11 h 13 minAudiobook13 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 11 h 13 minPaperback · 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
You will love this book if you enjoy big, passionate essays on art and genius, if Shakespeare, Dante and Homer stir you, or if you like a writer who argues with fire.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Exile opens a question about art
- Genius still needs someone preserving copies
- Art grows through difference not replacement
- Great drama depends on its survival
- Shakespeare’s abundance follows the whole world
- Thought can become its own prison
- Poets owe something to the people
- Admiration carries a duty to everyone
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William Shakespeare in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
William Shakespeare
by Victor Hugo · 1864
In a cold white house on Jersey, a father watches the sea and his son sets out to translate Shakespeare.
Medium level5–10 hours to read20 languages
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In short
What would you do with years of exile? Victor Hugo opens this book with two exiles in a cold white house on the island of Jersey.
William Shakespeare at a glance
- Reading time
- About 6 h 30 min5 h 10 min fast, 7 h 45 min slow
- Length
- 93,100 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1864by 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
An exile's house gives birth to this book
Hugo opens with a house, not a poet. Marine Terrace stands on Jersey, whitewashed, square and cold, with the sea always roaring nearby. Its bare garden holds more stones than leaves. Hugo says the house has the shape of a tomb.
Those who live there are exiles. To have written was reason enough for bars. The family sits silent around the table, thinking of the two who are absent. Hugo also names an older exile of the island, a Roman whom the emperor Tiberius banished and forbade the orators to name. History obeyed, and the scene shows how power tries to erase thought.
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- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 13 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1864
- Language
- English
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Hugo, Victor. William Shakespeare. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/william-shakespeare.
Hugo, V. (2026). William Shakespeare. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/william-shakespeare (Original work published 1864)
Hugo, Victor. William Shakespeare. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/william-shakespeare.
@book{hugo2026william,
author = {Hugo, Victor},
title = {William Shakespeare},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/william-shakespeare},
note = {First published 1864}
}
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What is William Shakespeare by Victor Hugo about?
It is an essay on genius, art and progress that grew from a preface to his son's translation. Hugo gives a life of Shakespeare, compares him with Aeschylus, Dante and Homer, and argues that art should serve the people.
Is this a biography of Shakespeare?
Only partly. The first section tells his life from Stratford to the Globe, but most pages are a passionate essay on genius, criticism and the duty of poets. Hugo speaks as a fellow poet more than as a historian.
Why does Hugo compare Shakespeare with Aeschylus?
Hugo calls Aeschylus the ancient Shakespeare because both created huge drama in a vast manner. He pairs Prometheus with Hamlet and Orestes with Hamlet, and says Aeschylus's loss shows how fragile masterpieces can be.
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.
More by Victor Hugo
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