Who Was Victor?

When Louis Napoleon Napoleon III seized complete power in , establishing an anti-parliamentary constitution, Hugo openly declared him a traitor to France. He relocated to Brussels , then Jersey , from which he was expelled for supporting a Jersey newspaper that had criticised Queen Victoria and finally settled with his family at Hauteville House in Saint Peter Port , Guernsey , where he would live in exile from October until The pamphlets were banned in France but nonetheless had a strong impact there.

Like most of his contemporaries, Victor Hugo held colonialist views towards Africans. In a speech delivered on 18 May , he declared that the Mediterranean Sea formed a natural divide between " ultimate civilisation and […] utter barbarism," adding "God offers Africa to Europe. Take it," in order to civilise its indigenous inhabitants. This might partly explain why in spite of his deep interest and involvement in political matters he remained strangely silent on the Algerian issue.

He knew about the atrocities committed by the French Army during the French conquest of Algeria as evidenced by his diary [14] but he never denounced them publicly. A modern reader may also feel puzzled, to say the least, at the meaning of these lines from the conclusion to Le Rhin, chapter 17, [15] published in , twelve years after French troops landed near Algiers. What France lacks in Algiers is a little barbarity. The first thing that strikes savages is not reason but strength. What France lacks, England has it; Russia too. Algeria too harshly conquered, and, as in the case of India by the English, with more barbarism than civilization.

Before being exiled he never denounced slavery, and no trace of its abolition is to be found in the 27 April entry of his detailed diary. On the other hand, Victor Hugo fought a lifelong battle for the abolition of the death penalty as a novelist, diarist, and member of Parliament.

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The Last Day of a Condemned Man published in analyses the pangs of a man awaiting execution; several entries of Things Seen Choses vues , the diary he kept between and , convey his firm condemnation of what he regarded as a barbaric sentence; [17] on 15 September , seven months after the Revolution of , he delivered a speech before the Assembly and concluded, "You have overthrown the throne.

His complete archives published by Pauvert show also that he wrote a letter asking the United States government, for the sake of their own reputation in the future, to spare John Brown's life, but the letter arrived after Brown was executed. Although Napoleon III granted an amnesty to all political exiles in , Hugo declined, as it meant he would have to curtail his criticisms of the government. It was only after Napoleon III fell from power and the Third Republic was proclaimed that Hugo finally returned to his homeland in , where he was promptly elected to the National Assembly and the Senate.

He was in Paris during the siege by the Prussian Army in , famously eating animals given to him by the Paris Zoo. As the siege continued, and food became ever more scarce, he wrote in his diary that he was reduced to "eating the unknown". During the Paris Commune — the revolutionary government that took power on 18 March and was toppled on 28 May — Victor Hugo was harshly critical of the atrocities committed on both sides. On 9 April, he wrote in his diary, "In short, this Commune is as idiotic as the National Assembly is ferocious. From both sides, folly. Death to the scoundrel!

Victor Hugo, who said "A war between Europeans is a civil war", [24] was an enthusiastic advocate for the creation of the United States of Europe. He expounded his views on the subject in a speech he delivered during the International Peace Congress which took place in Paris in The conference helped establish Hugo as a prominent public speaker and sparked his international fame, and promoted the idea of the "United States of Europe".

However, in Pauvert 's published archives, he states strongly that "any work of art has two authors: When one of the authors dies, the rights should totally be granted back to the other, the people". He was one of the earlier supporters of the concept of domaine public payant , under which a nominal fee would be charged for copying or performing works in the public domain, and this would go into a common fund dedicated to helping artists, especially young people.

Hugo's religious views changed radically over the course of his life. In his youth and under the influence of his mother, he identified as a Catholic and professed respect for Church hierarchy and authority. From there he became a non-practicing Catholic and increasingly expressed anti-Catholic and anti-clerical views. A census-taker asked Hugo in if he was a Catholic, and he replied, "No.

After , Hugo never lost his antipathy towards the Catholic Church.

He felt the Church was indifferent to the plight of the working class under the oppression of the monarchy. Perhaps he also was upset by the frequency with which his work appeared on the Church's list of banned books. In his will, he made the same stipulation about his own death and funeral. Yet he believed in life after death and prayed every single morning and night, convinced as he wrote in The Man Who Laughs that "Thanksgiving has wings and flies to its right destination. Your prayer knows its way better than you do". Hugo's rationalism can be found in poems such as Torquemada , about religious fanaticism , The Pope , anti-clerical , Religions and Religion , denying the usefulness of churches and, published posthumously, The End of Satan and God and respectively, in which he represents Christianity as a griffin and rationalism as an angel.

Although Hugo's many talents did not include exceptional musical ability, he nevertheless had a great impact on the music world through the inspiration that his works provided for composers of the 19th and 20th century. Hugo himself particularly enjoyed the music of Gluck and Weber. Two famous musicians of the 19th century were friends of Hugo: Hector Berlioz and Franz Liszt.

The latter played Beethoven in Hugo's home, and Hugo joked in a letter to a friend that, thanks to Liszt's piano lessons, he learned how to play a favourite song on the piano — with only one finger. Hugo also worked with composer Louise Bertin , writing the libretto for her opera La Esmeralda , which was based on the character in The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

On the other hand, he had low esteem for Richard Wagner , whom he described as "a man of talent coupled with imbecility. Well over one thousand musical compositions have been inspired by Hugo's works from the 19th century until the present day. In particular, Hugo's plays, in which he rejected the rules of classical theatre in favour of romantic drama, attracted the interest of many composers who adapted them into operas.

More than one hundred operas are based on Hugo's works and among them are Donizetti 's Lucrezia Borgia , Verdi 's Rigoletto and Ernani , and Ponchielli 's La Gioconda Today, Hugo's work continues to stimulate musicians to create new compositions. Remarkably, not only Hugo's literary production has been the source of inspiration for musical works, but also his political writings have received attention from musicians and have been adapted to music.

When Hugo returned to Paris in , the country hailed him as a national hero. He was confident that he would be offered the dictatorship , as shown by the notes he kept at the time. Throughout his life Hugo kept believing in unstoppable humanistic progress. In his last public address on 3 August he prophesied in an over-optimistic way, "In the twentieth century war will be dead, the scaffold will be dead, hatred will be dead, frontier boundaries will be dead, dogmas will be dead; man will live.

His faithful mistress, Juliette Drouet , died in , only two years before his own death. Despite his personal loss, Hugo remained committed to the cause of political change. On 30 January , he was elected to the newly created Senate. This last phase of his political career was considered a failure.

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Hugo was a maverick and achieved little in the Senate. Hugo suffered a mild stroke on 27 June On 27 June, one of the largest parades in French history was held. The paraders marched for six hours past Hugo as he sat at the window at his house. On 20 May , le Petit Journal published the official medical bulletin on Hugo's health condition. Hugo's death from pneumonia on 22 May , at the age of 83, generated intense national mourning.

He was not only revered as a towering figure in literature, he was a statesman who shaped the Third Republic and democracy in France. All his life he remained a defender of liberty, equality and fraternity as well as an adamant champion of French culture. In , aged 75, he wrote, "I am not one of these sweet-tempered old men. I am still exasperated and violent. I shout and I feel indignant and I cry. Woe to anyone who harms France! I do declare I will die a fanatic patriot. Most large French towns and cities have a street named after him. Je donne cinquante mille francs aux pauvres.

Je crois en Dieu. I wish to be buried in their hearse. I refuse [funeral] orations from all Churches. I ask all souls for a prayer. I believe in God. Hugo produced more than 4, drawings. Originally pursued as a casual hobby, drawing became more important to Hugo shortly before his exile when he made the decision to stop writing to devote himself to politics. Drawing became his exclusive creative outlet between and Hugo worked only on paper, and on a small scale; usually in dark brown or black pen-and-ink wash, sometimes with touches of white, and rarely with colour.

The surviving drawings are surprisingly accomplished and "modern" in their style and execution, foreshadowing the experimental techniques of Surrealism and Abstract expressionism. He would not hesitate to use his children's stencils, ink blots, puddles and stains, lace impressions, " pliage " or folding e. Rorschach blots , " grattage " or rubbing, often using the charcoal from matchsticks or his fingers instead of pen or brush. Sometimes he would even toss in coffee or soot to get the effects he wanted. Hugo kept his artwork out of the public eye, fearing it would overshadow his literary work.

However, he enjoyed sharing his drawings with his family and friends, often in the form of ornately handmade calling cards, many of which were given as gifts to visitors when he was in political exile.

Some of his work was shown to, and appreciated by, contemporary artists such as van Gogh and Delacroix ; the latter expressed the opinion that if Hugo had decided to become a painter instead of a writer, he would have outshone the artists of their century. They lived together for nearly 46 years until she died in August From February until her death in , Juliette Drouet devoted her whole life to Victor Hugo, who never married her even after his wife died in He took her on his numerous trips and she followed him in exile on Guernsey.

There Hugo rented a house for her near Hauteville House , his family home. She wrote some 20, letters in which she expressed her passion or vented her jealousy on her womanizing lover. He left his children a note reading as follows:.

She saved my life in December For me she underwent exile. Never has her soul forsaken mine. Let those who have loved me love her. Let those who have loved me respect her. She is my widow.

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Both were caught in adultery on 5 July Hugo, who had been a Member of the Chamber of Peers since April, avoided condemnation whereas his mistress had to spend two months in prison and six in a convent. Many years after their separation, Hugo made a point of supporting her financially.

Hugo gave free rein to his sensuality until a few weeks before his death. He sought a wide variety of women of all ages, be they courtesans, actresses, prostitutes, admirers, servants or revolutionaries like Louise Michel for sexual activity. Both a graphomaniac and erotomaniac , he systematically reported his casual affairs using his own code, as Samuel Pepys did, to make sure they would remain secret. For instance, he resorted to Latin abbreviations osc.

Analogy also enabled him to conceal the real meaning: A woman's Suisses Swiss are her breasts — due to the fact that Switzerland is renowned for its milk. After a rendez-vous with a young woman named Laetitia he would write Joie Happiness in his diary. If he added t. Ville avec le pont de Tumbledown , "Town with Tumbledown Bridge" , Pieuvre avec les initiales V. Le Rocher de l'Ermitage dans un paysage imaginaire "Ermitage Rock in an imaginary landscape". Gavroche a onze ans , " Gavroche at eleven years old". The house where he stayed in Vianden , Luxembourg, in has also become a commemorative museum.

Avenue Victor-Hugo , located in Shawinigan , Quebec, was named to honour him. Victor Hugo is the namesake of the city of Hugoton, Kansas. British Railways perpetuated this memorial, naming Class 92 Electric Unit after him. According to religious records, he was assigned by God to lead the foreign mission as part of God's Divine hierarchy. The officer played Russian roulette with Jara by placing a single round in his revolver, spinning the cylinder, placing the muzzle against Jara's head, and pulling the trigger.

The officer repeated this a couple of times until a shot fired and Jara fell to the ground. The officer then ordered two conscripts one of them Paredes to finish the job by firing into Jara's body. A judge ordered Jara's body to be exhumed in an effort to gather more information about his death. On 28 December , a judge in Chile ordered the arrest of eight former army officers for alleged involvement in Jara's murder. Beckett [29] and Christian Urrutia, [30] with the assistance of the Center for Justice and Accountability , [31] filed suit in a United States court against Barrientos, who lives in Florida , on behalf of Jara's widow and children.

The suit accused Barrientos of arbitrary detention; cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment; extrajudicial killing ; and crimes against humanity under the Alien Tort Statute ATS , and of torture and extrajudicial killing under the Torture Victim Protection Act TVPA. It alleged that Barrientos was liable for Jara's death as a direct perpetrator and as a commander. On 3 July , eight retired Chilean military officers were sentenced to 15 years in prison for Jara's murder, with a ninth suspect sentenced to 5 years in prison for their role in covering up the murder.

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She publicized a poem that Jara wrote before his death about the conditions of the prisoners in the stadium. The poem, written on a piece of paper that was hidden inside the shoe of a friend, was never named, but it is commonly known as " Estadio Chile ".

Joan also distributed recordings of her husband's music, which became known worldwide. His music began to resurface in Chile in Nearly cassettes of early, nonpolitical Jara songs [38] were confiscated on the "grounds that they violated an internal security law". The importer was given jail time but released six months later.

Who really should have won the 2007 Olympia? Jay or Victor?

Jara is one of many desaparecidos people who vanished under the Pinochet government and were most likely tortured and killed whose families are still struggling to get justice. President Michelle Bachelet —also a victim of the Pinochet regime, having spent years in exile—said: He is a hero for the left, and he is known worldwide, even though he continues buried in the general cemetery where his widow originally buried him.

Jara has been commemorated not only by Latin American artists, but also by global bands such as U2 and The Clash. Although most of the master recordings of Jara's music were burned under Pinochet's military dictatorship, his wife managed to get recordings out of Chile, which were later copied and distributed worldwide. Will never wash away It just keeps on turning A little redder every day As anger turns to hatred And hatred turns to guns Children lose their fathers.

As every cell in Chile will tell, the cries of the tortured men. Remember Allende in the days before, before the army came.

Please remember Victor Jara, in the Santiago Stadium. Es verdad, those Washington bullets again. Said to the gentle poet 'play your guitar now if you can. You can kill a man, but not a song when it's sung the whole world round. We won't forget Victor Jara's courage always fighting oppression They cut off his fingers and his tongue And right up to his death he shouted 'Revolution'. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. For the main-belt asteroid, see Victor Jara. This name uses Spanish naming customs: This section needs additional citations for verification.

Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. January Learn how and when to remove this template message. Archived from the original on Center for Justice and Accountability. Archived from the original on 6 October Retrieved 3 October Reuters in Santiago via The Guardian. Retrieved July 4, Music, Politics, and Nationalism in Latin America: Chile During the Cold War Era. The Trial of Henry Kissinger.



Retrieved 12 August Retrieved 20 July Official Florida court legal filing. Retrieved 23 July Retrieved 6 June Archived from the original on 17 October Retrieved 17 October Chile ex-army officer faces US trial". Retrieved 10 July Retrieved 19 November The New York Times , 18 June The New Song Movement in Chile, ".

Retrieved June 14, Guardian News and Media Limited, 5 December