This study places the last three novels of Hugo's maturity - Les Travailleurs de la mer (1866), L'Homme qui rit (1869), and Quatrevingt-Treize (1874) - within the context of his artistic development after the success of Les Misérables (1862), thereby illuminating the shift from a poetics of harmony to one of transcendence. With great clarity and erudition, the author uncovers the intricate connections between Hugo's poetics and his evolving sociopolitical outlook...demonstrates how Hugo's novels, the product of a prodigiously fertile poetic imagination, can and should be viewed as lessons for today.