HUGO, VICTOR (1802-85). French author and statesman, human rights campaigner, and perhaps the most influential exponent of the Romantic movement in France.
Autograph Letter Signed, in French, Paris, September 1, 1842.
To “Mr. Boucher de Perthes, President of the royal Society of Emulation” “I knew your name, Sir, for having seen it often attached to beautiful verse…I am delighted that, verse or prose, everything said is equally remarkable. You express superbly the mission of thinkers in our times…toward the suffering classes; you teach and you do. This is beautiful, Sir, and I wholeheartedly congratulate you. I certainly will read with the greatest interest the important work for which you will send me proofs. My studies have the same objects as yours. God, man, nature, here is the circle I pace endlessly, and, please forgive me the comparison…I am still in the process of stating the issues. Send me your book, Sir, my curiosity demands it; my admiration begs you….” Signed, “Please accept the assurance of my deepest respect Victor Hugo.” (Item ID: 1774)
$3,000.00
In France, Hugo's literary reputation rests primarily on his poetic and dramatic output and only secondarily on his novels. Hugo is sometimes identified as the greatest French poet. In the English-speaking world his best-known works are often the novels Les Misérables and Notre-Dame de Paris (sometimes translated into English as The Hunchback of Notre-Dame). The condition of the letter has mounting traces and slight show through, but still highly readable.
