Strohl, Hugo GerhardBiblio.com
Théophile Gautier. Notice littéraire précédée d'une lettre de Victor Hugo
185968622Paris: Poulet Malassis & De Broise 1859. Fine. Baudelaire and Hugo: The Storm-Swept Meeting of the Albatross and the Man of the Ocean Poulet Malassis & De Broise Paris 1859 11.50 x 18 cm relié First edition of which only 500 copies were issued. With an etched frontispiece portrait of Théophile Gautier by Émile Thérond. With a substantial prefatory letter by Victor Hugo. Full red morocco binding gilt date at the foot of spine marbled endpapers Baudelairian ex-libris from Renée Cortots collection on the first endpaper wrappers preserved top edge gilt. Pale foxing affecting the first and last leaves beautiful copy perfectly set. Rare handwritten inscription signed by Charles Baudelaire: À mon ami Paul Meurice. Ch. Baudelaire. To my friend Paul Meurice. Ch. Baudelaire. In addition we have mounted on a guard an autograph ex-dono slip by Victor Hugo addressed to Paul Meurice. This slip which was doubtless never used had nevertheless been prepared along with several others by Victor Hugo in order to present his friend with a copy of his works published in Paris during his exile. If History did not allow Hugo to send this volume to Meurice this presentation note hitherto unused could not in our view be more fittingly associated. Provenance: Paul Meurice then Alfred and Renée Cortot. This exceptional inscription from Charles Baudelaire to Paul Meurice the true surrogate brother of Victor Hugo bears witness to a singular literary encounter between two of the most important French poets Hugo and Baudelaire. Paul Meurice was indeed the indispensable intermediary between the condemned poet and his illustrious exiled counterpart for asking Victor Hugo to associate their names with this elegy to Théophile Gautier was one of Charles Baudelaires great audacities and would scarcely have had any chance of succeeding without the invaluable assistance of Paul Meurice. Ghost-writer to Dumas author of Fanfan la Tulipe and the theatrical adaptations of Victor Hugo George Sand Alexandre Dumas and Théophile Gautier Paul Meurice was a gifted writer who chose to remain in the shadow of the great artists of his time. His unique relationship with Victor Hugo nevertheless granted him a decisive role in literary history. More than a friend Paul together with Auguste Vacquerie stood in place of Victor Hugos deceased brothers: I have lost my two brothers; he and you you and he you replace them; only I was the younger; I have become the elder that is the only difference. It was to this brother of the heart whose wedding he witnessed alongside Ingres and Dumas that the exiled poet entrusted his literary and financial affairs and it was he whom Hugo named together with Auguste Vacquerie as his executor. After the poets death Meurice founded the Maison Victor Hugo which remains today one of the most celebrated writers house-museums. In 1859 Pauls home had become the Parisian antechamber to Victor Hugos Anglo-Norman retreat and Baudelaire therefore turned quite naturally to this official ambassador. Baudelaire knew Meurice well ever since an earlier intercession on his behalf with Hugo had earned him an exceptional copy of Les Fleurs du mal as a testament of friendship. The two men also shared a close friend Théophile Gautier with whom Meurice had worked from 1842 on an adaptation of Falstaff. Meurice thus stood as the ideal intermediary through whom to secure the goodwill of the otherwise inaccessible Hugo. Baudelaire had however already met Victor Hugo briefly. At the age of nineteen he sought an audience with the greatest modern poet to whom he had been devoted since childhood: I love you as one loves a hero a book as one loves purely and disinterestedly every beautiful thing. Even then he imagined himself as a worthy successor as he half-confesses: At nineteen would you have hesitated to write as much to . Chateaubriand for instance For the young apprentice poet Victor Hugo belonged to the past and Baudelair Poulet Malassis & De Broise unknown
