And There Was 93

 

The shortest correspondence in history is said to have been between, the famous French poet, novelist and philosopher, Victor Hugo and his publisher Hurst and Blackett in 1862. Hugo was on vacation when Les Misérables was published. He queried the reaction to the work by sending a single-character telegram to his publisher, asking "?". The publisher replied with a single "!" to indicate its success. Victor Hugo is also the same person who said, “To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark”. Today his works are a part of the curriculum of most schools across the world. He is chiefly known for his works like “Les Miserables” on social injustice and “The Hunchback of Notredame”, a moving story set in 15^th century Paris, of a gypsy girl, Esmeralda and the deformed bell ringer, Quasimodo, who loves her.  However many of his less known works are of equal if not surpassing merit and deserve equal acclaim. 

Victor Hugo was born in 1802, two years before Napolean came to power.  He was taught by his father, who was an army general, to admire Napolean.  After his parents were separated, he was brought up by his mother in Paris. He attended Lycée Louis-le Grand and soon started writing poetry. His style was lyrical, rich, intense and full of powerful sounds and rhythms, and although it followed the bourgeois popular taste of the period it also had bitter personal tones. His most ambitious poem was "Et nox facta est," ("And There Was Night"), a study of Satan's fall. The poem was never completed.

Quatre-vingt-treize (93) was his last published book and many regard it as comparable, if not superior to his other renowned works.  In Quatre-vingt-treize, he recreates the special atmosphere of The Convention, which was the third parliament assembly during the French Revolution. The Convention lasted from 21^st September 1792 to 26^th October 1795 and is generally identified with “The Reign of Terror” however it also was a lofty spectacle that appeared on the horizon of mankind and it was Victor Hugo who could understand it as the culminating point in history. He writes in 93, “In this caldron, where terror bubbled, progress fermented. Out of this chaos of shadow, this tumultuous flight of clouds, spread immense rays of light parallel to the eternal laws, - rays that have remained on the horizon, visible forever in the heaven of the peoples, and which are, one, Justice; another Tolerance; another, Goodness; another, Right; another Truth; another Love. The Convention promulgated this grand axiom: ‘The liberty of each citizen ends where the liberty of another citizen commences”- which comprises in two lines, all human social law. 

Victor Hugo went into a shock, when his daughter Leopoldine passed away in 1843 and could not write anything for almost a decade. Charles Dickens was to go into a similar shock later in history at the death of his daughter. Victor Hugo's death on 22 May 1885, at the age of 83, generated intense national mourning. He was not only revered as a towering figure in literature, he was also a statesman who shaped the third Republic and Democracy in France. 

On his death, he left a set of five sentences as his last will to be officially published:

I leave 50 000 francs to the poor.

I want to be buried in their hearse.

I refuse funeral orations of all churches.

I beg a prayer to all souls.

I believe in God.