Stills from the film The Story of Adele Hugo (1975), directed by François Truffaut and starring Isabella Adjani.
This article is a section of the book "The Misunderstood Rose" (by Laura Macchi and Pierre Grillet, translated by Huang Xun, to be published by People's Daily Press), and was first published by PEN with the permission of the publisher. "The Misunderstood Rose" outlines the extraordinary lives of eleven well-known women. They are Billy Hollyday, Nikki Sanfaler, Adele Hugo, Emily Dickinson, Marilyn Monroe, Silvia Plath, Louis Michelle, Françoise Giroud, Simone Weil, Amy Wynnhouse and Sabina Spearlin. Writers Laura Macchi and Pierre Grillet use a combination of fiction and reality, one chapter each, four-fifths of biographies, and one-fifth first-person monologues, telling their legendary stories.
There were two Adeles. A lively and gentle woman, her beauty in the salon of place Royal in Paris surprised Balzac. During this period, when her father, the great Victor Hugo, became famous, Adele lived with her sister Leopoldina, enjoying playful and fantasy-filled moments. Then another Adele appeared, tormented and sometimes silent, on her way to destruction in an exile free from bondage and loneliness.
In 1852, the youngest daughter, Adele, traveled to Jersey to reunite with her exiled writer father, as Victor Hugo chose to flee France after being declared number one public enemy by Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte. Adele, like her mother and two older brothers, mistakenly thought they would be able to return home soon. She believed in her father, who had gone to the front, and Hugo said in the letter that everything was only temporary, and he told his daughter to be brave, and one day they would find what they had lost: "Let us all be strong and unite; no matter how many external calamities there are, they will not be able to take away the happiness of the sincere and deep heart, that is the real happiness." 」 He was convinced that this "little" Napoleon was nothing more than a usurper and that sooner or later the French people would rise up against him. Adele, who had always trusted her father, was convinced of this. She was ready to follow her father and even encouraged him to be strong and unyielding.
Adele Hugo (1830-1915)
Although Adele appears restrained and unobtrusive in the few remaining photos of her, she actually has a strong personality. She is dependent on others, but can also be dependent on others. When her sister Leopoldina died at the age of nineteen, it was Adele who had been comforting her mother, caring for her two older brothers, and accompanying her father through her pain. She buried her grief and never mentioned it, even if her parents hung the portrait of her sister on the wall, leaving Adele living in it overwhelmed. It was only in the occasional dried flowers that accompanied the delivery of letters that the father discovered the hidden pain of his little daughter's soul.
Adele had been fantasizing about Brussels or London, about a capital where twenty-year-old girls could conceive of a better life, only to learn that her father was waiting for them in Jersey until the time of reunion was approaching. This is a small island located between the British and Normandy coasts, which is subject to high winds all year round and is inaccessible to people. It was a wild mountain, and Adele told her eldest brother Charles, who was trying to make her father change his mind. But Hugo had already made up his mind. Everything will be fine, for they are not only a family that loves each other, but especially the vast expanse of the sea, and in exile will bring comfort and strength to this writer who enjoys great glory. But since her sister drowned ten years ago, water has been an abomination for Adele.
Even her father had to admit to the harsh environment of the island. "The sea breeze to the west is gusting, and it is desolate and dilapidated. There, the waves pounded on the reef, the wind raged, a few small harbors for mooring boats, small boats repaired, full of fallow land, wasteland, dilapidated huts, and occasionally a small village by the sea, shivering in the cold wind, emaciated cattle and sheep, the erosion of the sea, the low grass, as far as the eye could see, a scene of poverty and destitution. "The people who remained in the homeland kept an eye on Hugo to see if he resisted or surrendered and begged for mercy. The more difficult the conditions of exile, the higher his prestige.
In her diary, Adele confided in her discomfort. Her daily activities—walking, writing for long periods of time and playing the piano—have lost the allure of living in Paris and the pristine pleasures of those afternoons in Villekière, Normandy. It was once a place of all her happiness, but it became the tragic place of Leopoldina. The mother noticed the growing sorrow and was pleased with her maturity and understanding. "She understood the great significance of the persecution," wrote Madame Hugo, "and for her, glory triumphed over suffering." ”
The people on the island are curious about the Hugos, and Adele is captivated. At the ball, she was out of place with her surroundings, not only because of her gorgeous skirts, but also because of her excessive makeup. She pounced on the powder from head to toe, and without timidity, entered a circle with a language barrier. Suitors flock to her because of her famous surname, but also because of her innate self-confidence and her flamboyant beauty. She knows she's shining, but she wants to be free.
Adele's parents wanted to match her with Auguste Vagri, the younger brother of Leopoldina's deceased husband. He was a meticulous secretary, a loyal friend, an adopted son, and he wanted to have more status, but the marriage contract had not yet been finalized. Although everyone advised this ideal son-in-law who was afraid of the long night dream, no one ever asked him about his feelings for Adele. The era of innocent love at the beginning of love is no longer there. Although the young Adele remembers kissing Auguste that summer when she was sixteen, she refuses the arranged marriage, which reminds others of her late sister forever.
Adele's stubbornness is surprising, and people think that her self-esteem is at work. She, still longing for fiery love, scorns the cage of marriage, and she wants to save all the women and her sisters who are tormented by it. She has seen her parents break their marriage vows many times. She still saw her mother weeping for her miserable life, and she saw her father crossing the street to meet with his mistress, Juliet Drewe, who had always been good friends, and his mistress went into exile with him, to put it bluntly, with a large son. Love, true love, should not be just an ambiguous or humble compromise. Love, for her, should have a dreamlike color.
The exile dragged on longer and longer, and life was bleak. The young girl still had fiery passion, radiating brilliance from the inside out, and she was secretly trapped in a powerful emotion that might destroy her, but it was something that no one around her had expected. In her notes, splendor is accompanied by the air of decay, and narcissism is tainted with sadness. Blunt and sometimes confusing words reveal a passion for extremes, pathology, and a certain fury. Suddenly, like a bolt of lightning in a storm, she confidently showed how her body was awakened by the fire of desire and ignited a desire for male skin. In the lonely and lonely room, Adele became a woman. His father regrets finding out that his daughter is no longer a child and thinks she is "worrying".
He didn't understand her anymore. But where did he know that she had been secretly sending Autumn Waves to her young neighbor John Rose for months, nor did he expect that she would not be able to extricate herself after she had recently met Lieutenant Pisan, a charming English man who had touched her feet under the table while performing spiritism. Summoning spirits, what a strange way to meet. We don't know if the relationship between the two is more than a kiss, but Adele is sure that she has found true love.
In 1855, due to Victor Hugo's misspoken words against Queen Victoria, the family had to leave Jersey immediately and flee to Guernsey. Adele couldn't stand this endless escape, which deprived her of the happiness she had just sprouted. She was only twenty-five years old, but she could only wander around with her father, who seemed to be in no hurry to end his exile. Adele's brothers, Charles and François Victor, were enriching their lives, traveling extensively. She can only be responsible for recording the daily life of the family, and the hope in her heart gradually fades. In her monastic life "no pastime, no things happening, no new faces". In a letter from the maid responsible for putting on her husband's desk, Madame Hugo expressed her concern for Adele: "My daughter is alone in her wasted years, and there is nothing she can do and there is nothing she can do. Later, when she heard her husband say that their daughter "only loved her," she retorted: "Adele has given her youth to you without complaint or gratitude, and you still think she is selfish." Who knows the grievances she has suffered over the years? She will still be sad to see the future slip away from her, she will get older, and tomorrow will still be like today. ”
Busy with creation, Hugo did not respond to these reminders. He lives in the imagination with the characters in his work. By the time he finally made concessions, it was too late. Adele, who had been looking forward to returning to France, had lost her original interest. She refuses to go out, steals, talks to herself; organizes superstitious events at the turntable in her room, summoning the spirit of her sister Leopoldina to give her love an idea: What should she do with Pisan?
Adele indulged in memories of the handsome Lieutenant Pisan and wrote him many letters urging him to marry her. After a long period of silence, Pisan said he was going back to Guernsey for Christmas. It was 1862, and Adele was thirty-two years old. She thought the matter had been set in stone, and had a premonition that Mr. Pisan was about to propose to her. Hugo was not at all optimistic about the penniless and miserable officer, but he felt that his daughter had no other way out than marriage. So despite his doubts, Hugo promised to give Adele a huge dowry. But Pisan left for Canada the next day of Christmas without proposing to Adele or even showing the slightest intention. Was Pisan playing with Adele and her family? Or did Adele misunderstand the meaning of Pisan's few letters? Pisan returned to the troops. For everyone, life went on, except for young Adele.
A few months later, Hugo published Les Misérables. The work was a great success. During his ten years in exile, Hugo always had the goal of completing a great work that could go down in history. While Madame Hugo waited in Paris for them to return home, Adele took the opportunity to sneak off to Canada to meet the man she loved. She had thought deeply about this trip for weeks to declare her independence. Adele eventually decided to go it alone: by boat, in a hotel, and with checked luggage. She is willing to face the unknown and tastes freedom. The need for a change of air, she explained to her father in a letter in an extremely calm tone, but this explanation made all the men in the family react fiercely. Fearing damage to his family's reputation, Hugo sent an announcement that Adele was getting married, although he did not receive any conclusive news. François Victor, who had always defended his sister like a knight and a guardian, denounced Adele's actions as selfish this time. Charles admits that Adele is an adult, but her abandonment of her family makes him sigh. Only Madame Hugo showed tolerance. She had always lived in the shadow of a man, and she might have wanted to go on an adventure more than she had ever gone into exile. In her eyes, the daughter "did not violate any worldly laws", she just listened to the call of her heart. These arguments paled in Hugo's eyes. Even if he is accustomed to all kinds of turmoil, he will still be distracted by this daughter who he thinks is "incomprehensible" from then on.
After a long journey, all Adele got was the understanding that Pisan didn't want to marry her. After ten years of wandering, Adele returned to France in 1872, and it was Madame Baa who rescued her, not only took care of her, but also brought her back to France to send her to Hugo. Adele, speechless, panicked, or just too sad, didn't make any eye contact with her father. Hugo decided to immediately send Adele to a psychiatric hospital, where she remained until her death. Hugo's incomprehensible approach is that he has been a lifelong advocate of humanitarianism, and he is also confused, although he has always believed that he can understand his kind, approach their hearts and heal their wounds. For Hugo, Adele was a dark place he hadn't explored or was unwilling to explore. This may be Adele's victory, stubbornly not letting this person who is bent on understanding the whole world understand himself...
Author: [French] Laura Markey, Huang Xun (translation)
Editor: Xie Juan