14 h 1 minAudiobook12 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens when loyalty to a just cause demands the surrender of mercy?
It is 1793, and France faces enemies abroad and rebellion at home. In Victor Hugo’s historical novel Ninety-Three, the Marquis de Lantenac returns by sea to lead the royalist struggle. Against this ruthless commander stands his great-nephew Gauvain, a republican officer who wants victory to build a more generous society.
Then Cimourdain arrives with authority from the revolutionary government. A former priest who helped raise Gauvain, he loves his pupil but places the Republic’s survival above all else. As fighting divides Brittany and fierce arguments fill the National Convention in Paris, Michelle Fléchard struggles to reach her children. France’s future and the lives of its people press against each other.
What you’ll discover
- Kin on opposing sides Meet Lantenac and Gauvain, bound by family but divided over the future of France.
- Mercy against absolute duty Follow Gauvain’s generous ideals as they confront Cimourdain’s uncompromising devotion to the Republic.
- A mother amid war See the civilian cost of conflict through Michelle Fléchard’s struggle to reach her children.
- Brittany and revolutionary Paris Move between the fighting in western France and the National Convention’s fierce political disputes.
- The demands of conscience Face Hugo’s urgent question: how much can a just cause demand from a human conscience?
Who will love it
Readers who love big historical canvases, moral dilemmas and clashes of ideas will enjoy this book. It also suits anyone drawn to French history, Breton forests, and stories where mercy and duty collide.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A battalion adopts three lost children
- A runaway cannon tests a ship
- Caught between a reef and a fleet
- Halmalo's vengeance and the old man's answer
- The beggar who hides the hunted lord
- Paris, the Convention and the three giants
- The Vendée and a clash at Dol
- Two republics and a tower under siege
- A night assault and the children at play
- What the fire and the ladder ask of three men
- Hugo's ideas on revolution and mercy
- How the story is told
Who’s who
- Marquis de LantenacAn old Breton nobleman and royalist general who lands from England to lead the Vendée, merciless in war and loyal to his king.
- GauvainA young republican commander, brave and gentle, who believes victory should end in forgiveness rather than revenge.
- CimourdainA former priest turned stern Revolution delegate, who raised Gauvain and now must watch him with inflexible duty.
- Michelle FléchardA peasant widow shot and left for dead, who walks across a war to find her three stolen children.
- Sergeant RadoubA rough, kind sergeant of the Paris Bonnet Rouge battalion who adopts the children and fights to save them.
- HalmaloA Breton sailor who wants to avenge his shot brother, then serves the marquis as a loyal messenger.
- The ImânusGouge-le-Bruant, the marquis's savage lieutenant, who guards the Tourgue and prepares the fire trap.
- TellmarchAn old beggar and healer, called the Caimand, who shelters the hunted marquis and later saves the wounded mother.
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- Audiobook
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- 15-minute summary
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- Paperback
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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Dreiundneunzig
by Victor Hugo · 1874
In 1793 a royalist marquis, his republican great-nephew and a stern ex-priest fight over Brittany and three children.
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In short
Ninety-Three is the last novel of Victor Hugo, who died in 1885. It is set in 1793, the year of the Terror, when the French Republic fights foreign kings on its borders and a peasant rising in the west at home.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A battalion adopts three lost children
In late May 1793 a Paris battalion called the Bonnet Rouge searches the forest of La Saudraie in Brittany. The war there is cruel. Of twelve thousand men sent from Paris, thousands are already dead. Thirty grenadiers and a canteen woman move ahead of the main force, hunting for an ambush.
They find a ragged young woman named Michelle Fléchard, sitting on the moss with a baby at her breast and two small boys asleep at her knees. The sergeant, Radoub, questions her. She does not know what Blues or Whites are. Her village burned, her husband was shot in a hedge three days ago, and her only answer to every question is that she is with her children.
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What is Ninety-Three about?
It follows the year 1793 in Brittany, where a royalist marquis leads a revolt and his republican great-nephew and the priest who raised him hunt him. Three orphaned children and their mother stand at the centre of the conflict.
Is Ninety-Three a true story?
It is a novel set in a real time, the French Revolution and the Vendée war. Real figures such as Robespierre, Danton and Marat appear, but the main characters and the tower siege are Hugo's invention.
Who is Cimourdain?
Cimourdain is a former priest who becomes a stern revolutionary delegate. He once tutored Gauvain and loves him like a son, yet is sent to watch over him with power to punish any mercy to the enemy.
The author
Victor Hugo
1802–1885 · French novelist, poet and playwright
Victor Hugo (1802–1885) was a French novelist, poet, dramatist and politician. He was born in Besançon and died in Paris. He wrote The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831), Les Misérables (1862) and The Contemplations (1856). He lived in exile in Jersey and Guernsey between 1852 and 1870.
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