THE FOUR WINDS OF THE SPIRIT-THE SATIRIC BOOK-THE LYRIC BOOK-THE DRAMATIC BOOK-THE EPIC BOOK-Ed.1889.

The Four Winds of the Spirit is a collection of poems by Victor Hugo, published in 1881. Hugo had formed the project for this new collection in 1870: “I have a work ready to be launched into the sea” he wrote about it in May of that year. The title was not definitively chosen; Hugo still noted The Quadriga of the Spirit or The Quadriga of the Dreamer, but the content and arrangement seemed well determined. It was Hugo's first project to make a sum of his poetry, more or less in parallel with that also projected Tout l'âme (and which then became, but posthumously, Tout la Lyre) and including Les Quatre Vents of the mind were perhaps designed to be a part. Recent events, the war of 1870, the Commune, the establishment of the Third Republic, postponed the publication of the collection in favor of more current works such as the new edition of Châtiments, the Terrible Year and the History of a crime. Finally the collection was published on May 31, 1881. It is presented in four “books”, which are so many facets of the poet's art and inspiration, each preceded by an isolated poem, following a plan which practically did not differ from that outlined ten years earlier: Satirical book, subtitled Le Siècle. It brings together forty-four poems, written between 1849 and 1875, close to Punishments in terms and verve. Dramatic book, subtitled La Femme. It actually consists of two small dialogue scenes, entitled The two discoveries of Gallus, written in 1866, which were even represented independently in the theater, in 1883 for one and in 1923 for the two together. Lyrical book, subtitled Destiny. It is again a collection of various poems, fifty-six in number. The tone this time is closer to Contemplations, most of the pieces dating from the years 1855-1856. Epic book. This last book consists of a single, immense poem: The Revolution, one of the most important by Victor Hugo for whom the French Revolution was at the center of History. The poem was written in 1857 and initially planned for the first and then the new series of the Legend of the Centuries, alongside other texts published late and separately such as La Pitiège supreme and L'Âne. The statues of the kings of France emerge from their eternal immobility and advance towards the scaffold on which their descendant was guillotined, and ask the latter who executed him: "It's you!", the unfortunate man replies.