The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-03-03
uUGO'S BATTLE AGAINST
IGNORANCE AND ENVY


work for the theatre again. His plays
had won worldwide fame; composers Of
high renOwn had set them to music
they had driven the old classical drama
from the boards: they had founded a
new school of pl9ys-the school of
which the principal ingredient is love.
but the strain was too great for their
author, and he sought another field.
That field WIS fiction.
g p s.
Hugo had made a contract With ".
Gosselin, the publisher. TO supply him
with the manuscript of q romance. The
revolution broke out which overturned
the throne of Charles Y. The author
thought il wise 10 shift his papers
from the Rue Jean GoujOn, which was
exposed 10 attacks. TO the Rue des
Cherche-Midi, in the Latin Qaurter.
Transferring them he lost his notes, the
result Of two months labor.
N. Gosselin, dazzled by the fame of
the dramatist of Hermann" extended
his time, and Hugo bought d great ar
ray OF WOODEN wrapper, that covered
hlm from head TO foot; locked VI all
his other clothes lest he should be
tempted 10 go out; uncorked a new
bottle Of ink, and set to work in his
study as if it We're a prison. In five
months the novel was finished The ink
was finished too, and the first name
suggested for the romance was The
Contents of a Bottle OF Ink" Under
this title it was sent TO the publisher,
wno read it 10 his wife She thought
it ''frightfully tiresome." a change of
name was agreed on. AS "Notre Dame
de Paris 1.-TWO vols. in Svo, with Wig
nettes after Tony JOhannoD. the work
appeared on Feb. -, 1881. the day on
which the archbishop's palace was pill
LACED.
The press was uureseTvedly hostile
Alfred de Musset spread a report that
the entire edition had been thrown
into the Seine along with the archbish-
ops library. A noted critic wrote: THE
novel is merely an insipid copy of Vol
taire's Merope. OF invention there
is none. THE society which Hugo de-
pets, said the Temps. lis a mere
phantasm." Goethe, in his conversa-
tons with Eckermann, remarked: II
think that 'Notre Dame de Paris is
the most detestable book ever written"
And Notwithstanding the immense
popular success of the work; nOtwith-
standing the Injunction of his fellow
novelist, Eugene Sue, bidding him re-
member that men of superior genius
/ nave in all times excited q base and
narrow jealousy" Notwithstanding the
request Of Meyerbeer that an opera
might be founded on the subject: not
Withstanding the opinion of foreign
critics that medieval Paris had never
been so admirably painted, the narrow
streets with their glooms and CLEANS,
their Rembrandt effects of shadow and
light, the churches and converts fling
ing up TO the sky their towers and
spires, and high above all the majestic
cathedral; Notwithstanding the ad-
mitted fascination of his characters
Esmeralda, the lonely gypsy, with her
goat; GringOire, the starving rhyme
ster; FrollO, the degenerate monk:
PhOebus, the rOysterer; QuasfmOdo. the
bell ringer, hideous, deformed-not-
withstanding the clamorOus applause
Of his friends, Hugo was forced into
silence by the rancOr of his enemies,
and for thirty years he wrote fiction
no more.
What was left to him?
Nothing but the sterile business of
politics.
1t led him to exile in 1S51-first in the
island Of Jersey, then in the neighbor-
ing isle of Guernsey. Even now i4Is
detractors averred that his attacks on
Louis Napoleon had their origin in his
| love Of nOtOriety, Almost all his old
comrades have left him." wrote the
malicious Heine, and, TO tell the
! truth, it is his own fault, for they were
wounded by his egOtism."
But from this period began the poets
vindication.
He refused, from first to last. all Of
fers of amnesty and reconcilia ton. He
declared that he would accept bitter
exile without date or term" rather than
/ return to France and bend the knee
TO Louis Napoleon. He allowed his
property to be cOnfiscated without a
murmur. He devoted his time among
the Guernsey rocks to his pOeucaI mas
/ terwOrk. the "Legende des Siecles,"
and to his three great prose romances,
| Les Misera bles." Les TraYailleurs de
( la Mer' and "L'Homme qui Rit." His
Punishment had silenced his critics:
] his name was now the foremost name
among the writer's Of France; his
genius was acclaimed throughout the
world; and be waited in silence, but
With entire contentment. until the sec
Ond empire toppled, and he returned to
share with his countrymen the bitter
ness of the siege of Persia bitterness
I singulaTly sweetened for the poet by
! the knowledge that the cause to which
/ he had devoted his life-bOth in letters
and in politics-was finally triumphant.
I After the siege he lived with his
I grandchildren in Paris. and died there
on May p. 1855. His body was carried.
I as he desired, on a pauper's hearse to
/ the Pantheon, and all that was notable
I in Fra nee fO1TOTvnT him IN he crr.o