Victor Hugo by Graham Robb
Winner of the Whitbread Biography Award 1997.
Mr Robb has written an enthralling book – one of the great biographies of our timeHe contrives not to be dwarfed by his subject, which is some contrivance. He makes of Hugo’s life a story as exciting to read as it was extraordinary to have lived. He has a matchless gift for narrative. His style is epigrammatic and compelling. His judgements seem fair – not something Hugo was used to in life. Every Place Victor Hugo should now have a Café-Bar Graham Robb. He deserves, and will probably get, the Légion d’honneur. -- Allan Massie * Daily Telegraph *
One of the best biographies I have read, ever. -- Selina Hastings
Robb achieves the goal of all good literary biographies by making us long to regain, or savour for the first time, Hugo’s company as a writer. Surely no chronicler of his life or analyst of his work has ever looked this prodigy of nature so unflinchingly in the eye. -- Jonathan Keates * Literary Review *
Graham Robb’s exuberant biography of the French writer blows the cobwebs away from a neglected hero and sets him before us in lurid and quite unforgettable shape. Robb’s jaunty, self-confident style is gloriously appropriate to his subject . . . Robb’s enthusiasm is hugely exhilarating and his biography is a fascinating study in the making of a celebrity. -- Miranda Seymour * Sunday Times, Books of the Year *
The best life of the writer available in English (and likely to remain so for some time) . . . His fascinating, totally readable Life will introduce Hugo to many readers who know him only as a name. -- Robin Buss * Independent on Sunday *
One of the best biographies I have read, ever. -- Selina Hastings
Robb achieves the goal of all good literary biographies by making us long to regain, or savour for the first time, Hugo’s company as a writer. Surely no chronicler of his life or analyst of his work has ever looked this prodigy of nature so unflinchingly in the eye. -- Jonathan Keates * Literary Review *
Graham Robb’s exuberant biography of the French writer blows the cobwebs away from a neglected hero and sets him before us in lurid and quite unforgettable shape. Robb’s jaunty, self-confident style is gloriously appropriate to his subject . . . Robb’s enthusiasm is hugely exhilarating and his biography is a fascinating study in the making of a celebrity. -- Miranda Seymour * Sunday Times, Books of the Year *
The best life of the writer available in English (and likely to remain so for some time) . . . His fascinating, totally readable Life will introduce Hugo to many readers who know him only as a name. -- Robin Buss * Independent on Sunday *
Graham Robb was born in Manchester in 1958 and is a former Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford. He has published widely on French literature and history. His 2007 book The Discovery of France won both the Duff Cooper and Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prizes. For Parisians the City of Paris awarded him the Grande Médaille de la Ville de Paris. He lives on the English-Scottish border.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780330371452 |
| ISBN 10 | 0330371452 |
| Title | Victor Hugo |
| Author | Graham Robb |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Pan Macmillan |
| Year published | 1998-10-09 |
| Number of pages | 720 |
| Prizes | Winner of Whitbread Biography Award 1998 (UK) |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |