Victor HUGO (1802-1885). L.A.S., Friday 20 [June 1828], to E - Lot 197

Victor HUGO (1802-1885). L.A.S., Friday 20 [June 1828], to Ernest FOUINET; 3pages in-8, addressed (recipient's name cancelled). He thanks you for a fine gift: "You have often rendered in free and severe verse details of a technical nature that are quite unapproachable. The Orient inspires you with dignity: you have drawn a fine poem from this broad source of poetry. The Oriental fragments you have sent me are singularly remarkable. It's like sailing through poetry". He has only read one of his correspondent's two novels, La Seconde Vue: "It's a prodigiously interesting little drama. The smallest details are Scottish, as if you were old, and grew old in Scotland, and in the Hebrides. Your young visionary is beautiful"... Hugo cites some "striking scenes" and admits: "I like dramas that turn short on catastrophe. That's what I do too little of"... [Ernest FOUINET (1799-1845) provided Hugo with several fragments translated from Arabic and Persian, quoted in notes to Les Orientales].