Excerpt from Ruy Blas The study of some part of Hugo's work is, therefore, essen tial in any, even the most cursory, survey of French literature. His dramas adapt themselves more easily to such study than his other works, chiefly because the theatre was chosen as the battle-ground of the innovators in their contest with the con servatives. It seems to be conceded, at least by usage, if not otherwise, that Ray Bias and Harnam' are to be the stand-bys for college class-work, and the former has slightly the lead as a favorite, in that the poet has therein reached a higher plane of dramatical lyrism than in the latter. 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.