11 h 13 minAudiobook8 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 if the faults that trouble us in great art are part of what makes it great?
In William Shakespeare, Victor Hugo turns a tribute to another poet into a passionate argument about genius, art and freedom. This is no neat biography or scene-by-scene study of the plays. It is one poet reading another, and using Shakespeare to argue for his own beliefs.
Hugo places Shakespeare among history’s greatest minds and defends art that refuses tidy rules. He looks beyond plots to a world of kings and beggars, lovers and murderers, fairies and ghosts. At stake is more than literary taste: Hugo asks what poets owe to ordinary people, and how art can serve human progress.
What you’ll discover
- Genius beyond progress Explore Hugo’s claim that artistic genius stands apart from the steady advances of science.
- A whole human world See why Hugo finds such breadth in Shakespeare, from beggars and kings to ghosts.
- Greatness without tidy rules Follow a fierce defence of bold, uneven art against demands for taste and restraint.
- The poet and the crowd Consider Hugo’s belief that art carries a duty toward ordinary people and human progress.
- Hugo through Shakespeare Meet a portrait of Shakespeare that also reveals Hugo’s own stormy ideals and convictions.
Who will love it
For readers who love Shakespeare, Romantic literature or big ideas about art, and who enjoy a passionate, rhetorical voice.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A preface that grew into a book
- Genius stands apart from progress
- Shakespeare holds the whole of human nature
- The faults of genius belong to its greatness
- Art has a duty to the people
- A tribute that tells us about Hugo too
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William Shakespeare
by Victor Hugo · 1864
In exile on Guernsey, Hugo turns a tribute to Shakespeare into a passionate argument for art and freedom.
Medium level10–20 hours to read25 languages
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In short
William Shakespeare is a long essay by Victor Hugo, published in 1864. Hugo wrote it while living in exile on the Channel island of Guernsey, after he left France under Napoleon III.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A preface that grew into a book
Hugo left France after Napoleon III seized power in 1851. He spent years first on Jersey and then on Guernsey, where he lived at Hauteville House above the sea. Exile gave him time, anger and a wide view of the water, and all three leave their mark on this book. His son François-Victor was working there on a full French translation of Shakespeare, and Hugo agreed to write the preface.
The preface did not stay short. Hugo kept writing until it became a book in its own right, published in 1864 around the time of the three hundredth anniversary of Shakespeare's birth. It opens partly with the life of the English poet and partly with Hugo's own life, and the two are never quite separate. Hugo sees an exile in his subject, a man shaped by hard times and a harsh age.
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What is William Shakespeare by Victor Hugo about?
It is an essay on genius and art. Hugo praises Shakespeare as one of the supreme minds in history, defends his boldness against strict rules, and argues that art should serve progress and the people.
Why did Victor Hugo write about Shakespeare?
He first wrote it as a preface to his son François-Victor's French translation of Shakespeare's plays. It grew into a full book, published in 1864 while Hugo was in exile on Guernsey.
Is it a biography of Shakespeare?
No. It touches on the poet's life, but it is mainly a passionate essay on genius, the plays and the role of art. It tells you as much about Hugo's beliefs as about Shakespeare.
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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