Hugo, Victor. (1802 - 1885)
Religions et religion - INSCRIBED TO HIS SISTER
Paris: Calmann Lévy. 1880. Dixieme edition. Softcover volume contained in a modern cloth box. 8vo. 141 pp. An important copy, inscribed and signed with his paraph by the author to his sister-in-law, the younger sister of Adele Foucher, Julie Chenay (1822-1905): "A ma chère et gracieuse soeur Julie. V." Various tears to the front wrapper, chipping to fragile paper spine, areas of heavy foxing throughout, the outer box in fine condition.A non-practicing Catholic, Hugo expressed his anti-Catholic and anti-clerical views in a number of published works, including the present one which is essentially a long verse attack on organised religion. Hugo's antipathy towards the Roman Catholic Church in particular stemmed largely from what he saw as the Church's indifference to the plight of the working class under the oppression of the monarchy; and perhaps also due to the frequency with which Hugo's work appeared on the Pope's list of "proscribed books" (Hugo counted 740 attacks on Les Misérables in the Catholic press). On the deaths of his sons Charles and François-Victor, he insisted that they be buried without crucifix or priest, and in his will made the same stipulation about his own death and funeral. (8626)
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