+shopthebookworm Posted February 25, 2011 Report Share Posted February 25, 2011 Celebrate a great classic writer today with Buy one get one 50% in classics today! You most likely know him for his one book/play but there was so much more.... Victor Hugo was devastated when his oldest and favorite daughter, Léopoldine, died at age 19 in 1843, shortly after her marriage. She was drowned in the Seine at Villequier, pulled down by her heavy skirts, when a boat overturned. Her young husband died trying to save her. Victor Hugo was traveling with his mistress at the time in the south of France, and learned about Léopoldine's death from a newspaper as he sat in a cafe.[1] He describes his shock and grief in his poem À Villequier: Hélas ! vers le passé tournant un oeil d'envie, Sans que rien ici-bas puisse m'en consoler, Je regarde toujours ce moment de ma vie Où je l'ai vue ouvrir son aile et s'envoler ! Je verrai cet instant jusqu'à ce que je meure, L'instant, pleurs superflus ! Où je criai : L'enfant que j'avais tout à l'heure, Quoi donc ! je ne l'ai plus ! Alas! turning an envious eye towards the past, unconsolable by anything on earth, I keep looking at that moment of my life when I saw her open her wings and fly away! I will see that instant until I die, that instant—too much for tears! when I cried out: "The child that I had just now-- what! I don't have her any more!" He wrote many poems afterwards about his daughter's life and death, and at least one biographer claims he never completely recovered from it. His most famous poem is probably Demain, dès l'aube, in which he describes visiting her grave. Link to post Share on other sites
+shopthebookworm Posted February 25, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 25, 2011 Just added more books to the shelf! Hurry! Link to post Share on other sites
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