This document was originally published in Drama: Its History, Literature and Influence on Civilization, Volume 9. Edited by Alfred Bates. London: History Publishing Company, 1906. Page 1 1- 13.
Just as Voltaire was the actual ruler and generalist of French literature in the 18th century, so was victor hugo in the 19th century. Both of them lived to a great age and maintained their literary strength and fertility until the end. Both of them survived most of the opposition and competition that plagued their respective careers, and finally enjoyed extraordinary personal victory in their long-term exile capital. Victor hugo was even more excited than Voltaire, because he won honors and congratulations not only from Paris, but also from all over the world. After Voltaire's death, his body was rushed to a distant place and sent to the grave, lest the church authorities even condemn him by depriving him of a decent funeral. However, victor hugo's body was given a grand state funeral, and the public spontaneously expressed their grief, which was more grand and spectacular than any ceremony granted to the late royal family in the past. What did the uncrowned king do to deserve such a unique tribute? Perhaps, he is regarded by many as the winner and spokesman of world democracy. But his real victory was not in his contradictory political career, but in his lofty hymns, in his powerful plays and in his more powerful novels, he defended the oppressed and the expelled.
In his Autumn Leaves and other works, Hugo described his life because he wanted the world to see and praise his life. This biography claims to be "told by a person who witnessed his life", and is believed to have been written by his wife, mostly by himself, with typical exaggeration and tampering. All his sincere love for human beings extends to evil and depravity, adding a conceited vanity, which requires human beings to be interested in him and his behavior. Because he has lived in an era of unprecedented media activity for a long time, his career record is very rich from all angles. However, his literary works must be a bar voucher for his own trial in the world.
As far as our purpose is concerned, we'd better give the essence of Professor Brand Matthews' evaluation of victor hugo's plays. He found that they were melodramas written by poets, not poetic dramas written by playwrights. In Moliere's works, just like in Shakespeare's works, people are above events; But in Hugo's works, as in Calderon and Caunier's works, the situation dominates the characters. Unlike Calderon's and Corneille's plays, Hugo's plays are not poetic in conception, although they may be poetic in language. Neither the plot nor the characters can say this. The plot is melodramatic, but the best melodrama, because of its simplicity and strength, because it is a person's work with a heavier spiritual endowment than ordinary writers.
Although the scenes and characters are dramatic, Hugo's best plays are still poetic; Because victor hugo is a great poet, though not a great drama poet. Although his plays are melodramas in structure, they are carefully created by artists. The joints of the plot are hidden, and the hollowness of the characters is covered by the unparalleled rich poetic full folding. At first, this lyric-like rhetoric made us fail to see the lack of inner and vital poetry in its solemnly decorated structure. Therefore, although his plays are very effective in performance and his characters sometimes have poetic appearances, victor hugo is not the highest-level drama poet.