1802-1885

Juliette Drouet's Love-Letters to Victor Hugo : Edited with a Biography of Juliette Drouet In the first portion we present the biography of Juliette Drouet in the form of a series of synthetic tableaux, each tableau summarising several lustres of her life. We thus avoid the long-drawn-out narrative, year by year, of an existence devoid of incident or adventure. ? In the second, we publish those letters which strike us as peculiarly eloquent, witty, or lyrical. In the light shed upon them by the preliminary biography, they form, as one might say, its justification and natural sequel. ? At the outset of her liaison with the poet Juliette does not date her ?scribbles?; she merely notes the time of day and the day of the week, until about 1840; we have therefore been obliged to content ourselves with the classification effected by her in the collection of her manuscripts, and preserved by her executor. ? From 1840 she dated every sheet. Consequently our work simultaneously achieves more precision and certainty.