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Audiobook edition · 14 h 1 minPaperback · 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 sweeping historical settings, sea battles and sieges will enjoy this book. So will anyone drawn to the French Revolution and the moral weight of mercy.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Kindness interrupts the soldiers' orders
- Lantenac rewards courage and punishes failure
- Shelter is answered with renewed violence
- Public duty enters a private bond
- Master and pupil imagine different republics
- The siege puts children in danger
- Conscience must reach beyond a cause
- The mother holds the story together
- Pity tests every claim to justice
Who’s who
- Marquis de LantenacAn old Breton nobleman who lands from England to lead the royalist rebels and wants to bring the English into France.
- GauvainLantenac's young great-nephew, a gifted republican commander who wins battles and believes in mercy once the fighting is done.
- CimourdainA former priest and Gauvain's tutor, sent by the Committee of Public Safety to keep watch over him and enforce strict justice.
- Michelle FléchardA poor Breton mother, shot and left for dead, who walks across the country to find her three lost children.
- HalmaloA Breton sailor who rows Lantenac to shore and then carries his orders to the rebel chiefs in the forests.
- Sergeant RadoubA rough, kindhearted Parisian sergeant who leads the Bonnet Rouge battalion and adopts the three children.
- TellmarchAn old beggar and healer, called the Caimand, who shelters Lantenac and nurses the wounded mother.
- The ImânusGouge-le-Bruant, Lantenac's fierce lieutenant, who holds the tower and has planned a ruthless defense.
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Ninety-Three
by Victor Hugo · 1874
A marquis, his republican nephew and three sleeping children meet in a besieged tower in Brittany, 1793.
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“There was never a more brilliant boy than Victor Hugo; but there has never been a greater man.”
In short
Picture a leafy hollow in a Breton forest in 1793, and inside it a young widow with three small children, hiding from a war she does not understand. Soldiers from Paris find her and, to their own surprise, adopt the children.
Ninety-Three at a glance
- Reading time
- About 7 h 55 min6 h 20 min fast, 9 h 30 min slow
- Length
- 113,600 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1874by Victor Hugo
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Soldiers find a mother in the forest
The story opens in late May 1793 in the forest of La Saudraie in Brittany. A Parisian battalion called Bonnet Rouge, worn down to about three hundred men, searches the woods for royalist rebels. Its orders are no mercy and no quarter.
Thirty grenadiers surround a stir in the thicket, ready to fire. Then the canteen woman shouts at them to stop. In a leafy hollow they find a ragged, barefoot woman nursing a baby, with two small boys against her knees. Her name is Michelle Fléchard.
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Details
- First published
- 1874
- Language
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- Level
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Cite this edition
Hugo, Victor. Ninety-Three. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/ninety-three.
Hugo, V. (2026). Ninety-three. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/ninety-three (Original work published 1874)
Hugo, Victor. Ninety-Three. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/ninety-three.
@book{hugo2026ninetythree,
author = {Hugo, Victor},
title = {Ninety-Three},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/ninety-three},
note = {First published 1874}
}
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What is Ninety-Three by Victor Hugo about?
It is a novel about 1793 in western France, when royalist peasants rose against the Republic. A marquis, his republican great-nephew and a former priest are bound together in a struggle over justice and mercy, with three small children at its center.
Who are Lantenac, Gauvain and Cimourdain?
Lantenac is an old royalist marquis who leads the revolt, Gauvain is his young great-nephew and a republican commander, and Cimourdain is Gauvain's former tutor and a revolutionary delegate. Each stands for a different idea of right.
Is Ninety-Three based on a true story?
The war in the Vendée, the Convention and figures like Danton, Robespierre and Marat are real history. The main characters and their story are Hugo's invention. He published the novel in 1874, eighty years after the events.
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.
“Courage must be rewarded, and negligence punished.”
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