Le livre des rencontres: pour une lecture plurielle du Rhin de Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo's The Rhine (1842) is submitted to what Barthes calls a "lecture plurielle": analyzed under a poetical aspect, this travel account turns out to be the discovery of the magic power of places. Indeed, the act of writing, in combining early impressions of the child and a "picture" seen later by the author, emphasizes literary signification as urging from a plurality of visions. The Rhine which only seems to retrace a geographical itinerary, narrates the way of finding a poetical voice. A "plural reading" becomes itself a discovery in reconstructing all those strange combinations by which Hugo finds his way and his voice: "sa voie" / "voix." (In French) (AC-H)