[LES MISERABLES] HUGO VICTOR: ...

[LES MISERABLES] HUGO VICTOR: (1802-1885) French novelist, poet and dramatist. A significant original page of manuscript in the hand of Hugo, unsigned, one page, 8vo, n.p., n.d. (late 1840s?), in French. The manuscript represents the novelist’s working draft of one of the most important parts of the historical novel Les Misérables (1862), considered one of the greatest works of literature of the 19^th century, and varies in parts to the final published text. Hugo heads the page with the word Forteresse (‘Fortress’) and continues to write, in part, ‘C’etait l’acropole des va-nu-pieds.....Il arrive quelques fois que......meme contre l'egalite et la fraternite, meme contre les principes…… Ce sont la, des journees lugubres car il y a toujours une certaine quantite de droits meme dans cette demence, il y a du suicide dans ce duel; et ces mots qui veulent etre des injures, gueux, canaille…..’ (Translation: ‘It was the acropolis of the tramps…..Sometimes it happens that…..even against equality and fraternity, even against principles…..These are gloomy days for there are always a certain amount of rights even in this madness, there is suicide in this duel and these words that want to be insults, beggar, scoundrel…..’). An exceptional page of manuscript in which the embryo of one of the most famous pieces of French prose is set down on paper by Hugo for the first time. Some light overall age wear and minor creasing and a few small tears and insignificant areas of paper loss to the edges, G

In 1848 a new wave of revolution swept across Europe, triggered by the political unrest of bourgeois liberals and nationalists, crop failures several years in a row, and economic troubles. In France, Louis Philippe was driven from his throne. After a bloody struggle between the working-class and the middle-class provisional government in Paris, the Second Republic was established, with a mainly middle-class national assembly and Louis Napoleon, who was related to Napoleon I, as president.

Hugo was sympathetic to the 1848 revolution, became a representative in the assembly, and initially supported Louis Napoleon. However, in 1851 the president assumed control of France in a military coup d’etat, and in 1852 the population voted to disband the republic and re-establish the empire. Hugo was disillusioned with both the French people who were willing to exchange freedom for stability and with Napoleon III, who had traded in his republican opinions to become a dictator. Criticizing the government and Louis Napoleon publicly, he was forced to leave France, first for Belgium and then for the Channel Islands. Les Misérables, which Hugo composed from the late 1840s to 1862 during his exile, integrated his feelings about the political situation, his memories of the barricades of 1848, and his republican ideals. The novel denounces the degradation of the urban working-class and society’s mistreatment and neglect of the poor, especially women and children. (From: Les Misérables – A Historical Perspective).