Victor Hugo, 'Les Contemplations' A by Professor Florence Naugrette

A lecture in English by Professor Florence Naugrette of Sorbonne-Universite, at Elizabeth College, Guernsey. Anyone is welcome, children and students under 25 go free. Tickets are available from Eventbrite (see above for link). Reduced price for members of the Victor Hugo in Guernsey Society.

The best-loved poem in France, 'Tomorrow at dawn', comes from a collection of poetry by Victor Hugo, 'Les Contemplations', published in 1856 while he was in Guernsey. Haunted by his separation from his daughter, who had died and so remained behind in France, and from his homeland by his exile, his concept was of a book dedicated to his family, his relatives, his friends, the dead, nature, and the unknown. He structured it and its interaction with the reader in the form of a scrapbook: as a sort of herbarium, a marriage or death register, an inventory of photographs and of autographs, providing a moral guide to conversation, to giving voice to the other, and to gratitude.

Hanté par le double éloignement de sa fille (morte, donc restée en France) et de sa patrie (dont le prive l’exil), Hugo conçoit Les Contemplations, publiées depuis Guernesey en 1856, comme un livre adressé : à la famille, aux proches, aux amis, aux morts, à la nature, à l’inconnu. Par sa structure et son interlocution, se présente comme un album à feuilleter : herbier, registre (de mariage ou de deuil), catalogue de photographies ou de dédicaces, il délivre une éthique de la conversation, de la délégation de parole et de la gratitude.