Figure 1.--This is Pepita, the Marquesa de Montehermoso. She was a friend of Victor while he was in Spain. The portrait is by Goya, done sometime about 1908-10. Goya is know for his powerful images of the Peninsular War, but they did not stop him from painting portraits of those involved in both sides of the conflict. |
One might say that Victor Hugo was a child of the French Revolution. Victor-Marie was born in Besançon during the Napoleonuc era in 1802. He was a vey small child, perhaps premature. His parents broke up 6 weeks after he was born. Tje collapse of the marriage significantly affected Victor's childhhod. His parents never divorced, but they were never reconciled. As a boy Victor lived in Paris, Corsica, Italy, and Spain. Usually he and his brothers were with their mother. But it was their father that took them to Corsica. His mother kept following her husband, much to his irritation. The experiences, despite the dangers in Spain, helped to expand his horizons. Sophie hated Naples. Victor remembers her garden. As the French position in Spain deterioirated, Sophie brought the family back to France. There are not a lot of early accounts of his childhood. Biographers often speculate that scenes with children in his books are based on childhood experiences. Here we can never be sure. Even his descriptions of his childhood not uncommonly diverge from actual events. If any of this is true, little Victor had a very active mind. In Paris as a young boy he played with the Foucher family children--one of which Adèle he was to marry. He liked to play with toy soldiers and torture frogs. His father described him as having an active mind, but being polite. He got on well with his brothers. Although very small at birth, he appears to have played roughly. Sophie kept Victor busy watering her flowers. [Robb, pp. 15-16.]
One might say that Victor Hugo was a child of the French Revolution. Victor-Marie was born in Besançon during the Napoleonuc era in 1802. He was a vey small child, perhaps premature.
His parents broke up 6 weeks after he was born. Tje collapse of the marriage significantly affected Victor's childhhod. His parents never divorced, but they were never reconciled. As a boy Victor lived in Paris, Corsica, Italy, and Spain. Usually he and his brothers were with their mother. But it was their father that took them to Corsica. His mother kept following her husband, much to his irritation. The experiences, despite the dangers in Spain, helped to expand his horizons.
Major Hugo took the children to Corsica (1803). The French were preparing to defend Corsica from the British. Later he went to Elba. Not a great deal is knon about this period. The boys were still quite young. Vicrtor was still an infant. They were cared for by nurses. Apparently they did not like to be cared for by non French speakers. There are indications that they were not very happy. Major Hugo decided that caring fir three little boys was not to his liking. Eventually their mother came to get them. [Robb, pp. 13-14.]
Victor's earliest memories are from the family's first Paris home. It was located near the Tivoli Gardenls. Abel was old enough to attend school. Victor and Eugène were dispatched to a local nursery. Hugo suggests that as he was still quite young, he was taken to the bedroom od the schoolmaster's daughter, which apparently made quite an impression on him. [Robb, p. 17.] Accounts of Victor at this age give no indication of his future. His future father-inlaw reports that he was always in a corner, whining and drooling in his bib. [Robb, p. 19.]
Major Hugo prospects increased when Napoleon decided to expand his Itlanian territoiries. Napoleon expelled the Austrians were Italy in a campaihn in which Major Hugo participated. Napoleon also seized Naples anf made his brother Joseph King. Major Hugo was promoted and became an important associate of Joseph Napoleon, an aide-de-camp. He was assigned to supress a bandit, considered a hero by the locals. He apparently impreessed Joseph who had him promoted to colonel made him a governor of one of the provinces. He After a while Sophie unhappy with the money her husband was providing, decided to make the long difficult journey to Naples and bu showing up virtually force her husband to provide more support (December 1807). Tgey crossed the Alps by coach and mule. Victor got quite a lesson in geography. Colonel Hugo was not pleased to see them. He felt his wife was making unrealistic demands. He did find quarters for them. Sophie hated Naples. Victor remembers her garden and his father's sword.. [Robb, pp. 22-23.] When Napoleon gave Joseph the Spanish crown, Colonel Hugo accompanied him to Madrid (July 1809). Sophie returned with the children to Paris (February 1809).
Sophie kept Victor busy watering her flowers. [Robb, pp. 15-16.]
Back in Paris, Sophie found quarters in the southern part od the city. She had an apartment in an old convent. Victor had playmates of various ages. Mme. Hugo apparently kep him busy watering her flowers. As the French position in Spain deterioirated, Sophie brought the family back to France. In Paris as a young boy he played with the Foucher family children--one of which Adèle who he was to marry. She was a prpoerly behaved little girl from a respectable bourgeoise family. He liked to play with toy soldiers and torture frogs. His father described him as having an active mind, but being polite. He got on well with his brothers. Although very small at birth, he appears to have played roughly. Victor like to play with Adèle. He delighted in pushing her on the swing as high as possible. [Robb, p. 26.]
The police made an arrest in the Paris apartment where MMe. Hugo lived with her boys. Apparently it was an invidual plotting against Napoleon and MMe. Hugo was involved with him. She was not arrested, but the incident apparently convinced Mme. Hugo that it might be best to leave Paris. She presented the boys with a Spanish dictionary and grammar, explained that their father had been promoted to general and they would soon be on their way to Madrid to join him. In fact, King Joseph Napoleon without informing General Hugo who he had made a count. Mme. Hugo was also convinced that her husband was squandering a fortune on his mistress. She rented a hugely expensive coach anf she and the boys were off. General Hugo was fighting a Spanish guerilla known as El Empecinado--a hero to the Spanish. The war in Spain had degenerated into great cruelties. General Hugo liked to create displays of severed heads. He especially liked to arrange them over church doors. (Years later Victor Hugo maintained that the French broufgt The Encyclopedia with them and "slew the Holy Office" (Inquiisition). [Robb, 31-32.] General Hugo was also noted for looting (paintings by Goya, Murillo, and Velásques) or destroying (Burgos gothic cathedral) Spanish national treasures. (This is especially notable because as an adult, his son Victor led efforts to preserve medieval art and architecture.) Once across the Pyrenees, MMe Hugo and the boys travelled in a heavy bullet resistant coach, part of a convoy guarded by french troops. An earlier convoy had been masacred by guerillas. The women were raped, the children dismembered (Victor recalls being told that the guerillas were particularly fond of children), and the men roasted on spits. Two towns they passed theough (Torquemada and Sladas) had been destroyed. They passed a cripples battalion (men mutilated in war) on its way back to France. Apparently few made it. Mme Hugo did not believe in papering the boys. At one point the coach almost went over a precipice. She refused to let the boys out of the coach while the soldiers pushed it back ob the road. She told the boys that she did not want them behaving like silly little girls. [Robb, pp. 33-35.] Once Mme. Hugo arrived in Madrid, General Hugo had another battle to fight. The younger Victor made a new friend, Pepita the girl seen here (figure 1). She was older than Victor and from a nobel family in contrast to Adèle. Pepita was the daughter of the Marqués de Montehermos. Her mother was none other than the mistress of King Jerome Napoleon. The boys soon after their arrival was enrolled in a boading school. They were only there about a year. The military situation was deteriorating. As wellington's army began to close in on Madrid, Mme. Hugo gathered the boys and made a harrowing trip back to France. Abel stayed with his father. Victor remembered seeing the limbs and head of a bandit nailed to a crucifex by the roadside and a procession of a man sitting backwards on a mule who was about to be garrotted. [Robb, 40.]
Mme. Hugo returned with Eugène and Victor to their home at the Feuillantines. Life became much less eventful--and safe. The end of Jerome's crown and the retreat from Spain meant that money became less available. Many ordinary soldiers went unpaid. Gerneral Hugo's salary was irregular. The disasster in Russia (1812) further weakened the financial position of the Napoleonic regime. The boys resumed their studies with La Rivère supplement with lessons at home. Once again he played with Adèle in the garden. Finally with French armies in retreat, Abel arrived home. The Hugos heard distant artileery in their apartment (March 1814). The next day the Cossocks arrived. Some were billited in the Hugo home. [Robb, p. 43.] Apparently his father made sure he did not become cannon fodder in the death throes of the Empire. Victor who looked up to his father had been an ardent desciple of the Emperor began to question his beliefs. He was soon to be an ardent monarchist and later an ardent republican with many twist and turns along the way. Even after Napoleon abdigated, General Hugo held out at Thionville. Here Mme. Hugo launched a domestic offensive of her own to secure a financial settlement. For her efforts, her husband using his sister Mme. Martin as an agent, evicted his wife and took custody of Eugéne and Victor. Mme. Martin debveloped a string dislike for the boys, describing them as impertinent and profligate. [Robb, p. 43.] MMe. Hugo got her home back, but the General gained custody of the boys who were lodged in a boarding school, the Pension Cordier (March 1815).
There are not a lot of early accounts of his childhood. Biographers often speculate that scenes with children in his books are based on childhood experiences. Here we can never be sure. Even his descriptions of his childhood not uncommonly diverge from actual events. If any of this is true, little Victor had a very active mind.
Robb, Graham. Victor Hugo: A Biography (W.W. Norton: New York, 1997), 682p.
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