This auction has ended. View lot details
You may also be interested in
![[Americana.]](/_next/image.jpg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg2.bonhams.com%2Fimage%3Fsrc%3DImages%252Flive%252F2006-09%252F22%252F7332891-4-1.JPG%26width%3D650&w=2400&q=75)
![CALEPINO, AMBROGIO. 1435-1511. [Dictionarium.] Calepinus Ad librum. Mos est putidas.... Venice: Peter Liechtenstein, January 3, 1509.](/_next/image.jpg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg2.bonhams.com%2Fimage%3Fsrc%3DImages%252Flive%252F2012-08%252F09%252F8520323-124-1.jpg%26width%3D650&w=2400&q=75)
![HEARN, LAFCADIO. 1850-1904. [Japanese Fairy Tales.] Philadelphia: Macrae-Smith, [But Tokyo: T. Hasegawa,] [c.1931].](/_next/image.jpg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fimg2.bonhams.com%2Fimage%3Fsrc%3DImages%252Flive%252F2025-11%252F07%252F25776056-1-1.jpg%26width%3D650&w=2400&q=75)
Lot 2243
HUGO, VICTOR. 1802-1885.
11 June 2008, 13:00 EDT
New YorkSold for US$8,100 inc. premium
Looking for a similar item?
Our Books & Manuscripts specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.
Find your local specialistHUGO, VICTOR. 1802-1885.
VICTOR HUGO ON LES MISÉRABLES.
Autograph Letter Signed (“Victor Hugo”), 1¼ pp, 12mo (conjoining leaves), June 5, [1862], Hauteville House, [Guernsey], to Jules Claretie, in French, thanking him for a positive review of Les Miserables, about fine.
Fine letter in which Victor Hugo gives heartfelt thanks for Claretie’s sensitive review. The first two volumes of Les Misérables were published in April, 1862, the remainder appeared the following month. In part, loosely translated: “Sir, I have just read the last issue of Diogène. When a man builds, or tries to build, as I have, a work that is useful and honest in the face of and in opposition to the immense evil that governs the world, when hatred pursues him and he has become the focus of all the furies, he is grateful to those intrepid souls who fight at his side; but when those brave hearts have at the same time beautiful and radiant minds, he is more than grateful … he is moved … In the struggle for progress you are bringing me the support of your inspired thinking and of your noble and generous style, where everything that is great, pure and true is reflected. I thank you, Sir, for this new and eloquent page on Les Misérables. I thank you for it, not for myself, not for the book, but for those who suffer, whose friend you are, and for an ideal whose champion you have been….”
See illustration.
Autograph Letter Signed (“Victor Hugo”), 1¼ pp, 12mo (conjoining leaves), June 5, [1862], Hauteville House, [Guernsey], to Jules Claretie, in French, thanking him for a positive review of Les Miserables, about fine.
Fine letter in which Victor Hugo gives heartfelt thanks for Claretie’s sensitive review. The first two volumes of Les Misérables were published in April, 1862, the remainder appeared the following month. In part, loosely translated: “Sir, I have just read the last issue of Diogène. When a man builds, or tries to build, as I have, a work that is useful and honest in the face of and in opposition to the immense evil that governs the world, when hatred pursues him and he has become the focus of all the furies, he is grateful to those intrepid souls who fight at his side; but when those brave hearts have at the same time beautiful and radiant minds, he is more than grateful … he is moved … In the struggle for progress you are bringing me the support of your inspired thinking and of your noble and generous style, where everything that is great, pure and true is reflected. I thank you, Sir, for this new and eloquent page on Les Misérables. I thank you for it, not for myself, not for the book, but for those who suffer, whose friend you are, and for an ideal whose champion you have been….”
See illustration.