HUGO (Victor).

Lot 41
Go to lot
Estimation :
12000 - 15000 EUR
HUGO (Victor).
Mary Tudor. Second edition. Paris, Eugène Renduel, 1833. In-8, bright red morocco, boards entirely and richly decorated with a cold roulette in frame, gilt fillets and a large plate decorated with an oval medallion with middle in reserve and large scrolls in the corners, smooth spine decorated in long with gilt motifs, gilt fillets inside, gilt edges, modern case (Binding of the time). Second edition, published the same year as the original. It is decorated with a beautiful etched frontispiece by Célestin Nanteuil. A precious copy offered by Victor Hugo to Mademoiselle George, one of the glories of the theatre of the time, creator of the title role. It bears on the false title this autograph letter: To Mademoiselle George, homage from the author, Victor H. (mailing slightly trimmed). The play was first performed on November 6, 1833 at the Porte-Saint-Martin theatre. Its success was mixed: it is said that the final scene was hissed at the premiere and that Hugo's name was even booed - a first on the stage. Jules Janin however gives a laudatory opinion: In her role of Marie Tudor, Mademoiselle George was filled to overflowing with violence, anger, tenderness, and anger. It was even one of the roles [she] understood wonderfully. Insolence and irony, brutal passion and disdain for women have never spoken a more beautiful language. True to his reputation as the bête noire of the Romantics, the critic Gustave Planche published a very scathing article on Marie Tudor; his very negative judgement of the performance of Juliette Drouet, who was playing the role of Jane, the Queen's rival, was at the time very badly received by the actress and her lover: 'The severest and fairest judgment I can make of Mlle. Juliette is that she did not act; for I must count for nothing the assiduous movement of her shoulders, nor the perpetual prayer which her eyes addressed to heaven. She was not bad, she was lousy (Revue des deux mondes, 1833, t. IV, p. 465). Quoted by Carteret, the copy is presented in a brilliant decorated binding of the period. From the libraries of Jules Claretie (1918, n°680), André Lefèvre (II, 1965, n°343) and Daniel Sickles (I, 1989, n°94, binding reproduced). A facsimile of a note from Mademoiselle George to the great Talma is attached (one page in-12 oblong).
My orders
Sale information
Sales conditions
Return to catalogue