{{Short description|1842 travel guide by Victor Hugo}} {{italic title}}
'''''Le Rhin''''' ({{IPA|fr|lə ʁɛ̃}}, lit. ''The Rhine'') is an 1842 travel guide written by Victor Hugo. Subtitled ''lettres à un ami'' (letters to a friend), it takes the form of letters describing the sights and landmarks of a journey along the Rhine and relating local legends. It concludes with a long political essay depicting a new European order, united by a Franco-German alliance.<ref>{{cite book |last1=van Montfrans |first1=Manet |title=Borders and Territories |date=1993 |publisher=Rodopi |isbn=9789051835113 |page=137}}</ref><ref name="beller">{{cite book |last1=Beller |first1=Manfred |editor1-last=Leerssen |editor1-first=J. Th. (Joep) |editor2-last=Beller |editor2-first=Manfred |title=The Rhine: National Tensions, Romantic Visions |date=2017 |publisher=Brill |isbn=9789004344068 |chapter=Victor Hugo's ''Le Rhin'': French National Perspectives on a European River}}</ref>
The book was based on journeys Hugo took in 1838, 1839, and 1840, and the letters he wrote during those journeys.<ref name="beller"/><ref name="thompson">{{cite book |last1=Thompson |first1=Christopher W. |title=French Romantic Travel Writing Chateaubriand to Nerval |date=2012 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780199233540 |chapter=Hugo: ''Le Rhin'' (1842 and 1845)}}</ref> He edited and expanded the letters for publication, drawing on works of history, travel guides, and sagas and legends, and added the long conclusion.<ref name="beller"/>
The first edition contains twenty-five letters covering the journey through Champagne and Belgium to Aachen, and from Cologne to Mainz, as well as the conclusion. The second edition contains a further fourteen letters covering the journey from Frankfurt to Lausanne.<ref name="beller"/><ref name="thompson" />
==References== {{reflist}}
== External links == * ''Le Rhin'' at Wikisource {{in lang|fr}} * ''The Rhine: a tour from Paris to Mayence by the way of Aix-la-Chapelle, with an account of its legends, antiquities, and important historical events'' English translation on the Internet Archive {{Victor Hugo}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Rhin, Le}} Category:1842 non-fiction books Category:Travel guide books Category:Works by Victor Hugo Category:Rhine Category:French travel books
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