Other editions of book History of a Crime

This ebook includes a biographical introduction, a short, critical analysis of Hugo's work within the historical context and a brief introduction to this work.First published in 1877, History of a Crime is a novel based on actual events surrounding the assumption of power of Napoleon III following the 1848 revolution. Hugo's narrative takes in the four days during which Napoleon enacted a coup d'etat through which he assumed the Presidency and concludes with an exposition of the Franco-German War in 1970 which resulted in Napoleon's downfall.The narrative is written from the perspective of Hugo himself who was briefly involved in the before exiling himself to Belgium and thence to the Chanel Islands and while the novel is clearly dramatized, it does well to invoke the drama of the times and provides a sense of the times on behind the barricades.

Victor Hugo wrote this work whilst in exile for taking part in the events herein described. His story is thrillingly told. The world for the first time gets all the details of the coup d' état by which Louis Napoleon became emperor of France. The book reads like a novel, and yet its action only goes over two days and is all strictly historical. Its publication caused a great excitement in Paris that October, and probably prevented a similar attack upon the liberties of France and the Republic. At all events, it was this fear which caused Victor Hugo to make his testimony public; for he said, "This work is more than opportune; it is imperative. I publish it."

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.

Though the great French novelist, poet and dramatist Victor Hugo's work has gone in and out of favor since his death in 1885, few have ever forgotten his masterpiece, Les Miserables nor that he is the author to have created the "Hunchback" of Notre Dame. The collected works of Victor Hugo encompass eighteen 1,500 page manuscripts -- almost more than any one reader could possibly encompass. Victor Hugo's life spanned the 19th century in France, from Napoleon Bonaparte to the Republics to revolution and coup 'd etat. When Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte (later to become Napoleon III) was elected President of France in 1849, Victor Hugo was originally elected a deputy to the new regime. But "le petit" Napoleon's ambitions soon led to Hugo's firm opposition. He left France for an nineteen-year exile, during which time he wrote Histoire d'un Crime, or The History of a Crime, which tells the story of Napoleon III's accession to power -- the book was first published in 1877, following Hugo's eventual return to France from his two-decade exile.

Victor Hugo's documentary historical novel History of a Crime is an impassioned recording of the December 1852 coup d'etat that brought the usurper he called "Napoleon le petit" to power, and sent Hugo into an eighteen year exile. The work was written in the few months following Hugo's flight, but only published in 1877, when Hugo feared a similar takeover by Marechal Mac-Mahon, who had threatened the dissolution of the republican-dominated Chambre des deputes. Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte was elected President of the Second Republic of France and subsequently accepted the title of the Emperor, reigning as Napoleon III.

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.

Victor-Marie Hugo, in full Victor-Marie Hugo (26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French poet, novelist, and dramatist who was the most important of the French Romantic writers. Though regarded in France as one of that country’s greatest poets, he is better known abroad for such novels as Notre-Dame de Paris (1831) and Les Misérables (1862). In France, Hugo's literary fame comes first from his poetry but also rests upon his novels and his dramatic achievements. Among many volumes of poetry, Les Contemplations and La Légende des siècles stand particularly high in critical esteem, and Hugo is sometimes identified as the greatest French poet. Outside France, his best-known works are the novels Les Misérables and Notre-Dame de Paris (also known in English as The Hunchback of Notre-Dame). Though a committed royalist when he was young, Hugo's views changed as the decades passed; he became a passionate supporter of republicanism, and his work touches upon most of the political and social issues and artistic trends of his time. He is buried in the Panthéon. -wikipedia

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

This book was originally published prior to 1923, and represents a reproduction of an important historical work, maintaining the same format as the original work. While some publishers have opted to apply OCR (optical character recognition) technology to the process, we believe this leads to sub-optimal results (frequent typographical errors, strange characters and confusing formatting) and does not adequately preserve the historical character of the original artifact. We believe this work is culturally important in its original archival form. While we strive to adequately clean and digitally enhance the original work, there are occasionally instances where imperfections such as blurred or missing pages, poor pictures or errant marks may have been introduced due to either the quality of the original work or the scanning process itself. Despite these occasional imperfections, we have brought it back into print as part of our ongoing global book preservation commitment, providing customers with access to the best possible historical reprints. We appreciate your understanding of these occasional imperfections, and sincerely hope you enjoy seeing the book in a format as close as possible to that intended by the original publisher.