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[assimbya]

Would anyone happen to know if there is any discussion around about the ways in which Cervantes' writing might have influenced Victor Hugo? Because I'm thinking that surely this is something people have to discuss.

(Now I have to go and find out how commonly read Don Quixote was in nineteenth-century France

Comments

[lareinenoire]

Hmm, that is an interesting thought. I do know that Dumas read Cervantes, and makes a number of references to Don Quixote in Les Trois Mousquetaires, so it wouldn't be at all surprising if Hugo read him too. Also, some of the supporting characters in Notre-Dame de Paris could be worth looking at in this context.

[assimbya]

I do need to get around to reading more Dumas. He gets in everywhere. And, thank you, that is very useful.

Definitely true about the supporting characters in Notre-Dame! It would be interesting to compare the perspectives on the Middle Ages expressed in Don Quixote and Notre-Dame, and in what ways it was subverting or concurring with other contemporary perceptions.

I think I'll check Hugo's plays, some of which are set fairly near to when Don Quixote was written. He has a tendency to show off his knowledge of cultural events in the eras when he's setting things (now let's have my characters discuss El Cid for about five pages!), so he must reference Cervantes there.

[hsavinien]

I've no idea about Hugo, but there is a discussion in Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand about 'tilting at windmills' and the dangers and glories thereof.

[assimbya]

Ooh, thank you! Very useful.

[hsavinien]

Cyrano is my pet classic French composition, so... <3

[assimbya]

Ah. I admit to not have read it (yet), but I quite understand the emotion nonetheless.