1.1.1-Lifeisyetfair

Book context and chapter 1 reactions
I’ll also be on dreamwidth as between4walls.

Context: -This is my second time through Ninety-Three. I read it before reading or being interested at all in LM and it has a special place in my heart. Ironically, I was led to it by Ayn Rand (whose politics I don’t share, but whom I was reading for her portrayal of the early Soviet Union in We The Living, which draws on Ninety-Three in places).

-Victor Hugo owed his existence to the Vendee War. His mother was from the Vendee and his father was a republican soldier who met her during the war.

-I’ve seen this book criticized for mixing up the Vendee War, which had more actual armies, with the Breton chouanerrie, a guerrilla war which stretched on for years. The first chapter seems to indicate that the soldiers are dealing with guerrilla warfare and abushes.

-This book was written in the aftermath of the Paris Commune and its suppression. Hugo didn’t support the Commune, but couldn’t condone its repression (unlike in 1848) and was very active in the movement for clemency for the Communards. So pay attention to Paris vs the rest of France, city vs country, rebellion vs central authority, revolution vs counterrevolution, mercy vs harshness, and what exactly a Republic should be and do in that situation (the Commune having been suppressed by the nascent Third Republic). I don’t think there’s a single overriding way to interpret the Commune’s shadow across the book, but it gives rise to the questions that the book addresses.

Reactions - Before we even get to the action or to the description of nature, we get a description of a particular innovation of the revolution, which politicians gave what orders, how its influence continues today (Hugo’s today, that is). And then “At the end of May, of the twelve thousand Parisian troops, two-thirds were dead.” We might not be predisposed to sympathize with the fears of soldiers, and soldiers who’ve come there to fight rather than being people defending their homes, in a war so filled with atrocities toward civilians. But this makes the horror they too have been through vivid.

-I think of this battalion as standing in relation to history the way the barricade in LM stands in relation to the real barricades- the real history exists in this universe, but a niche of fiction exists alongside it. And of course this niche has been “cleaned up,” sanitized, made to express the author’s ideals. And these fictional soldiers are tremendously appealing (Radoub! I love Radoub!).

- Michelle has a convent education and, before her home was burned, she had a servant. She was not destitute before the war made her so. Right now she’s the only Vendeen (edited to add: Breton, that is. I fail geography) amidst the Parisians, but keep an eye and see who’s from where as the story goes on.

-Adding to the vivandiere love. She’s wonderful! And she’s treated by the text as a real, brave soldier. Like Radoub, she’s a Parisian, and we know how Hugo loves Paris. She had a meaningful role in the 10th of August- we saw in Ukraine recently how important supplies are in an urban insurrection and how people volunteered to bring food and drink.

-More vivandiere: “I am a good woman and a brave man.”

Commentary
Fizzygingr Ahh, what an excellent post, thank you! It’s so nice to get the perspective of people who have read it before!

Pilferingapples (reply to Fizzygingr) CONTEXT SWEET SWEET HISTORICAL CONTEXT, THANK YOU. Seriously, any time anyone wants to drop some History Thoughts in the tag PLEASE DO THAT, I am WAY out of my depth here and it’s always useful!

Also, this reminds me— I’m gonna need a better feel for French geography, aren’t I? Not just the exactly-wheres, but sort of the Historical Associations. Any tips for where to read up on that?

Lifeisyetfair (reply to Pilferingapples' reply) I don’t have the first clue about geography (I had to learn from looking it up that the Vendee is not part of Brittany because it’s hard to tell in the book if you don’t know). However, I have heard good things about Graham Robb’s The Discovery of France.

Pilferingapples (reply to Lifeisyetfair's reply) Well, I have heard good things about Robb, I’ll check it out, thank you!

Shirley-keeldar This is extremely helpful! Good for framing some of the political stuff I wasn’t quite getting a handle on for want of context. And I’m glad to see hints that I ought to go on liking Radoub.

But, oh no, if this influenced We The Living, then after Club is over I’m going to have to go back and read it for the first time since high school, plunging me back into my ideological war with a dead lady.

Kingedmundsroyalmurder Many thanks for the historical context! (Now I have more excuses to go research the Paris Commune, which I’ve been wanting to do anyway!)