Excerpt from Essays of French, German and Italian Essayists, Including Biographical and Critical Sketches: With a Special Introduction Victor Hugo's work illumines half a century. He was the leader of the Romantic school, a writer of limitless imagination and great will power. Were this the place in which to speak of his verse we might demonstrate that he was the greatest lyrical poet of France. His great novels were prose epics. Into these he introduced chapters which were really essays on a variety of subjects. He was one of the founders of the Conservateur Litteraire. How interesting must have been those literary reunions at which he met De Vigny, sainte-beuve, the two Deschamps, de Musset, and Dumas, where the new ideas of the leader were promulgated. Sainte-beuve was the first scientific and universal critic. Year after year, in the columns of the Constitutionnel and the Moniteur. He continued to attract the attention of the whole literary world. His theories of criticism were broad and sound, founded on a wide study of literature, taking account of the object which the author had in mind, and studying the writer both personally and in relation with his other works. His taste was well-nigh flawless. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.