''Les Orientales'' is a collection of poems by
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the great ...
, inspired by the
Greek War of Independence
The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution or the Greek Revolution of 1821, was a successful war of independence by Greek revolutionaries against the Ottoman Empire between 1821 and 1829. The Greeks were later assisted by ...
. They were first published in January 1829.
Of the forty-one poems, thirty-six were written during 1828. They offer a series of highly coloured tableaux depicting scenes from the eastern Mediterranean that, reflecting the cultural and political bias of the French public, underscore the contrast between freedom-loving Greeks and imperialist
Ottoman Turks. The fashionable subject ensured the book's success.
Although Hugo described it as "this impractical book of pure poetry" (''ce livre inutile de poesie pure''), the general theme of the poems is a celebration of
liberty
Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom.
In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...
, linking the Ancient Greeks with the modern world, freedom in politics with freedom in art, and reflecting the evolution of Hugo's political views from the
royalism
A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of govern ...
of his early twenties to a rediscovery of the
Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader wh ...
ic enthusiasms of his childhood (for example, see the fortieth, ''Lui''). The poems are also intended to undermine the classicists' exclusive claim on antiquity.
The depiction of Turks in ''Les Orientales'' mixes condemnation, idealisation, and crude envy. It is often cited as an example of the "
Orientalist" attitudes typical of
French literature
French literature () generally speaking, is literature written in the French language, particularly by citizens of France; it may also refer to literature written by people living in France who speak traditional languages of France other than F ...
.
The thirty-fourth poem of ''Les Orientales'' is "Mazeppa". This poem, written in May 1828, deals with the legendary story of
Ivan Mazepa
Ivan Stepanovych Mazepa (also spelled Mazeppa; uk, Іван Степанович Мазепа, pl, Jan Mazepa Kołodyński; ) was a Ukrainian military, political, and civic leader who served as the Hetman of Zaporizhian Host in 1687–1708. ...
who was punished because he was caught in a love affair with a Polish nobleman's wife. The poem is organized in two parts: the first one is about Mazeppa's physical travel across the plains of Russia, strapped naked on the horse's back, until its death. The second part is about his spiritual travel to get back to life, and has been described as a kind of allegory of the creative process: "He races, he flies, he falls. He rises again, king".
[Hatzfled, Helmut. 1952. ''Literature Through Art: A new approach to French Literature''. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.] The poem cites
Lord Byron
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and has been regarded as among the ...
(author of the
narrative poem
Narrative poetry is a form of poetry that tells a story, often using the voices of both a narrator and characters; the entire story is usually written in metered verse. Narrative poems do not need rhyme. The poems that make up this genre may be ...
''
Mazeppa'' and is dedicated to
Louis Boulanger
Louis Candide Boulanger (1806 – 1867) was a French Romantic painter, pastellist, lithographer and a poet, known for his religious and allegorical subjects, portraits, genre scenes.
Life
Boulanger was born in Piedmont where his father, Fran ...
, who painted Byron's version. All the works ultimately derive from the
cultural legacy of Mazeppa.
Contents
# "Le feu du ciel"
# "Canaris"
# "Les têtes du sérail"
# "Enthousiasme"
# "Navarin"
# "Cri de guerre du mufti"
# "La douleur du pacha"
# "Chanson de pirates"
# "La captive"
#
# "Le voile"
# "La sultane favorite"
# "Le derviche"
# "Le château-fort"
# "Marche turque"
# "La bataille perdue"
# "Le ravin"
#
# "Sara la baigneuse"
# "Attente"
# "Lazzara"
# "Vœu"
# "La ville prise"
# "Adieux de l’hôtesse arabe"
# "Malédiction"
# "Les tronçons du serpent"
# "Nourmahal-la-Rousse"
# "
Les Djinns"
# "Sultan Achmet"
# "Romance mauresque"
# "Grenade"
# "Les Bleuets"
# "Fantômes"
# "Mazeppa"
# "Le Danube en colère"
# "Rêverie"
# "Extase"
# "Le Poëte au calife"
# "Bounaberdi"
# "Lui"
# "Novembre"
References
Poetry by Victor Hugo
1829 poems
{{poetry-stub