La Fin de Satan

La Fin de Satan ("The End of Satan", 1886) is a long religious epic by Victor Hugo, of which 5700 lines were written between 1854 and 1862, but left unfinished and published after his death.

When it was rejected by his publisher in 1857, Hugo tried to integrate it into Petites Epopées (later La Légende des siècles), eventually announcing that it would form a companion work, along with Dieu. His intention, apparently, was to invest the storming of the Bastille with a religious significance; after making various efforts, he ceased work on it in 1862 and returned to novels. There are many gaps large and small.

Argument

Satan is defeated and thrown into the Abyss ("Depuis quatre mille ans il tombait dans l'abîme" ), but Evil is communicated to Man through the agency of Lilith-Isis. She provides three weapons with which Cain murders Abel:

Il le frappa d'abord avec un clou d'airain,

Puis avec un bâton, puis avec une pierre;

Puis il cacha ses trois complices sous la terre

Où mon main qui s'ouvrait dans l'ombre les a pris.

He struck him first with a brazen nail,

Then with a stave, then with a stone;

Then he hid his complices three 'neath the earth

Where my hand, opened in the dark, picked them up.

The Bronze will become a gauntlet, symbol of War; the Wood will become a gibbet, or crucifix, symbol of Execution; and the Stone will become a prison, symbol of Oppression.

This preface is followed by three books,...
Read More