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"A dream of stone": fame, vision, and the monument in nineteenth-century French literary culture.(Critical Essay)

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From: College Literature
Date: 20030322
Author:Garval, Michael

   Colosse de bronze ou d'albatre, 
   Salue d'un peuple idolatre, 
   Je surgirais sur la cite 
   Comme un geant en sentinelle, 
   Couvrant la ville de mon aile, 
   Dans une attitude eternelle 
   De genie et de majeste! 
   (Victor Hugo, Oeuvres Poetiques I: 734) 
 
   [Colossus of bronze or alabaster, 
   Hailed by an idolatrous populace, 
   I would loom over the city 
   Like a watchful giant 
   Covering the town with my wing, 
   In an eternal attitude 
   Of genius and majesty!] 

In 1881, perhaps for fear the old man would not reach his, eightieth birthday, the beginning of ...

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