Collection of letters from Juliette Drouet to Victor Hugo, with some related material

  • This material is held at
  • Reference
      GB 206 Brotherton Collection MS Misc. Letters 1 Hugo
  • Dates of Creation
      ca. 1833-1883
  • Name of Creator
  • Language of Material
      French English
  • Physical Description
      3 boxes containing about 4,800 pages, manuscript, typescript, and printed material.

Scope and Content

Comprises about 475 autograph love letters from Juliette Drouet to Victor Hugo, together with numerous typed translations into English, 17 letters from other female admirers signed Adle, Marie, etc., 8 signed Claire, and miscellaneous letters and other memoranda, printed and manuscript, concerning Madame Drouet. All the letters are headed with the day and hour of writing, but a few are dated, 1851.

Administrative / Biographical History

Juliette Drouet (1806-1883) was the longstanding mistress of Victor Hugo (1802-1885), the French romantic poet.

Access Information

Access is unrestricted.

Acquisition Information

From the library of Lord Brotherton. The typescript catalogue of his collection contains detailed biographical information about Juliette Drouet.

Note

In French, but with many transcriptions in English.

Related Material

Much the largest collection of letters from Juliette Drouet to Victor Hugo (more than 16,000) is held by the Bibliothque Nationale, Paris. Other significant collections are held by the Maisons de Victor Hugo in Paris, Villequier, and Bivres, and by the Bibliothque Municipale de Fougres.

Bibliography

Doris Gunnell, "The unpublished letter of Juliette Drouet to Victor Hugo", in Microcosm, Vol.9, no.3 (1925), pp.133-141.