They are among his very earliest works and reflect the Catholic royalist views of his early twenties.

He would write seven different prefaces for it, dated 1822, 1823, 1824, 1826, 1828, followed by one in 1853, at which time he was in self-imposed exile, and a final one in 1880.

Hugo expresses a view of the difference between "order" and "regularity" which elevates the former on the basis that an irregularity in art can have its own logic, or order, and achieve effects impossible to regularity, or classical evenness.

The collection includes Ode à la Colonne de la Place Vendôme, a response to the Austrian ambassador's decision in early 1827 to stop recognizing Napoleonic titles.

First published in the Journal des débats, it represents the first praise of Napoleon in Hugo's work (but not a major political shift as he later claimed).