Charles Fourier
Charles Fourier (1760-1825) was a prominent French Utopian socialist whose ideas were seen as very radical during his time, but became much more influential after his death. He sought to liberate each individual through education and the expression of human passion. His way of thinking was mathematical and idealistic, which is apparent in his plans for “phalanxes,” or Utopian planned communities of 1,620 people. In his opinion wealth should be determined by one’s profession, and he sought to eliminate poverty more than the entire class structure. He was also a women’s rights advocate and coined the word feminism. Fourier’s socialist philosophies are said to have contributed to the 1848 Revolution in France and the Paris Commune, and many Utopian communities were inspired by his ideas, notably La Reunion in Texas.
Victor Hugo
To this day one of the best-known romantic writers is Victor Hugo (1802-1885) from France. Hugo wrote an enormous amount of work which included books, poems, and plays, and he even produced a comparable quantity of drawings. Hugo developed his attitude of romanticism around the time he began to support Napoleon I as a young man. He often eloquently mixed political opinions with general thoughts and insightful observations in his writing, such as in this passage from his novel Les Misérables (1862), a universally recognized work whose musical adaptation was recently performed at the Community Arts Center in Williamsport:
“The daylight of history is merciless; it has the strange and magical quality that, although it is composed of light, and precisely because of this, it casts shadows where once only brilliance was to be seen, making of one man two images, each opposed to the other, so that the darkness of the despot counteracts the majesty of the leader.”
Hugo was an involved and outspoken republican who strongly advocated liberty and pacifism. He was elected to the Legislative Assembly and the Constitutional Assembly before being exiled from France when Napoleon III took power. Because of his involvement in politics, many of the works authored by Victor Hugo portray or symbolize the situation in France and Europe at the time, making them especially useful for the study of history. In addition, a large number of his stories are widely recognized today, including Notre-Dame de Paris (known in English as The Hunchback of Notre-Dame).
Ludwig van Beethoven
“Für Elise”
“Moonlight Sonata”