Les Châtiments

Les Châtiments (French pronunciation: [le ʃatimɑ̃], "The Castigations" or "The Punishments") is a collection of poems by Victor Hugo, first published in 1853, that fiercely attack Napoléon III's Second Empire.

This is a reference to the Roman emperor Augustus, and the suffix -ule derives from a Latin diminutive, indicating an object or person that is smaller in stature.

This deliberately antagonistic declaration encapsulates Hugo's view: Louis-Napoléon was far removed from the great military leader that his uncle, Napoleon Bonaparte, had been.

Despite the distance from his readership, Hugo's influence remained strong and the years in exile produced a flurry of literary activity.

However, even if Hugo's comments did exaggerate the failings of Louis-Napoléon's regime, they present a strong critique of a society bound by censorship of the press and the arts.

Hugo resorts to extreme measures to portray Louis-Napoléon as ruler with much blood on his hands, and Les Châtiments is littered with references to corrupt and flawed historical figures.

Not satisfied with evil despots and tyrants, Hugo also turns to animalistic imagery as a means of implying that Louis-Napoléon is less than human.

This is very important to keep in mind: while Napoleon III, who was influenced by Saint-Simonianism, was no Hitler, and some of his policies are recognized as liberal, Hugo was a much-needed voice for continued social change in an impoverished, 19th-century France.