My Beloved Toto

Selected letters from Juliette Drouet to her lover, Victor Hugo, offering insights into nineteenth-century French culture as well as an insider’s look at the character, behavior, working habits, and day-to-day life of France’s most monumental man of letters.

Juliette Drouet's Love-Letters to Victor Hugo : Edited with a Biography of Juliette Drouet In the first portion we present the biography of Juliette Drouet in the form of a series of synthetic tableaux, each tableau summarising several lustres of her life. We thus avoid the long-drawn-out narrative, year by year, of an existence devoid of incident or adventure. In the second, we publish those letters which strike us as peculiarly eloquent, witty, or lyrical. In the light shed upon them by the preliminary biography, they form, as one might say, its justification and natural sequel. At the outset of her liaison with the poet Juliette does not date her “scribbles”; she merely notes the time of day and the day of the week, until about 1840; we have therefore been obliged to content ourselves with the classification effected by her in the collection of her manuscripts, and preserved by her executor. From 1840 she dated every sheet. Consequently our work simultaneously achieves more precision and certainty.

Victor Hugo was a poet, novelist, and dramatist of the Romantic Movement. And he is also considered to be one of the greatest and best-known French writers. This meticulously edited collection will bring you closer to his true persona. You will find out the amazing circumstances and true events in his incredible life full of turmoil, great success as well as great defeats. Contents: Biography Victor Hugo: His Life and Work Autobiography The Memoirs of Victor Hugo Essays Medley of Philosophy and Literature Napoleon the Little William Shakespeare The History of a Crime Speeches: "In Defense of His Son" Address to the Workman's Congress at Marseille Oration on Voltaire Letters: Juliette Drouet's Love-Letters to Victor Hugo Letter to the London News Regarding John Brown Letter to Mrs. Maria Weston Chapman on American Slavery

Musaicum Books presents to you a meticulously edited Victor Hugo collection. This ebook has been designed and formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices. Content: Introduction: Victor Hugo: His Life and Work Novels & Novellas: Les Misérables The Hunchback of Notre-Dame The Man Who Laughs Toilers of the Sea Hans of Iceland Bug-Jargal The Last Day of a Condemned Man; or, A Criminal's Last Hours Ninety-Three Claude Gueux (A Crime Story) A Fight with a Cannon Plays: Cromwell Hernani Marion De Lorme The King Amuses Himself Mary Tudor Esmeralda Ruy Blas Poetry: The Legend of the Alps "My Daughter, Hence and Pray! See, Night is Stealing o'er us" The Tomb and the Rose Miscellaneous Poems Essays & Speeches: Medley of Philosophy and Literature Napoleon the Little William Shakespeare The History of a Crime "In Defense of His Son" Address to the Workman's Congress at Marseille Oration on Voltaire Memoirs & Letters: The Memoirs of Victor Hugo Juliette Drouet's Love- Letters to Victor Hugo Letter to the London News Regarding John Brown Letter to Mrs. Maria Weston Chapman on American Slavery

Sunday, 8.30 p.m. (1833). Before beginning to copy or count words,[59] I must write you one line of love, my dear little lunatic. I love you—do you understand, I love you! This is a profession of faith which comprises all my duty and integrity. I love you, ergo, I am faithful to you, I see only you, think only of you, speak only to you, touch only you, breathe you, desire you, dream of you; in a word, I love you! that means everything. Do not therefore give way any more to melancholy; permit yourself to be loved and to be happy. Fear nothing from me, never doubt me, and we shall be blissful beyond words. I am expecting you shortly, and am ready with warm and tender caresses which, I hope, will cheer you. Your Juju. (1833). Since you left me I carry death in my heart. If you go to the ball to-night, it must be at the cost of a definite rupture between us. The pain I suffer at imagining you moving among that throng of fascinating, careless women, is too great for you to be able to inflict it without incurring guilt towards me. Write to me “Care of Madame K....” If I do not hear from you before midnight, I shall understand that you care very little for me ... that all is over between us ... and for ever. J. Wednesday, 2.30 p.m. (1833). I cannot refrain, dearly beloved, from commenting upon the profound melancholy you were in this morning, and upon the doubt you manifest on every occasion as to the sincerity of my love. This unjustifiable suspicion on your part disheartens me beyond all expression. It intimidates me and makes me fear to confide to you the incidents my dubious position exposes me to. To-day, for instance, I concealed from you the visit of a creditor, who presented himself to the porter, but was not shown up. I paid him out of my own resources, without your knowledge, because you are always telling me I do not love you. This expression from you makes me feel that you hold a shameful opinion of me and my character, rendered possible perhaps by my situation, but none the less false, unjust, and cruel. I love you because I love you, because it would be impossible for me not to love you. I love you without question, without calculation, without reason good or bad, faithfully, with all my heart and soul, and every faculty. Believe it, for it is true. If you cannot believe, I being at your side, I will make a drastic effort to force you to do so. I shall have the mournful satisfaction of sacrificing myself utterly to a distrust as absurd as it is unfounded. Meanwhile, I ask your pardon for the guilty thought that came to me this morning, and which may possibly recur, if you continue to see in my love only a mean-spirited compliance and an unworthy speculation. This letter is very lengthy, and very sad to write. I trust with all my soul, that I may never have to reiterate its sentiments. I love you. Indeed I love you. Believe in me. Juliette. Wednesday, 8.15 p.m. (1833).

This meticulously edited collection is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents: Introduction: Victor Hugo: His Life and Work Novels & Novellas: Les Misérables The Hunchback of Notre-Dame The Man Who Laughs Toilers of the Sea Hans of Iceland Bug-Jargal The Last Day of a Condemned Man; or, A Criminal's Last Hours Ninety-Three Claude Gueux (A Crime Story) A Fight with a Cannon Plays: Cromwell Hernani Marion De Lorme The King Amuses Himself Mary Tudor Esmeralda Ruy Blas Poetry: The Legend of the Alps "My Daughter, Hence and Pray! See, Night is Stealing o'er us" The Tomb and the Rose Miscellaneous Poems Essays & Speeches: Medley of Philosophy and Literature Napoleon the Little William Shakespeare The History of a Crime "In Defense of His Son" Address to the Workman's Congress at Marseille Oration on Voltaire Memoirs & Letters: The Memoirs of Victor Hugo Juliette Drouet's Love- Letters to Victor Hugo Letter to the London News Regarding John Brown Letter to Mrs. Maria Weston Chapman on American Slavery

Musaicum Books presents to you a meticulously edited Victor Hugo collection. This ebook has been designed and formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices. Victor Hugo was a poet, novelist, and dramatist of the Romantic Movement. And he is also considered to be one of the greatest and best-known French writers. This meticulously edited collection will bring you closer to his true persona. You will find out the amazing circumstances and true events in his incredible life full of turmoil, great success as well as great defeats. Contents: Biography Victor Hugo: His Life and Work Autobiography The Memoirs of Victor Hugo Essays Medley of Philosophy and Literature Napoleon the Little William Shakespeare The History of a Crime Speeches: "In Defense of His Son" Address to the Workman's Congress at Marseille Oration on Voltaire Letters: Juliette Drouet's Love-Letters to Victor Hugo Letter to the London News Regarding John Brown Letter to Mrs. Maria Weston Chapman on American Slavery