Paris 1830 ! Victor Hugo has just had his play, ?Marion Delorme' censored by the conservative and outdated regime of Charles X. His play having been banned, Hugo decides to write another which will take place in Spain's Golden Age, so as not to be accused of targeting the French Court. In two months, he writes his new play, ?Hernani' which is to be shown at the Comédie Française. The play narrowly escapes the censor's knife, but promises to provoke real upheaval in artistic and literary circles and even in the political sphere. Even before the first night, the fight is on between the champions of law and order, or ?good taste', and the supporters of Romanticism, the new force in literature, at that time opposed to the academic classicism of institutionalised theatre. Hugo is supported by Dumas, Nerval, Gautier, Balzac, Sainte-Beuve and many others, ready to jump mercilessly into the fray to impose the modernity of his work once and for all. Sure enough, the night of the première at the Comédie Française, an all-out battle takes place. All of Hugo's friends have turned out, replying tit for tat to the sarcastic remarks, whistles and mocking laughter of the Season ticket holders - outbursts that the play provokes, as much by the freedom of its tone as by its form. Despite this, the play is a resounding success by its strong modern flavour and its stylistic freedom. A few weeks later, in July, Paris is up in arms, a revolution forces the Bourbons to flee into exile; the new wind that had blown through the Comédie Française is now blowing through France.
