OLYMPIO: THE LIFE OF VICTOR HUGO 540 pp.) Andre Mourois Harper $5.95).
In 1822, France was not quite ready for Romanticism. When a British company came over with Othello, the pit howled: "Down with Shakespeare! Just one of Wellington's toadies!" Only six years later, "the atmosphere had completely changed." An artistic revolution had changed France from the last outpost of Classicism to a spearhead of Romanticism. Shakespeare was all the rage, closely followed by Byron, Sir Walter Scott, Schiller. France's poets, painters, sculptors and novelists all joined hands in this insurrection, but one and all acknowledged as their leader one...
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