"Vous savez comme on vous aime ici": Victor Hugo and the family physician Émile Allix
Autograph letter signed ("V.").
Small 12mo (97 x 62 mm). 2 pp. and 2 lines on bifolium. In French.
€ 1,500.00
Charming, highly interesting letter, almost certainly written to his physician and close friend Émile Allix (1836-1911), concerning an inscribed copy of Hugo's latest publication, most likely the illustrated second edition of the poetry collection "L'Année terrible" (Michel Lévy frères, 1873), and inviting Allix to accompany Hugo's son François-Victor and his daughter-in-law Alice Lehaene (1847-1927) on their upcoming visit to Hauteville House in Guernsey. The translated letter in full: "I am sending you this provisional frontispiece for your copy; you can use it to collect the volume from Michel Lévy. When we meet again, I shall inscribe your name and mine to the first page. This is only for the time being. I have not even sent any of these provisional frontispieces to Victor and Alice. I prefer inscribing the actual copy when I see them. Will you be so kind to tell them, because I wrote to them yesterday, and I forgot this detail. Alice wrote me that they were coming soon. I think the change of air will do my Victor good. Oh, how kind you would be to bring them to me! What a sweet spring and summer we'd have! - Think about it, dear charming doctor, I send you all the effusions of my old heart. You know how much we love you here".
In a short postscript, Hugo asks about the mutual friend and physician to his wife Adèle Alexandre Axenfeld (1825-76) and expresses his hopes that the health of François-Victor was improving: "Comment va Axenfeld. Je sais que Victor va de mieux en mieux".
Tragically, François-Victor Hugo would die of pulmonary tuberculosis at the end of the year on 26 December 1873, aged 45.
Well preserved.
