''Odes et Ballades'', published in 1828, is the most complete version of a collection of poems by

Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the great ...

written and published between 1822 and 1828. It includes five books of odes and one book of ballads. 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 version of 1826 received a generally positive review from the 22-year-old Sainte-Beuve in the ''Globe'' (January 1827), and this review resulted in their friendship. The collection includes ''Ode à la Colonne de la

Place Vendôme The Place Vendôme (), earlier known as Place Louis-le-Grand, and also as Place Internationale, is a square in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France, located to the north of the Tuileries Gardens and east of the Église de la Madeleine. It i ...

'', a response to the Austrian ambassador's decision in early 1827 to stop recognizing Napoleonic titles. First published in the ''

Journal des débats The ''Journal des débats'' ( French for: Journal of Debates) was a French newspaper, published between 1789 and 1944 that changed title several times. Created shortly after the first meeting of the Estates-General of 1789, it was, after the ou ...

'', it represents the first praise of

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

in Hugo's work (but not a major political shift as he later claimed). It should be distinguished from the ode on the same subject in '' Les Chants du crépuscule''.

Bibliography

*''The essential Victor Hugo.'' Translated by E. H. Blackmore, A. M. Blackmore. Oxford University Press, 2004 {{Victor Hugo Poetry by Victor Hugo 1828 poems Works originally published in Journal des débats