo's novels. This publication marks the bicentenary of Hugo's birth in 1802."

James Hiddleston

Introduction; 1: Politics, Family and the Authorial Preconscious in Hugo's Han d'Islande and Bug-Jargal; 2: L'Intertextualité du Dernier Jour d'un condamné; 3: Notre-Dame de Paris as Cinema: From Myth to Commodity; 4: Circonscription de l'abîme 1; 5: 'The Dawn of a Hope so Horrible': Javert and the Absurd; 6: Genèse des formes. Textes et dessins autour des Travailleurs de la mer; 7: 'Pleine mer, Plein ciel': The Wave of the Future in Les Travailleurs de la mer; 8: L'Art du costume: L'Homme qui rit ou le drame de l'apparence; 9: Alternance et adhérence des contraires dans Quatrevingt- Treize; 10: Victor Hugo rôdeur de barrières et de frontières 1; 11: Suicide in the Novels of Victor Hugo