Les Burgraves Explained

Les Burgraves is a historical play by Victor Hugo, first performed by the Comédie-Française on 7 March 1843.^{[1] [2]} It takes place along the Rhine and features the return of Emperor Barbarossa. The play failed commercially and was the last of Hugo's plays to be produced in his lifetime.^[3] It was the subject of an orchestral overture by the composer Guillaume Lekeu in 1890.

The play is associated thematically with Hugo's Le Rhin, an essayistic book about the Rhine; both were inspired by a trip along the river Hugo took with Juliette Drouet.^[4] Les Burgraves was published with a preface indicating that its depiction of a united Germany was part of a larger vision of a united Europe in which France would play a central role.^[5]

Notes and References

1. Book: Robb, Graham . Victor Hugo: A Biography . W. W. Norton . New York . 1999 . 0-393-31899-0 . 231.
2. Book: Frey, John Andrew . A Victor Hugo Encyclopedia . Greenwood Press . Westport, Connecticut . 1999 . 0-313-29896-3 . 42.
3. Book: Frey, John Andrew . A Victor Hugo Encyclopedia . Greenwood Press . Westport, Connecticut . 1999 . 0-313-29896-3 . 41.
4. Book: Affron . Charles . A Stage For Poets: Studies in the Theatre of Hugo and Musset . 1971 . Princeton University Press . Princeton, New Jersey . 0691062013 . 66.
5. Metzidakis . Angelo . Victor Hugo and the Idea of the United States of Europe . Nineteenth-Century French Studies . 1994–1995 . 23 . 1/2 . 72–84 . 23537320 . 21 October 2020 .