William Shakespeare

Portrait of Victor Hugo. Photogravure by Goupil et Cie.—From Painting by Pannemaker.
I TELL ENGLAND THE TRUTH; BUT, AS A LAND ILLUSTRIOUS AND FREE, I ADMIRE HER, AND AS AN ASYLUM. I LOVE HER. VICTOR HUGO.
Hauteville House, 1864.
The true title of this work should be, Apropos to Shakespeare. The desire of introducing, as they say in England, before the public, the new translation of Shakespeare, has been the first motive of the author. The feeling which interests him so profoundly in the translator should not deprive him of the right to recommend the translation. However, his conscience has been solicited on the other part, and in a more binding way still, by the subject itself. In reference to Shakespeare all questions which touch art are presented to his mind. To treat these questions, is to explain the mission of art; to treat these questions, is to explain the duty of human thought toward man. Such an occasion for speaking truths imposes a duty, and he is not permitted, above all at such an epoch as ours, to evade it. The author has comprehended this. He has not hesitated to turn the complex questions of art and civilization on their several faces, multiplying the horizons every time that the perspective has displaced itself, and accepting every indication that the subject, in its rigorous necessity, has offered to him. This expansion of the point of view has given rise to this book.
Hauteville House, 1864.
PART I.
Book
PART II.
PART III.—CONCLUSION.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Twelve years ago, in an island adjoining the coast of France, a house, with a melancholy aspect in every season, became particularly sombre because winter had commenced. The west wind, blowing then in full liberty, made thicker yet round this abode those coats of fog that November places between earthly life and the sun. Evening comes quickly in autumn; the smallness of the windows added to the shortness of the days, and deepened the sad twilight in which the house was wrapped.