{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20261010T034321Z-reviewed-full-unique-works","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/1915815118?tag=bookfrontie00-20","asin":"1915815118","authors":["Gérard Audinet","Thomas Cazentre","Sarah Lea","Rose Thompson"],"book_id":"9781915815118","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/astonishing-things-9781915815118","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781915815118.jpg?v=00440dac9dd4367f","description":"Discover the imaginary worlds of Victor Hugo, one of France’s most famous writers, with his rarely-seen works on paper. Accompanied the major Victor Hugo exhibition at the Royal Academy, London, 21 March - 29 June 2025. The novelist, poet and politician, Victor Hugo (1802–1885) was a towering figure in French 19th-century public life. The author of Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame became a symbol of the French Republic’s ideals of equality and freedom during his long exile in the Channel Islands. His ink-and-wash visions of imaginary castles, monsters and seascapes may be less well known than his writings, but they inspired Romantic and Symbolist poets, and many artists, including the Surrealists; Vincent van Gogh compared them to ‘astonishing things’. This handsome book – the catalog of an exhibition organized by the Royal Academy of Arts in collaboration with Paris Musées – Maison de Victor Hugo and the Bibliothèque nationale de France – includes new texts by leading authorities on Hugo and reproductions of many of his finest works on paper, from early caricatures and travel drawings to dramatic landscapes and experiments in abstraction.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9781915815118","publication_date":"20250520","publisher":"Royal Academy of Arts","slug":"astonishing-things","subtitle":"The Drawings of Victor Hugo","title":"Astonishing Things"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"ART015030","confidence_band":"medium","label":"European Art","score":0.757,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"ART015120","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Romanticism Art History","score":0.7532,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"ART016030","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Artist Monographs","score":0.7432,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"ART015030","confidence_band":"medium","label":"European Art","score":0.757,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"ART015120","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Romanticism Art History","score":0.7532,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"ART016030","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Artist Monographs","score":0.7432,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"ART010000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Drawing Techniques","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"ART015030","confidence_band":"high","label":"European Art","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"ART016030","confidence_band":"high","label":"Artist Monographs","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"European Art","score":0.757,"slug":"european-art"},{"label":"Romanticism Art History","score":0.7532,"slug":"romanticism-art-history"},{"label":"Artist Monographs","score":0.7432,"slug":"artist-monographs"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers interested in Victor Hugo’s rarely seen drawings and works on paper"],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Alix Paré","Valérie Sueur-Hermel"],"book_id":"9783791379630","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9783791379630.jpg?v=a74aaded79acb0ec","score":0.7258,"title":"The Fantastic Gustave Doré","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9783791379630"},{"authors":["David Bellos"],"book_id":"9780241954478","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780241954478.jpg?v=cf4cf050b4e5905b","score":0.6747,"title":"The Novel of the Century","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780241954478"},{"authors":["Guillaume Morel"],"book_id":"9783741924224","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9783741924224.jpg?v=c7d7a1593ba76b72","score":0.6714,"title":"Musée D'orsay","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9783741924224"},{"authors":["Oliver Shell","Oliver Tostmann"],"book_id":"9780847863136","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780847863136.jpg?v=2a6ce7b4cb242aaf","score":0.6518,"title":"Monsters and Myths","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780847863136"},{"authors":["Genevieve Bresc-Bautier"],"book_id":"9780847868933","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780847868933.jpg?v=41ad60dca789294a","score":0.6497,"title":"The Louvre","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780847868933"},{"authors":["Gloria Fossi"],"book_id":"9780063085176","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780063085176.jpg?v=e44eb7e0788eb9bf","score":0.6439,"title":"In Search of Van Gogh","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780063085176"},{"authors":["Tom Phillips"],"book_id":"9780500519035","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780500519035.jpg?v=f1d8b61162a7c822","score":0.6411,"title":"A Humument","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780500519035"},{"authors":["Didier Ottinger","Bernard Blistene"],"book_id":"9780500239988","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780500239988.jpg?v=e87877ca4cfc1e75","score":0.638,"title":"Francis Bacon","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780500239988"}],"topics":[{"evidence_refs":["keyword:fantasy"],"label":"Fantasy","score":0.1342,"slug":"fantasy"}],"what_you_get":["Themes: Victor Hugo’s drawings, Imaginary castles and monsters, Hugo’s influence on later artists.","Themes: Fantasy.","Reading lane: European Art and Romanticism Art History."]},"llm_signals":{"confidence":0.95,"pacing":"unknown","reader_fit":["Readers interested in Victor Hugo’s rarely seen drawings and works on paper"],"themes":["Victor Hugo’s drawings","Imaginary castles and monsters","Hugo’s influence on later artists"],"tropes":[]},"source_presence":{"amazon":true,"book_detail":true,"goodreads":true,"llm_signals":true,"similarity_seed":true},"stats":{"amazon_ratings_count":0,"goodreads_ratings_count":5,"goodreads_reviews_count":1,"quality_score":0.8207}}