The Chouans in Victor Hugo's novels

The aim of this thesis is to analyze the depiction of Chouans and the Vendée wars in Victor Hugo's novels. We concentrated on his novel Quatrevingt-Treize. On the basis of current historical knowledge, we made a comparison of the version given in Hugo's novel. Then we focused on the significance attributed to Chouans by Hugo with refference to his political views. In the first place, we described in short the circumstances of the creation of Quatrevingt-Treize and its place in the context of the author's life. Then we outlined the character of the Vendée rebellion. Afterwards we compared Hugo's version of combats in Vendée region with its possible historic inspirations. In the second part of this thesis, we analysed the principal Chouan characters. We examined the significance of the Vendée rebellion represented by Lantenac's character in light of Hugo's political beliefs. We came to conclusion that in Hugo's approach they are not seen uniquely from a historico-political point of view. They are depicted as an integral part of the historical evolution of mankind and therefore are not mere defendants of feudal order. The key element is Lantenac's capacity to neglect the historical and political conditions of his own existence. Victor Hugo thus includes Chouans in his vision of future social conciliation