Started in 1821, Han d’Islande is Victor Hugo’s earliest novel (with the exception of the first version of Bug-Jargal, written in 1818 and published in Le Conservateur littéraire in 1820). The novel first came out anonymously with the publisher Persan in 1823. This edition was so unpolished that Hugo published a second edition six months later with another publisher. A third edition was published in 1833 with a preface in which Hugo invites the reader to consider this novel as the work of an inexperienced young writer and not to give it credit. Neither Hugo nor his contemporaneous critics judged Han d’Islande positively. Léon Thiessé wrote in the Mercure du XI…
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Citation: Crahay, Géraldine. "Han d'Islande". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 29 September 2017 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=11216, accessed 05 May 2024.]
