Victor Hugo - By A Witness Of His Life - Paperback

THE readers of Les Mis6rables will be astonished to find what a flood of light is thrown upon that masterwork by this charming life-history of its great author. Its wonderful descrip tions cease to be fictions and become actual life. Marius is but a free variation of Victor Hugo himself. Circumstances are considerably changed, yet the man and his formation are sub stantially the same. The fairy spot which saw the loves of Cosette and Marius, is the actual scene of the child courtship between the subject and the author of this biography. As the garden of Marius and Cosette was the hiding-place of Jean Valjean, so the garden of Victor and Ad le concealed General Lahorie. In Joly, the old schoolmate of the Pension Cordier, the author of Jean Valjean becomes closely acquainted with a real galley-slave. Familiar names and things perpetually recur Chateaubriand, Lamennais, Franpois de Neufchateau, don, Lafitte, Loyson, Talma, Louis Philippe, John Brown, the Thieves Court, the Republican tribes and their leaders, the Academy, the Rue Plumet, 6meutes, Saint Merry a boy even is seen bound to a tree by soldiers to be shot, as Javert was in the barricade of Corinthe a vivandiere suffers in a quicksand the terrible fate of enlizement which Jean Valjean so narrowly escaped in the sewer. In short, the Great Romance is a part of the life of Victor Hugo, and cannot be fully understood without this its completion. Q HUOO BY A WITNESS OF 1 HIS LIFE MADAME HUGO. TRANSLATED FKOM THE ORIGINAL FBENCH, BY CHARLES EDWIN WILBOUE, K EW YORK Car eton, Publisher 413 Broadway PABIS LIBEAIRI1J CONTENTS. PAGE I La Vendee 11 II. Marriage 14 III Campaign of the Rhine ... 16 IV. Birth 18 V. Fra Diavolo 21 YI. Journey toItaly 25 TIL - The Feuillantines 27 V1IL The Arrest of Lahorie ... 30 IX A ilimpse of Napoleon . . 34 X. Avila 85 XI. The Monk Concha 3 7 XII. The Uncles Visit 39 XIII. General Louis Hugos Story 41 XIV. Segovia 44 XV. El Kmpecinado 45 XYL An Idyl at Bayonne 47 XYII. The Convoy 50 XYIII. The Journey 63 XIX The Masserano Palace ... 60 XX. The Nobles College 62 XXI. The Return 67 XXIL Jean LOurs 69 XXIII. Abels Omelet 71 XXIY. France Invaded 78 XXV. The Bourbons 75 XXVI. The Cordier School 77 XXV1L The Hundred Days 80 XXVHI. The Follies that M. Victor Hugo committed before his Birth 81 L Continuation of the Fol lies, etc 83 . First Relations with the Academy 84 XXXI. Dinners at Edons 88 XXXIL Old Friends Separate 91 XXXHL A Remark of General Hugo 94 XXXIV. A Remark of Chateau briand 95 PAOl XXXV. The Death of the Mo ther 93 XXXVI. La Roche-Guyon 100 XXXVII. Fragments of Letters ... 102 XXXVIII. Lamenuajs Confessor of Victor Hugo 106 XXXIX. Marriage 109 XL. M. Alphonse Rabbe 113 XLI. Visit to Blois 117 XLIL The Coronation of Charles X 120 XLIIL A Visit to M. de Lamar tine 122 XLIY. Geneva 125 XLY. Victor Hugos Story 126 XLVL A Letter of Lamennaifl. . . 127 XLVIL The Ode to the Co lumn 129 XLYIIL Cromwell 130 XLIX. Deaths 132 L. Amy Robsart 133 LI. Friends 134 L1L The Scaffold 136 LIH. Sequel to Le Dernier Jour dun Condanme 137 HY. A Reading 142 LY. Hernani 146 LYL Notre-Damd de Paris .... 154 LYII. Manon de Lorme 158 LYIIL The Cholera 159 LIX. Le Roi sAmuse 161 LX. Lucrece Borgia 164 LXL Maria Tudor 167 LX1L Angelo 168 LXIIL La Esmeralda 169 LXIV. The Brothers Death 170 LXY. The Fete at Versailles. ... 171 LXVL Ruy Bias 172 LXVIL Les Burgraves 173 LXYIIL The Academy 174 THE translator hasomitted some portions of the original, which are dependent for their interest upon an intimate acquaintance with the authors poems and plays, as well as a few speeches and letters which are inserted in the original, because they had not been given in the Complete Edition of his works. VIOTOE HUGO BY A WITNESS OF HIS LIFE. LA VENDlSBS...