Hovering between beautiful women
Rather than the record of many glorious victories, led by Elnani, Molloia's real focus was on Hugo's private life. In this biography, he put the most effort into Hugo's affair. According to Molloa, Hugo "had a hundred beautiful girlfriends" (including his son's lover Alice Och and his later famed Sarah Pownal), and in fact he had two wives: Andre, who fascinated his brother Eugène Hugo, and Juliet, the beautiful maid.
Hugo's two favorite women were his daughter Leopoltina and his mistress, Juliet Drewe, whom he valued more than anything else. In 1843, her beloved daughter Leopoltina died unexpectedly, dealing a serious blow to Hugo, who was proud of the spring breeze at that time.
Hugo's other daughter, Edland, was abandoned by men and became delirious and imprisoned for a long time in a psychiatric hospital (where she died in 1915 at the age of 85). Hugo's brother Eugène Hugo, also died in the Psychiatric Hospital of St. Morris on March 5, 1837, due to insanity. This event, which we may consider to be a terrible precursor, is that Edland will also suffer the same fate as Eugène.
The misfortune that befell Hugo was not just the death of his two daughters.
Hugo, who had been a member of the French House of Nobles since 1846, was banished from the french rival Louis Napoleon, forcing him to spend 19 years in exile in Jersey and Guernsey in the English Channel.
Since February 1851, he has not only taken an anti-government stance, but even contradicted Louis Napoleon. Louis Napoleon's political aim was to ascend to the throne of power, in which case a coup was inevitable. 2 December was the anniversary of Napoleon I's victory at the Battle of Austerlitz 46 years ago and the Holy Bete, and Louis Napoleon's supporters chose it as the day of the coup. On December 4, the Paris Massacre, on this day, the big things have been decided. Hugo had to flee France to save his life. Moloa writes:
Throughout Hugo's life, exile was both a shock and a relief. After Victor Hugo became a member of the House of Nobility, dressed in brocade and dressed in brocade, he accompanied the elderly and suspicious king, and at the same time became a doll of frivolous women who revered him and surrounded him, and in this way, he was at risk of gradually falling into the abyss of the world. The first to rescue him from this quagmire was the death of his daughter. This was the first deep pain he had tasted in his life as a self-centered man.
The completion of the world's great work "Les Misérables"
As Molloa points out, if Hugo wants to regain psychological peace, he must stay away from the world, restore his original appearance, and play the role he is good at, at this time, the unexpected exile is a good opportunity for Hugo to achieve his wish. The biggest gain of his exile was, after all, the completion of Les Misérables.
As early as 30 years ago, Hugo had planned to write a long social novel, so he intermittently accumulated some material. The work was long delayed because of his passion for politics. However, the time is finally ripe. Hugo was determined never to leave Guernsey again. On April 26, 1860, he opened the long-unopened iron box containing the original manuscript and materials of Les Misérables. It was this iron box that kept his exile from being in vain.
When Hugo was working on this huge work, Juliet always encouraged and assisted from the side. She loved the work dearly, and regarded the work of trancribing the original manuscript as a pleasure. Hugo's description of Cossetti's life in the convent in a raw flower is an untouched experience taken from Juliet's girlhood. The character of Maleuze is a portrayal of Hugo himself in his youth. Malius' pursuit of Cosette is a replica of Victor's former relationship with his wife, Andre. In the courtyard of Liuxanpur, the hem of Cossetti's dress was swept by the wind to the place of the garter belt, but she did not care, and Malius was angry about it, and did not speak to her for three days. This story is also a fact that Hugo and Andre personally experienced in the era of love.
In any case, when referring to the success of Les Misérables, Moloa does not forget to say in passing: "Its success is due not only to the fact that there are quite a number of real people and real events in this novel, but also because the part that describes history is always of a first-class value." He added:
From the conception, the novel "The World of Sorrow", which was actually completed after 30 years, was published by the publisher Lacroix for 300,000 francs and a 12-year patent copyright contract. At this time, Lacroix suggested to Hugo that he should delete the philosophical part of Les Misérables, but Hugo refused: "Easy-to-read drama may shrink in 12 months, while far-reaching drama can last 12 years." ”
Incidentally, Lacroix, who had borrowed 200,000 francs from the bank and bought the copyright for 300,000 francs, was said to have made a net profit of 517,000 francs in the six years from 1862 to 1868 for the publication of Les Misérables.
Hugo's tome, which Hugo devoted himself to, was well received by the masses and sold very well, but the response of critics was not as enthusiastic as that of the average reader. Baudelaire, in a newspaper's book review column, while slickly calling the work a "doctrinal, useful" novel, relegated it to "a dirty and boring book" in a letter to his mother. ...... The thought of Hugo's family and their children makes me shudder."
Even Hugo's inverse friend Gautier, whose comments are tinged with ambiguity, says:
This is a book that is difficult to say good or bad. In any case, it is not something that can be created by man, but a product of natural elements such as fire and water...
This work, from the beginning to the present, after a long period of testing, finally got the evaluation it deserved. Les Misérables has become one of the great works produced by the human spirit and has been widely praised by people from all walks of life around the world. The characters in the book, such as Jean Valjean, Bishop Milel, the sergeant Dzhevi, Marius, Cossetti, like the Karamazov brothers, Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary, etc., have become household names, figures in world famous works.
On September 3, 1870, the French king raised the white flag, and the next day, the French Republic was officially proclaimed. Hugo finally ended his 19-year exile and was allowed to return to the embrace of his homeland. When he arrived in Paris, the thousands of people waiting for him at the station greeted the patriarch of the republic with a warm greeting: "Long live Victor Hugo!"