A Fight with a Cannon

Book excerpt: "A Fight with a Cannon" is a short story by Victor Hugo narrating an effort to deal with a wayward cannon destroying a French warship. Entertaining and intelligent, it is highly recommended for fans of historical fiction and is not to be missed by collectors of Hugo's seminal work. Victor Marie Hugo (1802 - 1885) was a French novelist, dramatist, and poet belonging to the Romantic movement. He is widely hailed as one of the most accomplished and well-known French writers, originally achieving renown for his poetical endeavours-the most notable of which are the volumes "Les Contemplations" and "La Légende des siècles". Outside of his native country, Hugo's best-known works are his novels: "Les Misérables" (1862) and "Notre-Dame de Paris" (1831), commonly known as "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame". Aside from his literary achievements, he also produced over 4,000 beautiful drawings and was a prominent campaigner for social and political issues, including abolishing capital punishment. Many vintage books such as this are becoming increasingly scarce and expensive. We are republishing this book now in an affordable, high-quality, modern edition complete with a specially commissioned new biography of the author.