Victor HUGO comments on his masterpiece, Les Misérables.

Victor HUGO (1802.1885)

Autograph letter signed to Nathanaël Martin-Dupont.

Three pages in-8° on watermarked laid paper. Fragility at the folds.

Hauteville House [Guernsey]. May 3 [1862]

“This is our duty, to calm by enlightening. Destroy hatred and evil with light. »

Despite exile, the great man keeps progress as his quest and comments on his masterpiece, Les Miserables.

_________________________________________

“Sir, I read your article on Les Misérables . You have the true noble style, the one that comes from noble thought. Your membership means a lot to me. It is with the heart that I thank you. Yes, you have felt it and you say it, what I want is moral improvement at the same time as material relief; without the progress of the soul, there is no progress. Those who put everything into the well-being of the belly are only good at hardening the rich and corrupting the poor.

Above all, duty. My goal is this: to reveal all of consciousness to man. I say all , because until now, it seems that philosophers have taken the task of showing consciousness only half; some flattering the happy, others irritating the miserable. Now, this is our duty, to calm by enlightening. Destroy hatred and evil with light. You have these things in your soul, and you express them eloquently and powerfully. Your page on Les Misérables is the work of a noble and good mind. I shake your hand. Victor Hugo.

The Movement had eagerly accepted, I was told, your beautiful work on art , and was going to publish it, when suddenly they were put on trial and in eight days this valiant newspaper was accused, tried and strangled. . It no longer exists, such is freedom in France. We have your large and excellent article at your disposal. Write to me about it. Le Mouvement was the only French magazine fairly accepted by the public. »

_________________________________________

Nathanaël Martin-Dupont (1834-1910), French pastor and journalist, exercised his ministry on the island of Jersey in 1860, and thus met Victor Hugo in exile on the neighboring island of Guernsey and with whom he will maintain epistolary ties until the latter's death. In 1904, Martin-Dupont published Victor Hugo anecdotique , in which he notably recorded his memories of the great man.

Victor Hugo, anecdotal. N. Martin-Dupond, Stock, 1904, volume II, p. 213.