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A GREAT LITERARY DISCOVERY
JULIETTE DROUET'S LOVE-LETTERS TO VICTOR HUGO
Edited with a Biography of Juliette Drouet by Louis Guimbaud; translated by Lady Theodora Davidson. Demy 8vo, cloth gilt, with many illustrations, 10/6 net.
What is described as the most fascinating and notable human document seen for many years has recently been discovered in Paris by a distinguished French author, whose work has received the crown of the Academy. This writer, after ten years' patient work, has brought to light a collection of letters written by Juliette Drouet to Victor Hugo.
The story of Juliette's love for the great French novelist is one of the most romantic in history. Becoming devotedly attached to him when he first noticed her playing a humble part in "Lucrezia Borgia," she followed him in his exile to Brussels, Guernsey and Jersey, where she inspired some of his greatest poems. To console herself whenever he was absent, she wrote down "everything that came into her head, everything that caused her heart to beat." These are not ordinary love-letters, but "scribbles," as Juliette herself called them, thrown upon paper hour after hour, cast into a corner without being read over, and secured by the lover at each of his visits, as so many trophies of passion.
These letters were written so constantly that they number in all as many as 15,000, and of these a careful selection has been made for publication. M. Louis Guimbaud, who is responsible for the discovery of the letters, has added an extremely interesting biographical study of Juliette and her relations with Victor Hugo. The book, which is illustrated by a remarkable series of illustrations from the Victor Hugo Museum, contains many of the most tender and passionate love-letters ever written.
LIFE AND LETTERS IN THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE