Léopoldine Hugo
Adèle Foucher
Léopoldine Cécile Marie-Pierre Catherine Hugo (French pronunciation: [leɔpɔldin sesil maʁi pjɛʁ katʁin yɡo]; 28 August 1824 – 4 September 1843) was the eldest daughter of Victor Hugo and Adèle Foucher.
Early life
Léopoldine was born in Paris, the second of five children and eldest daughter of Victor Hugo and Adèle Foucher. She was named after her paternal grandfather, Joseph Léopold Sigisbert Hugo,[1] as was her late brother, Léopold, who died in infancy.
Despite her father's growing anti-clerical views, Léopoldine grew up as a devout Catholic. Her first communion, which took place in September 1836, was a grand affair. Auguste de Châtillon painted a portrait of her for the day, and the mass was attended by Théophile Gautier, Alexandre Dumas, and members of the Hugo family. A banquet was held at her family's Paris residence afterward.[2]
Léopoldine had many suitors for marriage including her future husband, Charles Vacquerie, whom she met while on holiday in 1839.[3]
Later life and death
She married Charles Vacquerie at Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis on 15 February 1843, but they both drowned together only a few months later, when their boat overturned on the Seine in Villequier on 4 September 1843. Nineteen years old and pregnant, she died when her wet, heavy skirts pulled her down, and her husband died trying to save her. This tragic event had a great impact on the work and personality of her father, Victor Hugo. He dedicated numerous poems to the memory of his daughter, notably Demain dès l'aube and À Villequier in Pauca Meae, the fourth book of Les Contemplations. Victor Hugo did not write for several years afterwards owing to the clinical depression he developed following Léopoldine's death.
Notes
- ^ Graham, Robb. Victor Hugo: A Biography. W.W. Norton, 1997, p. 682.
- ^ Harrison, Carol E. (11 March 2014). Romantic Catholics: France's Postrevolutionary Generation in Search of a Modern Faith. ISBN 9780801470592.
- ^ "Léopoldine Hugo Vacquerie Hauteville House Maison d'exil de Victor Hugo à Guernesey".
External links
- (in French) Complete text of Contemplations, on Wikisource
- (in French) The Maison Vacquerie, in Villequier, houses the departemental Museum of Victor Hugo
- Reely's Poetry Pages Hear "Demain, des l'aube"
- Léopoldine – Série Noire (Swiss popband) Video on YouTube, musical version of the poem "Demain, dès l'aube," written by Léopoldine's father Victor Hugo
- v
- t
- e
- Hans of Iceland (1823)
- Bug-Jargal (1826)
- The Last Day of a Condemned Man (1829)
- The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831)
- Les Misérables (1862)
- Toilers of the Sea (1866)
- The Man Who Laughs (1869)
- Ninety-Three (1874)
- Inez de Castro (1820; published in 1863)
- Cromwell (1827)
- Amy Robsart (1828)
- Hernani (1830)
- Marion de Lorme (1831)
- Le roi s'amuse (1832)
- Lucrezia Borgia (1833)
- Marie Tudor (1833)
- Angelo, Tyrant of Padua (1835)
- La Esmeralda (1836; libretto only)
- Ruy Blas (1838)
- Les Burgraves (1843)
- Torquemada (1882)
- "Claude Gueux" (1834)
collections
- Odes et poésies diverses (1822)
- Nouvelles Odes (1824)
- Odes et Ballades (1828)
- Les Orientales (1829)
- Les Feuilles d'automne (1831)
- Les Chants du crépuscule (1835)
- Les Voix intérieures (1837)
- Les Rayons et les Ombres (1840)
- Les Châtiments (1853)
- Les Contemplations (1856)
- La Légende des siècles (Part One 1859)
- Les Chansons des rues et des bois (1865)
- L'Année terrible (1872)
- L'Art d'être grand-père (1877)
- La Légende des siècles (Part Two 1877)
- Le Pape (1878)
- La Pitié suprême (1879)
- L'Âne (1880)
- Les Quatre Vents de l'esprit (1881)
- Final part of La Légende des siècles (1883)
- La Fin de Satan (1886)
- Dieu (1891, 1941)
- Toute la Lyre (1888, 1893, 1897, 1935-1937)
- Les Années funestes (1898)
- Dernière Gerbe (1902, 1941)
- Océan, Tas de pierres (1942)
- Le Verso de la page (1960)
- Œuvres d'enfance et de jeunesse, 1814-20 (juvenilia, 1964)
- Le Rhin (1842)
- Napoléon le Petit (1852 pamphlet)
- William Shakespeare (1864 essay)
- Actes et Paroles (1875)
- The History of a Crime (1877)
- Religions et religion (1880)
- Léopoldine Hugo (daughter)
- Charles Hugo (son)
- François-Victor Hugo (son)
- Adèle Hugo (daughter)
- Jeanne Hugo (granddaughter)
- Joseph Léopold Sigisbert Hugo (father)
- Association Littéraire et Artistique Internationale
- Hauteville House
- Maison de Victor Hugo
- Juliette Drouet
- Avenue Victor-Hugo (Paris)
- Bust of Victor Hugo
- La Soeur de la reine
- Hugo (crater)