Editing Victor Hugo (section)

==Personal life==
===Family===
[[File:Victor Hugo et ses petits-enfants Georges et Jeanne.jpg|thumb|right|Hugo with his grandchildren [[Jeanne Hugo|Jeanne]] and Georges, 1881]]

====Marriage====
Hugo married [[Adèle Foucher]] in October 1822. Despite their respective affairs, they lived together for nearly 46 years until she died in August 1868. Hugo, who was still banished from France, was unable to attend her funeral in Villequier, where their daughter Léopoldine was buried. From 1830 to 1837, Adèle had an affair with [[Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve|Charles-Augustin Sainte Beuve]], a reviewer and writer.<ref>
Foucher-Hugo Adèle, Victor Hugo raconté par Adèle Hugo, Plon, 1985, 861 p., {{ISBN|2259012884}}, p. 41.</ref>

====Children====
Adèle and Victor Hugo had their first child, Léopold, in 1823, but the boy died in infancy. On 28 August 1824, the couple's second child, [[Léopoldine Hugo|Léopoldine]], was born, followed by [[Charles Hugo (writer)|Charles]] on 4 November 1826, [[François-Victor Hugo|François-Victor]] on 28 October 1828, and [[Adèle Hugo|Adèle]] on 28 July 1830.

Hugo's eldest and favourite daughter, Léopoldine, died in 1843 at the age of 19, shortly after her marriage to Charles Vacquerie. On 4 September, she drowned in the [[Seine]] at [[Villequier]] when the boat she was in overturned. Her young husband died trying to save her. The death left her father devastated; Hugo was travelling at the time, in the south of France, when he first learned about Léopoldine's death from a newspaper that he read in a café.<ref>{{lang|fr|Victor Hugo, tome 1: Je suis une force qui va}} by Max Gallo, pub. {{lang|fr|Broché|italic=no}} (2001)</ref>
[[File:Léopoldine lisant, Adèle Foucher, 1837, dessin, 19,2 x 27 cm , Maison de Victor Hugo, Paris.png|thumb|Léopoldine reading. Drawing by her mother [[Adèle Foucher]], 1837]]
He describes his shock and grief in his famous poem "À Villequier":
{{Verse translation|lang=frm|
Hélas ! vers le passé tournant un œil d'envie,
Sans que rien ici-bas puisse m'en consoler,
Je regarde toujours ce moment de ma vie
Où je l'ai vue ouvrir son aile et s'envoler!

Je verrai cet instant jusqu'à ce que je meure,
L'instant, pleurs superflus !
Où je criai : L'enfant que j'avais tout à l'heure,
Quoi donc ! je ne l'ai plus !
|
Alas! My envious eye, turning toward the past,
Without anything else down here able to console me,
I look continually at that moment of my life
Where I saw her spread her wings and fly away!

I will see that instant until I die,
That instant, nothing beyond!
Where I cried: "The child I had a short time ago,
What! I have her no more!"
}}

He wrote many poems afterward about his daughter's life and death. His most famous poem is "Demain, dès l'aube" (Tomorrow, at Dawn), in which he describes visiting her grave.

===Exile===
{{Unreferenced section|date=June 2023}}
Hugo decided to live in exile after [[Napoleon III]]'s [[French coup d'état of 1851|coup d'état at the end of 1851]]. After leaving France, Hugo lived in Brussels briefly in 1851, and then moved to the [[Channel Islands]], first to Jersey (1852–1855) and then to the smaller island of Guernsey in 1855, where he stayed until Napoleon III's fall from power in 1870. Although Napoleon III proclaimed a general amnesty in 1859, under which Hugo could have safely returned to France, the author stayed in exile, only returning when Napoleon III was removed from power by the creation of the [[French Third Republic]] in 1870, as a result of the French defeat at the [[Battle of Sedan]] in the [[Franco-Prussian War]]. After the [[Siege of Paris (1870-71)|Siege of Paris]] from 1870 to 1871, Hugo lived again in Guernsey from 1872 to 1873, and then finally returned to France for the remainder of his life. In 1871, after the death of his son Charles, Hugo took custody of his grandchildren [[Jeanne Hugo|Jeanne]] and Georges-Victor.

===Other relationships===
====Juliette Drouet====
[[File:Maison de Victor Hugo Juliette Drouet Champmartin 27122012.jpg|thumb|150px|right|Juliette Drouet]]
From February 1833 until her death in 1883, [[Juliette Drouet]] devoted her whole life to Victor Hugo, who never married her even after his wife died in 1868. He took her on his numerous trips and she followed him in exile on [[Guernsey]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Victor Hugo's House in Pasaia – European Romanticisms in Association|date=23 April 2020 |url=http://www.euromanticism.org/victor-hugos-house-in-pasaia/|access-date=17 December 2020|language=en}}</ref> There Hugo rented a house for her near [[Hauteville House]], his family home. She wrote some 20,000 letters in which she expressed her passion or vented her jealousy on her womanizing lover.<ref>Guillemin, Henri, ''Hugo'', Seuil, 1978, 191 p. {{ISBN|2020000016}}, p. 55.</ref>
On 25 September 1870 during the [[Siege of Paris (1870–71)|Siege of Paris]] (19 September 1870 – 28 January 1871) Hugo feared the worst. He left his children a note reading as follows:

"J.D.
She saved my life in December 1851. For me she underwent exile. Never has her soul forsaken mine. Let those who have loved me love her. Let those who have loved me respect her.
She is my widow."
V.H.<ref>Seghers, Pierre, ''Victor Hugo visionnaire'', Robert Laffont, 95 p., {{ISBN|2221010442}}, p. 10.</ref>

====Léonie d'Aunet====
For more than seven years, Léonie d'Aunet, who was a married woman, was involved in a love relationship with Hugo. Both were caught in adultery on 5 July 1845. Hugo, who had been a Member of the [[Chamber of Peers (France)|Chamber of Peers]] since April, avoided condemnation whereas his mistress had to spend two months in prison and six in a convent. Many years after their separation, Hugo made a point of supporting her financially.<ref>Hugo, Victor, Choses vues 1849–1885, Gallimard, 1972, 1014 pp., {{ISBN|2070402177}}, p. 857 (17 Sep 1876).</ref>

====Others====
Hugo gave free rein to his libido until a few weeks before his death. He sought a wide variety of women of all ages, be they courtesans, actresses, prostitutes, admirers, servants or revolutionaries like [[Louise Michel]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=Robb |first=Graham |title=Victor Hugo: A Biography |date=17 May 1999 |publisher=[[W. W. Norton & Company]] |isbn=978-0393318999 |pages=558 |language=en}}</ref> for sexual activity. He systematically reported his casual affairs using his own code, as [[Samuel Pepys]] did, to make sure they would remain secret. For instance, he resorted to Latin abbreviations (''osc.'' for kisses) or to Spanish (''Misma. Mismas cosas'': The same. Same things). Homophones are frequent: ''Seins'' (Breasts) becomes Saint; ''Poële'' (Stove) actually refers to ''Poils'' (Pubic hair). Analogy also enabled him to conceal the real meaning: A woman's ''Suisses'' (Swiss) are her breasts—because Switzerland is renowned for its milk. After a rendezvous with a young woman named ''Laetitia'' he would write ''Joie'' (Happiness) in his diary. If he added ''t.n.'' (''toute nue'') he meant she stripped naked in front of him. The initials ''S.B.'' discovered in November 1875 may refer to [[Sarah Bernhardt]].<ref>Hugo, Victor, ''Choses vues'' 1870–1885, p. 529, {{ISBN|2070361411}}, pp. 371, 521 (n. 1).</ref>