Hans of Iceland: A Play in Three Acts
Fiction & Literature, Drama, Continental European, Nonfiction, Entertainment
| Author: | Victor Hugo | ISBN: | 9781434442765 |
| Publisher: | Wildside Press LLC | Publication: | January 6, 2014 |
| Imprint: | Wildside Press | Language: | English |
| Author: | Victor Hugo |
| ISBN: | 9781434442765 |
| Publisher: | Wildside Press LLC |
| Publication: | January 6, 2014 |
| Imprint: | Wildside Press |
| Language: | English |
Based on the Victor Hugo novel of the same name (penned when the author was only twenty-one), this macabre play begins in a morgue. The fearsome outlaw, Hans of Iceland, whose face has been seen by no one, determines to kill a regiment of Musketeers that he blames for the death of his son. His revenge intersects in a bloody way with the more conventional romantic plot of a young nobleman who loves the daughter of a political prisoner that the former Chancellor of Norway has held in thrall for many years. The tension ratchets up, culminating in a conflagration à la Samson that seems to anticipate the Grand Guignol movement by nearly a century. The story has the nightmarish logic of a bad dream. As one contemporary reviewer said: "If genius is very close to madness, then this work is very close to genius." Great drama from a great writer!
Based on the Victor Hugo novel of the same name (penned when the author was only twenty-one), this macabre play begins in a morgue. The fearsome outlaw, Hans of Iceland, whose face has been seen by no one, determines to kill a regiment of Musketeers that he blames for the death of his son. His revenge intersects in a bloody way with the more conventional romantic plot of a young nobleman who loves the daughter of a political prisoner that the former Chancellor of Norway has held in thrall for many years. The tension ratchets up, culminating in a conflagration à la Samson that seems to anticipate the Grand Guignol movement by nearly a century. The story has the nightmarish logic of a bad dream. As one contemporary reviewer said: "If genius is very close to madness, then this work is very close to genius." Great drama from a great writer!
