HUGO (Victor). Châtiments. Brussels, Henri Samuel... Lot 18

HUGO (Victor). Châtiments. Brussels, Henri Samuel et Cie, 1853. In-16, (4)-iii-(1 blank)-407-(1 blank) pp, garnet-red morocco, spine ribbed with black-tinted cold-stamped fillets, filleted edges, lining in the same leather framed with gilt lace, garnet-red silk end-papers, gilt edges, grey-green covers preserved, binding a little rubbed (M. Lortic) ORIGINAL EDITION, ONE OF THE DOUBLE REDACTED COPIES " DEVENUS RARES " (Marcel Clouzot). Châtiments was published in November 1853 in two different editions, both paid for by the publisher Jules Hetzel, then in exile in Brussels, and both printed in that city by the same typographer Henri Samuel. One, clandestine, printed at the fictitious address of Geneva and New York, offers the complete text, and the other, confessed, presents a version expurgated of a great part of the poems and of all the names of the people attacked by Hugo. Some copies, including this one, were further outraged by the censors, who had all the passages critical of Germany and Russia removed. Hugo was exiled after the coup d'état of December 2, 1851, and was the bad conscience of Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte's regime, which he fought without compromise until its fall. In 1852, he published a prose pamphlet, Napoleon the Lesser, and decided at the same time to compose the present poetic collection, which would be "the natural and necessary counterpart". Showing an incredible fertility, Hugo wrote several thousand verses from November 1852 to October 1853, playing between satire and epic all rhythms and all registers: song, dialogue scene, biblical poetry, parodies... A libel denouncing a state crime committed in a passive society, Châtiments is also the work through which Hugo discovered a prophetic soul. "With what superb elegance you speak of Châtiments!... "This is the first time that the author has ever written a work of art, and the first time that the author has ever written a work of art. Come and dine with me (Pavillon de Rohan, 172, r. Rivoli) tomorrow Tuesday, 8, 9bre, at 6.30 a.m., so that I can tell you how much I love you. Victor Hugo" (Paris, 7 November 1870). RETURNED FROM EXILE TWO DAYS AGO, VICTOR HUGO HAD PUBLISHED THE FIRST FRENCH EDITION OF THE CHÂTIMENTS ON OCTOBER 20, 1870, with Jules Hetzel. This enlarged edition met with phenomenal editorial success and, declared free of rights by its author, was the occasion of many public readings. One of these readings was organized on November 6, 1870 by the Société des gens de Lettres at the Porte-Saint-Martin theatre, and on November 7, Théodore de Banville gave a superb account of it in his dramatic chronicle in Le National. Provenance: Raymond Linard (bookplate).