Reading Order
Grand-pèreL'Art d'être grand-père Reading Order
L'Art d'être grand-père (The Art of Being a Grandfather, 1877) by Victor Hugo is the most surprising of his major works — a collection of lyric poems about his grandchildren, Jeanne and Georges, that combines domestic charm with the full range of the late Hugo's philosophical ambition. The collection was written during Hugo's last decade in Paris, after his return from the nineteen years of exile, and it documents with extraordinary tenderness and humor the relationship between the old man and the two small children who became the center of his domestic life. The poems range from the purely playful (poems about the children's games, their misbehavior, their chatter) to the philosophical and elegiac, in which the presence of the children prompts meditations on childhood, age, death, and regeneration that connect to the large philosophical themes of Les Contemplations and La Légende des siècles. The collection is often underrated because of its subject matter, but it is in many ways the most formally experimental of Hugo's late work — the poems use syntax, rhythm, and imagery in ways that anticipate Symbolism and even Surrealism — and the love for Jeanne and Georges that pervades it is the most immediate and unguarded of any emotion in his work.
Where to start
L'Art d'être grand-père can be read complete or through the most celebrated poems: 'Jeanne était au pain sec' (a comic masterpiece of grandfatherly indulgence), 'Lise' (the philosophical elegy), and the opening sequence. The playful poems need no preparation; the philosophical poems reward familiarity with Les Contemplations.
Complete Grand-père Book List
- 1Buy
L'Art d'être grand-père
Victor Hugo·1877·Available in French in the Massin Complete Works and in some standalone editions. The playful poems occasionally appear in French poetry anthologies for children. - Buy
Les Contemplations
OptionalVictor Hugo·1856·The great preceding lyric collection — the elegiac poems of L'Art d'être grand-père take on additional depth when read in the context of the grief and philosophical reconstruction of Les Contemplations.
Grand-père — Frequently Asked Questions
What is the relationship between L'Art d'être grand-père and Hugo's late philosophy?
L'Art d'être grand-père (1877) is the most personal expression of the late Hugo's philosophical position, which might be called a religion of love and regeneration. The collection was written after Les Contemplations (1856), Les Châtiments (1853), and La Légende des siècles (1859-1883) — after the great catastrophes (Léopoldine's death, the exile, the death of his sons) and the great philosophical responses to them. In L'Art d'être grand-père, Hugo finds in the presence of Jeanne and Georges a form of consolation and affirmation that is different from the philosophical theodicy of Les Contemplations or the political prophecy of Les Châtiments: it is simply the fact that life regenerates itself, that after the loss of his daughter he has been given grandchildren, and that the love between the old man and the children is a form of the cosmic continuity that his philosophy argues. The collection is philosophically modest compared to the great works of the exile — it does not attempt to explain the suffering that preceded it — but it is humanly the most complete expression of what Hugo actually believed: that love is the answer, not in a sentimental sense but in the sense that the capacity for love is what justifies existence and makes the suffering endurable.
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