Hugo possessed a brilliancy of imagination that is almost without parallel in the history of literature, and nowhere does this appear to better advantage than in this work. There is a richness of coloring in its word — painting, a blaze of glory in its language which almost dazzles the reader. There is, besides, a loftiness of conception, a felicity in the use of language, an enchantment of poetic atmosphere, a skill in narrative that have rarely if ever been surpassed.