HUGO Victor [Besançon, 1802 - Paris, 1885], French poet and - Lot 83

HUGO Victor [Besançon, 1802 - Paris, 1885], French poet and writer. Autograph letter, signed "Victor Hugo", addressed to Eugène Pelletan. "Hauteville house 20 octobre" [1863] ; 2 pages in-8°. "I was away, as you know, when your dear missionaries came. My daughter was getting married, and becoming English. That there's been a metamorphosis there. When I came back I found your letter, sweet thing. I feel that you still love me a little, I thank you, I need to be loved, I need to leave everything behind. Nature the wind and the reason to be worthy, my life too, my group is falling apart, my life too. My branches are grafted elsewhere, my beloved children go to other duties, the great universal function does it and takes away what assured me, I remain alone, and that's good. I love those I love all the better. You are one of them, dear philosopher, dear poet, dear orator, horizons close for me and open for you. Come on, walk, fly away, I am at peace. You have a big heart and you won't go... never only on the heights. I embrace you in poetry and freedom. See you soon - forever. Your friend Victor Hugo. » Back in Jersey, Adèle Hugo met British Lieutenant Albert Pinson in 1854, who frequented her family by taking part in turntables. She maintains an idyll with the latter and falls madly in love with him. This love is not paid back. Considering herself as his fiancée, she rejects the marriage proposals of her other suitors. She uses, in vain, several stratagems to convince him to marry her and goes so far as to consult a hypnotist to put the lieutenant in a state of shock and force him to marry her. In September 1863, she wrote to her parents that she had finally married Lieutenant Pinson, and her father announced the news in the Guernsey Gazette. A few weeks later, she was forced to reveal the deception. She remained in Canada and fell permanently into madness, her father still supporting her.