{"id":52757,"date":"2024-10-02T19:10:47","date_gmt":"2024-10-02T19:10:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.accartbooks.com\/us\/?post_type=product&p=52757"},"modified":"2026-06-26T09:39:55","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T09:39:55","slug":"astonishing-things","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/www.accartbooks.com\/us\/book\/astonishing-things\/","title":{"rendered":"Astonishing Things"},"content":{"rendered":"

The novelist, poet and politician, Victor Hugo (1802\u20131885) was a towering figure in French 19th-century public life. The author of Les Mis\u00e9rables<\/em> and The Hunchback of Notre Dame<\/em> became a symbol of the French Republic\u2019s ideals of equality and freedom during his long exile in the Channel Islands. His ink-and-wash visions of imaginary castles, monsters and seascapes may be less well known than his writings, but they inspired Romantic and Symbolist poets, and many artists, including the Surrealists; Vincent van Gogh compared them to \u2018astonishing things\u2019.<\/p>\n

This handsome book \u2013 the catalog of an exhibition organized by the Royal Academy of Arts in collaboration with Paris Mus\u00e9es \u2013 Maison de Victor Hugo and the Biblioth\u00e8que nationale de France \u2013 includes new texts by leading authorities on Hugo and reproductions of many of his finest works on paper, from early caricatures and travel drawings to dramatic landscapes and experiments in abstraction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Accompanies the major Victor Hugo exhibition at the Royal Academy, London, 21 March – 29 June 2025. Discover the imaginary worlds of Victor Hugo, one of France\u2019s most famous writers, with his rarely-seen works on paper.
\nPresident\u2019s Foreword 7
\nAcknowledgements 8
\nDouble Vision: Victor Hugo\u2019s Mind\u2019s Eye 12
\nSARAH LEA
\nHow a Poet Becomes a Painter 30
\nG\u00c9RARD AUDINET
\nArchitecture in the Drawings of Victor Hugo 40
\nTHOMAS CAZENTRE
\nCatalogue Plates
\nWITH SECTION INTRODUCTIONS BY ROSE THOMPSON
\nWriting and Drawing 50
\nObservation and Imagination 66
\nFantasy and Reality 102
\nOcean 128
\nChronology 150
\nROSE THOMPSON
\nNotes 160
\nSelected Bibliography 164
\nLenders to the Exhibition 166
\nPhotographic Acknowledgements 166
\nIndex 167<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":54163,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":""},"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[5523],"product_tag":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-52757","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_cat-art","7":"author-by-author-gerard-audinet","8":"author-by-author-rose-thompson","9":"author-by-author-sarah-lea","10":"author-by-author-thomas-cazentre","11":"publisher-royal-academy-of-arts","13":"first","14":"instock","15":"shipping-taxable","16":"purchasable","17":"product-type-simple"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAstonishing Things - ACC Art Books US<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.accartbooks.com\/us\/book\/astonishing-things\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Astonishing Things - ACC Art Books US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Accompanies the major Victor Hugo exhibition at the Royal Academy, London, 21 March - 29 June 2025. 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