Victor Hugo on Things That Matter

Marva Barnett is professor at the University of Virginia, where she also serves as director of the Teaching Resource Center.

"Marva Barnett pulls of a neat trick: in grouping Hugo's writings across genres by themes with universal resonance and timeless appeal, it proves that what ought to matter to the modern reader is Victor Hugo. . . . This book . . . succeeds strikingly in showing how and why Hugo still speaks to us today. And this without oversimplifying or ignoring the contradictions inherent in his work; on the contrary, Barnett's meticulously researched and carefully organized reader provides a nuanced picture of Hugo's life and body of work. . . . The strength here is how she artfully presents from the themes selected for each main section Hugo's multilayered and multi-genre engagement with life's biggest questions. . . . This type of project is refreshingly alive, and Barnett;s fluid prose and clear passion for this undertaking additionally demonstrates the pleasure that can be derived for scholars from engaging with a public other than themselves."—Isabel Roche, French Review