HUGO Victor [Besançon, 1802 - Paris, 1885], French poet and - Lot 82

HUGO Victor [Besançon, 1802 - Paris, 1885], French poet and writer. Autograph letter, signed "Victor Hugo", addressed to Eugène Pelletan. "Hauteville house 2 April" ; 2 pages in-8°. "You sent me your book in my exile, I'm sending you mine in your prison. These exchanges are all simple in our time between two men who wanted to stay upright. It's your fault as it is mine. Why did we want to be faithful to freedom and to ourselves? All in all, I think it's good that way. ...in the Senate, Pelletan in prison. May my book give you some of the happiness that yours has given me. To have put that mother of Marguerite's in the birth of a city is a pathetic idea. You mix the old ways with the new, and you bring out the drama in it. Marguerite [...] what figures! The emotion is deep and true. What pages in turn cheerful and splendid, and what an irresistible melancholy in this calm of the end! To frame all these pains in the idea of progress is a high thought. You have named me twice in this beautiful work; dear poet, I do not thank you for it, I love you. At the very moment when your work makes you glorious, persecution makes you popular. I send you from the bottom of my heart my most fraternal handshake. Victor Hugo. » We were looking for an excuse to go after Eugene Pelletan. It was provided, on November 3, 1861, by a long article of six columns: Freedom as in Austria. In it, Pelletan posed the paradox represented by the spectacle of Austria, the very symbol of absolutism in Europe, within which Emperor Franz Joseph introduced liberal reforms, and of France, the homeland of freedom, subject to the omnipotence of Napoleon III. He was prosecuted for "inciting hatred and contempt of government" and sentenced to three months in prison and a fine of 2,000 francs. The sum was heavy, and Eugène Pelletan not very fortunate. He had to sell his library. Opposition to the regime, however, began to spread, especially among students, for whom Pelletan