, 1874-02-01
VICTOR HUGO.
The Poet, Dramatist, and Nov
elist Of France.
Some Incidents Of His Remarkable
Career.

Els Progress from Bourbonisn
to Communism.
| Paris Correspondence Of Ets yetu York Herald
The death Of Victor Hugo'a last son and ths
imposing popular demonstration which marked
the latter's burial without religions rites bart
excited much talk round frances great poet
Victor Uugo's beteaYemont falls upon him jus!
at the time when he is about to rcappear before
the public with long announced politics
novel,
"HrNETY-TuHgE.'
md as the novel is certain to o dercelY assaiI ed
| by a11-and they are mauy--who do not share
the authors republican sentiments, there is
something painful in tho thought that the aged
poet will lave to face the anger OF his enemies
alone, unsupported by tho flal sympathy
and admiration which so often cheered him in
former battles for the strifes which Victor Hugo
has stirred up, both as writer and politician,
have been numerous and desperate. There is
no man-not being q crowned despot or place.
! man-who has been so cordially hated ns ho =:
and, by all accounts. his coming novel is not
calculated to allay any Of this hatred, harborcd
chiefly by tho narrow-mindcd half Of the French
community. As Victor Hugo's novel is sure
to DO widely read in America, I jot down few
notes about tho man who, with Lopfelow aud
| Tennyson, makes up that glorious trium-
| virate which ru1e over tho living repub-
| lie of letters. Americans may be interested in
! learning how poet, WHO began with IN odo to
| the Bourbon family, became Peer Of France
Under Louis Philippe, and aspired in 1919 to be
Minister Of Louis Napoleon's has developed
into a republican so extreme and enthusiastic
that the whole tenor OF his writing has been rev.
! o]ntionized.
The author OF "Ninet5-t]uec began With
AN ODE 70 THE DouRBoSs;
and it shonld be remembered that he is Vis-
count, son of General OF the First Napoleon,
and descendant Of an Italian family. who eui-
grated to France in the sixteenth century. Not
only his birth but his education prepared him to
bo roYa:ist He was plously brought up by II
Catholic mother, and from his earliest boyhood
took q mystic pleasure in visiting churches
sitting sometimes for hours alone in a deserted
nave after service WAS over, wrapped in con-
ing he gave himself the strnnge treat Of lurking
in a confessional at tho hour for closing Eotre
Dame de Paris, and passed. tho whole night in
the huge, empty cathedral. He had selected q
night when the moon wa3 ut its full, and the
weird light that st.camed through tho stained
glass windows, throwing tall shadows from the
pillars and glimpscs Of silver rays into chancel,
baptistery, and lateral ehapels, served
him to conju1e up the whole pageantry
Of royal coronations. weddings; state .sTs
Notre Dame had Witnessed in the past From
this night OF ha11ucination germinated Veto:
Haso's beautiful novel
.'xornE DAnE" {" Es,1EnA1pA ny.
tho most artistic work OF prose fiction which tho
french literature Of the present century has
produced. Among his family md school
friends young Hugo was reckoned little
odd, as many other budding geniusea hare
been before him. and his distaste to the military
career for which he was being trained !
WAS imputed to him from cfaninacy. When |
he was 16, however, an event occurred which !
convinced Hugo's relatiTes that his roca-
ton for poetry was one whichlt would DO useless
and. indeed, incxpelicnt to combat. Tho boy |
haying written an odo in praise Of the Royal
House Of Bourbon forwarded it to the Academic |
Franchise to compete for prize. The odo was
returned with note to the effect that grown
up met, aud especially writer's Of established |
that it Was evident that the ode in question was
too good to be tho work of boy, but must bc
the work OF some well-known genius perhao7
Chntcaubriand." It is not every young poet w::o !
labors under the disadvantage Of
EE1NG THOUGHT TOO GOOD.
Victor Hugo had some difficulty in proving his |
claim to authorship, and when at length lie snc-
ceedetl-by writing o1tempore in the presence of
his judges sonnet on theme they gaye him.
then he yvas rewarded with tho prize, and found
himself Of sudden famous. An act of courage !
GUS generosity, perpetrated by him three vcnrs
afterwards, set the seal to his precocious reputa-
tion. 4 conspiracy for the overthrow Of the
Bourbons having been organized, . former school,
friend OF Ungo'e Was involved in it. and the
Judges launched d warrant against him for high |
treason To be tried for high treason in those
times meant certain dehth, and it was also
capital orense to afford refuge to suspected
traitors. Nevertheless, Victor Hugo. knowing
costing that he would bo sator in his (Hugo's)
lodgings, and that he could 1io By there till The
hunt after him was ovor. This letter fell into
he Kings hands through the agency cs that
famous post-offico department, tho "Cabinct
Noir," and as His Majesty was no: tender-hcart-
I'd towards conspiratoEs. it was supposed By the |
Police Minister that young Victor Hueo's arrest |
.ud that Of his friend wonld bo ordered there
md then. But Louis XVIII, after holding the
otter in his hands for a time exclaimed: 'sThis
lngoi is
NOZZLE YOUNG MAN.
forgive his fr:ond for his sake. See tha. !
neither Of them are molestcd." And shortly
Ifterwarde, without knowing why, Victor Hugo
ecaiyed poosion OF 5000 francs and tbs Cross
II the Legion Of Honor. He was then 10, but
,e looked 40 much younger than he was, and his |
astes were in some respects 30 boyish, that a |
country gendarme who saw h1;n chasing butter
les ono sumner afternoon With tho red ribbon
|
,antly, under the impression that he
vas wearing insignia to which he had
10 title. Just rs he had baen obliged to prove |
t Is that he was yeritab:e poet, so at 10 VictoS
hugo was compelled to affirm BY evidence that
,e was true Knight, and more than that, State
,ensioncr.
\ succession Of poems and couple Of novels,
published between his eighteenth and twenty
fifth years, achieved for Victor Hugo rapid
popularity, but also exposed him to tho most
aVago literary attacks, for the stylo he WAS in
in poetry and prose was quite new !
ne. It il not necessary to 60 4. length here
uto tho dispute between
''cLAss1cs' AND "RoMANTrcs"
q dispute not ret settled, BY tue by) bnt, to sum
- the merits OF the question, it may be briefly
tatcd that writer's OF tho old school charged
'ictor Hugo With breaking through all literary
ava of unity and rropriety. and, in fact, with |
ebasing literature Thus, it had been time
.onorcd tradition that Kings and Queens intro
[uccd into fiction should be made to speak in q
,ompous style, suitablo to their high position.
'ictor Hngo made his Kings speak colo
[uially, and worse crime than all &C con-
cal themselves in cupboards, climb up
a1conies on rope ladders, and cut bad Jokes