As a child, Victor Hugo was able to witness the rise and fall of Napoleon Bonaparte. Because Victor's father, Leopold Hugo, was a high-ranking officer of Napoleon's army, he often moved to different posts like Italy and Spain to fulfill his duties. His family followed until Leopold and Victor's mother, Sophie, separated and she took their children to live with her in France. Because Victor spent more time with his mother than father, he grew much fonder of his mother and learned to share her hate for his father Leopold. Victor also learned to share Sophie's views in politics. Sophie was a Catholic Royalist who was against Napoleon's regime and who had had a relationship with General Victor Lahorie, a man who was executed for his plots to overthrow Napoleon. Victor had shared his mother's Royalist views until his reconnection with his father when Victor's brother, Eugene, had gone insane. This traumatic event brought Leopold back into Victor's life and Victor was finally able to see past his mother's bitter opinions of his father. With a new opinion of Leopold, Victor was also able to form a new opinion of Napoleon as well, adopting his father's political views. The quote above is significant because it is the moment Victor forms the political convictions he holds for the rest of his life. Victor sees the freedom that the people of France have acquired because of the efforts of Napoleon and becomes a strong advocate of the working-class and person freedoms. Victor also grows to despise the Bourbon monarchy which wanted to revert back to the laws of Louis XIV and take the power granted to the people by Napoleon back in the hands of the monarch. Angered by this, Victor Hugo said "The people of France... were not dumb sheep," pg. 57. Later in life, Victor became a great influence in the politics of France, spreading his Republican views and trying to restore a government similar to that held by Napoleon.
"At the Hauteville House his work regimen was even more strict than it had been elsewhere. Under no circumstances did he permit himself to end his day's labor until he had written either one hundred lines of poetry or twenty pages of prose. On days when the words refused to flow - rare days, by his candid admission - he kept himself figuratively chained to his desk until late at night. It was this room, more than any other part of Hauteville House that was Victor's real home for the better part of two decades." pg. 190
This quote shows how significant writing was in Victor's life. It was not only his job, but his lifestyle. He wrote for hours and hours a day, not to be disturbed by anyone when he was busy with his work. His work schedule was so rigorous that there were some instances where he was so exhausted that he collapsed and had to be forced to take a vacation where he had to be watched constantly to make sure he was not doing or thinking about work. Writing was everything that made Victor Hugo, Victor Hugo. It was how he reached such stardom. His greatest weapon had been his words. With his writing he was able to gain a following, with his writing he could persuade people to hear his political cries, with his writing he was able to win over countless women. He was able to reach such a powerful position because of his writing that he could even sway people's political opinions which is why he was a significant part of how Napoleon III became president. In all, writing was Victor's method of winning people over, giving him fame and fortune along with it.
"What Juliette had meant to him was revealed by one fact: after her passing, Victor never again wrote a single line of either poetry or prose." pg. 324
Juliette Drouet was Victor Hugo's true love. She was his unofficial wife. Juliette gave up her whole life for Victor, leaving her husband and the luxuries she was used to being handed to her. She lived only for Victor, losing all connections with her previous life - her husband, friends and acting career. She was Victor's lover for 50 years, until the day she died in his arms. Juliette was more of a wife to Victor than his actual wife Adele, who became more of his wife for show rather than actual love. He supported Adele financially and she lived under the same roof in a different room for most of their lives. They went out to events together and she worked as his assistant, making copies of his work. Although Adele was Victor's official wife, Juliette had always been the one he has needed by his side.
Victor was characterized by his many sexual conquests. At one point Juliette counted that, in two years, Victor had slept with over two hundred women. Although Victor had many women in his life, he always kept Juliette around because he needed her as much as she needed him. At one point he made Juliette and another one of his lovers, Madame Auguste Biard, fight for his affection for months, both agreeing to the conditions because they felt as if they had no other choice to be with him. Juliette, of course, won since her faithfulness and love could not be broken by any other woman, no matter how young or lively the new woman was. Juliette was always there to watch over Victor when he was in times of trouble. Whether he needed something as simple as a vacation or needed something as serious as a method of escape from imprisonment, Juliette could be counted on to get him out of his fix. Eventually, Juliette was even able to stop Victor from seeking out other woman when she finally expressed her concern. "For the first time since the early years of his marriage with Adele, he was faithful to one woman, and took no interest in others. He was now seventy six." (pg. 317) Victor's actions revealed how important Juliette was to his life, giving up his frivolous life as to not lose his love. This is further emphasized by the fact that he could no longer write after she passed away, his greatest talent now useless without Juliette. Juliette served as motivation and inspiration for Victor, making it obvious that he had needed Juliette more than she had needed him.
A connection I can make in my own life to Victor Hugo is how easily he adopted his parents' views in politics. Victor had taken his mother's royalist views in his youth because he spent more time with her than he did with his father. Once Victor reconnected with his father, he completely changed his views and became a proud republican like his father. He seemed to change his political views to whichever the person who influenced him the most believed. I can connect to this because I have also adopted my parents views in politics, mostly because I know little about politics and have not put much concern into which political party suits my beliefs. Because my parents are affiliated with a certain party, I also feel affiliated to that political party and probably always will because that's the belief system I have been raised to agree with.
Another connection I can make from Victor's life to my own is how persistent Victor is in the face of doubt. When Victor had first told his father of his intent to make his living writing literature, his father did not approve. His father said, "Were you to elect a career as a lawyer or a physician, I would gladly make sacrifices in order to see you through the university, but to help you to become established in literature would be like the pouring of good wine down an open sewer." (pg. 41) Leopold's disapproval only made Victor more motivated to prove his father wrong. Victor was going to prove to his father that he could make a better living with his writing than his father had being an officer. I have a similar thinking process to this in that I react oppositely to how people react to me. When people praise me in any way I deny the truth in their statements, thinking myself less impressive than someone is trying to make me sound. On the other hand, if someone were to doubt my abilities I become very motivated to prove their beliefs wrong. In all, it seems like good or bad, I can't usually agree with anyone's comments of me.
The last connection I can make between Victor and myself is that he also has issues with expressing his apologies when he is at a huge fault with the people he loves. Instead of fixing his problems, or admitting these faults in person, Victor chose to show his faults through characters in his writing. This is seen in his comedy, Philemon Perveti. In this comedy, the main character is an elderly man who has many affairs with young women even though he already has a loving mistress that he does not appreciate enough. The elderly man is hated by everyone who knows him because he is a ridiculous fool who has grown too old to be chasing young women. This play shows that Victor felt remorse for the many affairs he was having with young women, and sympathized with Juliette, someone who had always remained faithful to him. I can connect to this because I also have trouble expressing my feelings to others, especially if I'm at fault. Sometimes its difficult to express your feelings of regret to the ones you love when you know you are hurting them but can't seem stop your hurtful actions anyways. It seems easier to express these feelings in writing than by mouth because you don't have to see the reaction of the other person but still are able to let your feelings heard by others.
Many images I've seen of Victor Hugo show him with an enlarged head representing his great intelligence and literary genius by giving him an oversized brain. In this picture, Hugo is standing on top of books showing how he has conquered the art of writing. His genius in writing has allowed him to show his genius in many forms like playwriting, poetry, politics, and art. Hugo also has a very serious expression on his face, showing Hugo's serious attitude in completing his writing. Hugo wrote relentlessly, making writing one of the most significant parts of his daily routine where he could be bothered by no one and forced himself to write for hours in any circumstance as long as his health permitted it.
Discussion Questions:
What made Hugo so different from his contemporaries that he was able to reach such stardom?
Why did Hugo feel the need to seek out countless numbers of women even into old age?
What made Juliette finally feel the need to stop Hugo's affairs and why did she wait so long to do so?
If Victor had not reconnected with his father, would he have still reached the same height of success he did with the influence of his father's Republican views?
Why did so many members of Hugo's family go insane, and do you think Hugo was fueled by a sense of insanity as well?
Why did Hugo feel the need to hide Juliette in public when everyone had already known his marriage was a sham?
Why did Hugo continue to keep Adele, his real wife, around for show?
Reflection:
Victor Hugo: A Tumultuous Life was surprisingly a very entertaining book. Non-fiction usually does not interest me, but the way this book is laid out as a story from beginning to end made it easily readable. I think what mostly kept me interested was the drama involved with all his different mistresses and the relief I had when he ended up with Juliette, the woman who had always had his best interest at heart rather than others who had been with him for the fame. I can't fathom how Juliette had so much patience with Victor and could handle him cheating on her, at some points, multiple times a day. For this, I have some distaste for Victor because I can't see how he could love Juliette and still have affairs that would hurt and shame her. I was also very surprised by how important Victor Hugo was to French history. I was amazed that he had so much influence on politics and the people of France like how he played a massive factor in helping Napoleon III reach presidency. He was so influential that he even has his own day in France. The praise he received from his books definitely makes me want to read many of Victor Hugo's books and I'm excited to start reading Les Miserables and The Hunchback Of Notre Dame. The one issue I had in the beginning of this book was that it was hard to follow because it so heavily involved French history and politics. Although this was an issue, as the story progressed it became easier to follow and I actually learned a lot about French history. I would recommend this book to others, mainly because of how amazing Victor Hugo's life and great success he reached was, but I would especially recommend this book to those who like history and politics. If others read this book, I think they would be astounded like me in the wake of Hugo's intelligence and success.
