Les Orientales

Last updated
Illustration by Gerard Seguin, 1854 HugoOrientals.jpg
Illustration by Gérard Seguin, 1854

Les Orientales is a collection of poems by Victor Hugo, inspired by the Greek War of Independence. 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, 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 of his early twenties to a rediscovery of the Napoleonic 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.

The thirty-fourth poem of Les Orientales is "Mazeppa". This poem, written in May 1828, [1] deals with the legendary story of Ivan Mazepa 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". [2] The poem cites Lord Byron (author of the narrative poem Mazeppa ) and is dedicated to Louis Boulanger, who painted Byron's version. All the works ultimately derive from the cultural legacy of Mazeppa.

Contents

  1. "Le feu du ciel"
  2. "Canaris"
  3. "Les têtes du sérail"
  4. "Enthousiasme"
  5. "Navarin"
  6. "Cri de guerre du mufti"
  7. "La douleur du pacha"
  8. "Chanson de pirates"
  9. "La captive"
  10. "Clair de lune"  [ fr ]
  11. "Le voile"
  12. "La sultane favorite"
  13. "Le derviche"
  14. "Le château-fort"
  15. "Marche turque"
  16. "La bataille perdue"
  17. "Le ravin"
  18. "L'enfant"  [ fr ]
  19. "Sara la baigneuse"
  20. "Attente"
  21. "Lazzara"
  22. "Vœu"
  23. "La ville prise"
  24. "Adieux de l’hôtesse arabe"
  25. "Malédiction"
  26. "Les tronçons du serpent"
  27. "Nourmahal-la-Rousse"
  28. "Les Djinns"
  29. "Sultan Achmet"
  30. "Romance mauresque"
  31. "Grenade"
  32. "Les Bleuets"
  33. "Fantômes"
  34. "Mazeppa"
  35. "Le Danube en colère"
  36. "Rêverie"
  37. "Extase"
  38. "Le Poëte au calife"
  39. "Bounaberdi"
  40. "Lui"
  41. "Novembre"

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orientalism</span> Imitation or depiction of Eastern culture

In art history, literature and cultural studies, Orientalism is the imitation or depiction of aspects in the Eastern world. These depictions are usually done by writers, designers, and artists from the Western world. In particular, Orientalist painting, depicting more specifically the Middle East, was one of the many specialisms of 19th-century academic art, and the literature of Western countries took a similar interest in Oriental themes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victor Hugo</span> French novelist, poet, and dramatist (1802–1885)

Victor-Marie Hugo 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 greatest French writers of all time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gérard de Nerval</span> French writer, poet, essayist and translator (1808–1855)

Gérard de Nerval was the pen name of the French writer, poet, and translator Gérard Labrunie, a major figure of French romanticism, best known for his novellas and poems, especially the collection Les Filles du feu, which included the novella Sylvie and the poem "El Desdichado". Through his translations, Nerval played a major role in introducing French readers to the works of German Romantic authors, including Klopstock, Schiller, Bürger and Goethe. His later work merged poetry and journalism in a fictional context and influenced Marcel Proust. His last novella, Aurélia, influenced André Breton and Surrealism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">André Chénier</span> French poet

André Marie Chénier was a French poet of Greek and Franco-Levantine origin, associated with the events of the French Revolution of which he was a victim. His sensual, emotive poetry marks him as one of the precursors of the Romantic movement. His career was brought to an abrupt end when he was guillotined for supposed "crimes against the state", just three days before the end of the Reign of Terror. Chénier's life has been the subject of Umberto Giordano's opera Andrea Chénier and other works of art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ali Pasha of Ioannina</span> Ottoman Albanian ruler (1740–1822)

Ali Pasha of Ioannina, was an Albanian ruler who served as pasha of a large part of western Rumelia, the Ottoman Empire's European territories, which was referred to as the Pashalik of Yanina. His court was in Ioannina, and the territory he governed incorporated central and southern Albania, most of Epirus and the western parts of Thessaly and Greek Macedonia. Ali had three sons: Muhtar Pasha, who served in the 1809 war against the Russians, Veli Pasha, who became Pasha of the Morea Eyalet and Salih Pasha, governor of Vlorë.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dionysios Solomos</span> Greek national poet

Dionysios Solomos was a Greek poet from Zakynthos, who is considered to be Greece's national poet. He is best known for writing the Hymn to Liberty, which was set to music by Nikolaos Mantzaros and became the Greek and Cypriot national anthem in 1865 and 1966 respectively. He was the central figure of the Heptanese School of poetry. He is considered the national poet of Greece, not only because he wrote the national anthem, but also because he contributed to the preservation of earlier poetic tradition and highlighted its usefulness to modern literature. Other notable poems include Ὁ Κρητικός, Ἐλεύθεροι Πολιορκημένοι. A characteristic of his work is that no poem except the Hymn to Liberty was completed, and almost nothing was published during his lifetime.

<i>The Giaour</i> Poem by Lord Byron

The Giaour is a poem by Lord Byron first published in 1813 by John Murray and printed by Thomas Davison. It was the first in the series of Byron's Oriental romances. The Giaour proved to be a great success when published, consolidating Byron's reputation critically and commercially.

Mazepa or Mazeppa is the surname of Ivan Mazepa, a Ukrainian hetman made famous worldwide by a poem by Lord Byron. It may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">19th-century French literature</span> Literature-related events in France during the 19th century

19th-century French literature concerns the developments in French literature during a dynamic period in French history that saw the rise of Democracy and the fitful end of Monarchy and Empire. The period covered spans the following political regimes: Napoleon Bonaparte's Consulate (1799–1804) and Empire (1804–1814), the Restoration under Louis XVIII and Charles X (1814–1830), the July Monarchy under Louis Philippe d'Orléans (1830–1848), the Second Republic (1848–1852), the Second Empire under Napoleon III (1852–1871), and the first decades of the Third Republic (1871–1940).

Odes et Ballades, published in 1828, is the most complete version of a collection of poems by Victor Hugo written and published between 1822 and 1828. It includes five books of odes and one book of ballads.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transcendental Étude No. 4 (Liszt)</span> Composition for piano by Franz Liszt

Franz Liszt's Transcendental Étude No. 4 in D minor, "Mazeppa", is the fourth Transcendental Étude, published in 1852, and part of a much larger cultural legacy of Mazeppa.

The poems of Victor Hugo captured the spirit of the Romantic era. They were largely devoted to 19th-century causes. Many touched on religious themes. Initially they were royalist but soon became Bonapartist, Republican and liberal. Hugo's poems on nature revealed a continuing search for the great sublime.

<i>Mazeppa</i> (poem) Narrative poem by Lord Byron

Mazeppa is a narrative poem written by the English Romantic poet Lord Byron in 1819. It is based on a popular legend about the early life of Ivan Mazepa (1639–1709), who later became Hetman of Ukraine. Byron's poem was immediately translated into French, where it inspired a series of works in various art forms. The cultural legacy of Mazeppa was revitalised with the independence of Ukraine in 1991.

Louis Candide Boulanger was a French Romantic painter, pastellist, lithographer and a poet, known for his religious and allegorical subjects, portraits, genre scenes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">François Pouqueville</span> French diplomat, writer, explorer, physician and historian

François Charles Hugues Laurent Pouqueville was a French diplomat, writer, explorer, physician and historian, and member of the Institut de France.

<i>Poltava</i> (poem)

Poltava is a narrative poem written by Aleksandr Pushkin in 1828–29 about the involvement of the Ukrainian Cossack hetman Ivan Mazepa in the 1709 Battle of Poltava between Sweden and Russia. The poem intertwines a love plot between Mazepa and Maria with an account of Mazepa's betrayal of Tsar Peter I and Peter's victory in battle. Although often considered one of Pushkin's lesser works and critiqued as unabashedly imperialistic, a number of critics have praised the poem for its depth of characterization and its ability to synthesize disparate genres. The poem inspired Tchaikovsky's 1884 opera Mazeppa.

Mazeppa is a symphonic poem composed by Franz Liszt between the years 1851 to 1854 for orchestra. Mazeppa, S. 100, is the sixth in the cycle of twelve symphonic poems written during Liszt's time in Weimar, however a thirteenth composition was added to his collection in 1882. Mazeppa is based on the poem of the same title written by Victor Hugo in 1829. The work premiered at the Court Theatre in Weimar on April 16, 1854.

Jules Lefèvre-Deumier was a French author and poet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cultural legacy of Mazeppa</span> Ukrainian historical figure

Ivan Mazepa (1639–1709) was a significant figure in the history of Ukraine. One story about him says that as a young man, he was caught in flagrante with a noblewoman, whose husband punished him by tying him naked to a wild horse and setting them free; eventually he reached the Cossacks and became their military leader. This legend caught the attention of the English poet Lord Byron, whose Mazeppa (1819) brought the events to wider attention. His narrative poem inspired many paintings, particularly by French Romantics, which in turn stimulated musical compositions, stage plays, more poems, and so on. New life was breathed into the equestrian tale when it was transposed to the American Wild West. With the independence of Ukraine in 1991, the figure of Mazepa is once again on the international stage.

There were multiple newspapers published in the Ottoman Empire.

References

  1. Wöll, Alexander, Harald Wydra. 2007. Democracy and Myth in Russia and Eastern Europe Routledge, p. 84. ISBN   1134089082.
  2. Hatzfled, Helmut. 1952. Literature Through Art: A new approach to French Literature. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.