Cromwell
by Victor Hugo · Cromwell
Assigned by 1 of the 9 reading lists, catalogue entry only
- Written
- 1827
- Form
- Drama
- Language
- French
- Length
- Long · 450 pp300 to 700 pages
- Difficulty
- Demanding3 of 5 for a first-year reader
We recommendThe Harvard Classics, Volume 39: Prefaces and Prologues, translated by George Burnham IvesP. F. Collier and Son, 1910Contains the Preface, which is what programs assign; the play itself has rarely been translated in full.
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A vast verse drama, never staged in Hugo's lifetime, about Oliver Cromwell in 1657 hesitating whether to accept the crown, surrounded by royalist and Puritan plotters. It is remembered for its Preface, the manifesto of French Romanticism. There Hugo divides history into primitive, ancient and modern ages with lyric, epic and drama as their forms, argues that modern art must mix the sublime and the grotesque as Shakespeare did, and rejects the classical unities of time and place.
No reading guide yet
The catalogue entry above is complete: the dates, the form, the themes and every program that assigns Cromwell are verified against each program's published list.
What is missing is the part that takes real work: the summary, the key passages, and a recommended translation. The edition named below is the one most programs assign, so the buy links are useful already.
