The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-06-14
VICTOR HUGO AND HIS WORK.
The Realism of the Great French Writer
as Shown in ST. Homme Qui Bit"
The Story Of that Novel in It's First Appear
ance in English-Hugo's Home Life,
and Loves and Tastes.
Saes,I f,orrasnodanca ~, the Indianapolis Journal.



haired, elderly man. The eyes are dark, the
face has wrinkles in it that suggest age more
than care. The mouth is wide. the forehead
ample, the nose large the ears beyond the ordl-
nary size. 1t is the face of strong sensuous,
liberal minded generous, intellectual and re-
markable man. 1t always recalls to me the face
of Charles Reade and the characters of the two
men were in many respects alike There Is
written underneath this photograph, Ma tete a
vos pieds.-VIcToR HUGO
The illustrious Frenchman sent it to me with
his own hands. and through neighbor of his
IN. 0liyier) in Gurnsey forwarded several other
remarkable photographs One of them is from
his own drawing of gibbet with its human load
of criminality. OF this work Partisan paper
in 1869 said: years ago Victor Hugo made
pen and ink drawing of a corpse swinging on
galiows The only title that he could find for
his drawing was the onomatopeic word comic.
Shortly afterwards Victor Hugo heard of the
execution of John Brown. He at once effaced
the monosyllabic legend and wrote under his
drawing, John Brown The drawing was en-
graved, and may still be met with, though rare
" in the hands of dealers" The photo of the
picture sent to me by Victor Hugo has simply
the signature, Victor Hugo. 1860" and the
drawing was certainly not made as suggested
without an object. The great novelist had no
doubt in his mind, if he had not already
sketched the chapter, the incident of the
boy in "LHomme qui Ritz coming up
to the gibbet in the storm. You
will find it under the heading of Conflict Be-
tween Death and Night, and it is one of the
most graphic and Hugoish pieces of weird de-
seription il the whole book. You can see the
corpse; you can hear its chains creaking ia the
wind; you can feel the chill of the storm and the
horror of it. AS the gale comes up from the
sea in gusts, you can feel that the corpse empha-
sizes it's dismal oscillations It no longer SWINGS
it is tossed. The chain no longer grinds; it
shrieks. You hear the rushing noise that fol-
another terrible reality. Black. flying specks
prick the clouds, pierce the mist increase in
size, come nearer amalgamate, thicken, utter
cries, and alight on the gibbit They talk and
croak the wind responds, in the foul birds
croaking acceptance of putrefaction. You can
fancy you can hear the tomb breaking silence.
Presently the croaking ceases. Then a single
raven perches ON the skeleton. This is signal
to rest. They all preciptate themselves upon
1t. There is cloud Of wings; then all the
feathers close up and the hanged man disap
pears under q swarm of black blisters
struggling in the obscurity. Presently the
corpse moves Is it he2 Or is it the
windf He makes frightful bound. The
hurricane comes to his aid The phantom
falls into commissions The squat seizes
him and hurls him about in all directions, and
= a1fx1 ~ h Nh0v
grim humorist of the night had seized the chain
and was playing with the mummy, it turns and
leaps. 1t even terrifes the birds 1t is if
there is suddenly an explosion of these unclean
selves to the hideous movements of the corpse,
tossed to and fro in the gale So graphic in its
details is the picture that you realize the reality
of it, though it is work of pure imagination. 1t
is poetic realism, not the lola realism of gutter
reporting. / wish some clever critic would ex
plain what is meant by realism in art, and what
is the kind of realism we ought to admire. 1t
seems to me that Zola's is the realism of
porter who catalogues scenes of filth and horror,
and that Hugo's realism is the realism of inagin-
ation the ideality that las always feel in regard
to Dickens), if it shows you dirty, fostering
pool In the streets, does not forget to give you
glimpse OF the bit of reflected blue sky; for the
sun and the sky do not discard the dirtiest of
puddles. On the other hand. the realism of
Zola gives you only the thick, fostering pool,
without light. rain, or ripple of wind upon it,
and the author does not forget to let you smell
It Which is the true art realism of these diff
ferent ideas of the puddle?
H.
THE STORY OF 1.-THE GRINNING MAN.
"L'Homme qui Ritz was published by special
arrangement with Victor Hugo under nv ed
itorship of the Gentleman's Magazine. The
negotiations were conducted ard completed by
Dir. S. II. Bradbury of the firm of Bradbury &
Evans. The work of translation was placed in
the hands of Mr.. E. s. Dallas, who was assisted
by two very accomplished ladies. Further help
had to be obtained from naval officers, the
rine technicaitles were so numerous and far
fetched If Hugo had worked with half dozen
technical dictionaries at his elbow he could not
have raked up more current and obsolete phrases
and SMILES belonging to ship building and nav
igation. Before half the work was in my hands
an awful discovery was made. For the first
time, Victor Hugo had descended into
the pit of indecency. Charles Reade sold
similar calamity occurred The editor thought
it unfit for publication Reade wrote in all hon
esty. There was nothing prurient in the story
from his point of view. 1t was strong and hui
man. and not written for babies. But Mr.. Jones
End the New York Times could not swallow it.
In the case of Victor Hugo the faint was only in
a few chapters. 1t chung to the atmosphere of
the Duehess's passion for Gwynplaine. It was
very real not dirty Zolo is, but the incidents
had very ugly look in English. French some
how covers a multitude of sensual SINS English,
thank goodness shows them up. was asked
by the publishers What about these chapters?p
The Times had an editorial article upon the
story. 1t questioned the correctness of certain
portions of the translation. 1t asked what the
editor of the Gentleman's Magazine was going to
do with certain chapters, which it declared
fought not and cannot be translated" Mr..
Dallas replied; / replied; we got up quite an in
terestlug correspondence.
III.
ADVERTISING.
ssYour magazine will go up thousands in cir
culation," said rival publisher whom / met in
the Strand while the correspondence was going
on, you are clever crowd" And believe we
thought 50 too. The publishers broke in upon
the correspondence with advertisements in the
Times and in the other papers, and with posters
on the walls. They printed extra copies of the
next edition and bound up fresh stock of back
numbers 1t is a curious fact in the history of
adyariisin, and sho.,li rlacad racord