Which Romantic themes appear in Victor Hugo’s Les Orientales?

In his 1829 collection Les Orientales, Victor Hugo embraced several key Romantic themes that were popular during the period. The work is primarily noted for its appeal to the Romantic fascination with exoticism and Eastern settings, which allowed Hugo to explore vivid, colorful, and brilliant imagery.12

By focusing on the exotic and the visual, the collection aligns with the l’art pour l’art (art for art’s sake) movement, emphasizing formal and verbal inventiveness over didactic or political purposes. Additionally, the poems demonstrate Hugo’s mastery of a wide variety of meters, reflecting the Romantic desire for technical freedom and experimentation. While the collection is often described as a book of "pure poetry," it also contains visionary elements, such as the poem "Le Feu du ciel," which highlights Hugo’s characteristic fusion of the contemporary with the apocalyptic—a hallmark of his broader literary genius.132