St John's College N.30 (James 623)

Victor Hugo, Notebooks. French, 1856-60

 

Victor Hugo (1802-85): 'Carnets de Victor Hugo', rough working notebooks dating from his self-imposed exile in St Peter Port, Guernsey, containing many drafts and jottings, as well as a number of sketches after people and artefacts, some of the entries dated between 1856 and 1860. Typescript transcripts of and notes on these carnets, by Professor Jean-Bertrand Marie Barrère (1914-85), Fellow of St John's College, are preserved among Barrère's papers now held in the College Library. These papers also provide information on related Hugo notebooks elsewhere.

Manuscript extra information

95x150 mm. Foliated intermittently by the author, c. 64 fos in each vol. Once belonging to the bibliophile and collector of Hugo's works and MSS, Dr Lucien-Graux (Lucien Graux, 1878-1944) (small bookplate in each vol.), probably purchased by Professor Barrère from the Lucien-Graux sale at the Galerie Charpentier, 1957. Presented to the College by Barrère's widow, in 1986.

Autograph. Paper, in commercial blank 'metallic paper memorandum' notebooks (London, mid nineteenth-century). One carries the trade label of a Guernsey stationer, S. Barbet Jnr. Each notebook with a single clasp, one now defective. Now contained in a leather-bound slip case, presumably commissioned by Dr Lucien-Graux.