Victor Hugo's Women
The most prolific French writer was not only a leading political reformer and a closet artist. He was also a man who knew how to attract women and keep them happy: wife, mistresses, and one-night flings. The ones who suffered were his daughters.
In this course, we will learn about Victor Hugo’s wife Adèle, childhood friend, assistant, mother of his children; his life-long mistress, Juliette Drouet, who eventually was accepted by Adèle in an extraordinary triangulation; a multitude of other affairs, and how they affected the lives of his daughters.
When Léopoldine, the oldest, drowned tragically six months after her marriage, Hugo was heartbroken – though not heartbroken enough to keep him from sleeping with another man’s wife. Léopoldine’s death inspired some of Hugo’s most famous and eloquent works. It also caused hardship on her sister Adèle, who eloped to Canada and after much suffering, finished in an insane asylum.
Instructor: Christine Rolland, Ph.D. University of California, is a former Fulbright Scholar and Theodore Rousseau Travel Fellow of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Living in France since 1985, she is a member of GRHIS, a multidisciplinary research team at the University of Rouen, where she specializes in forgotten traveling painters and their networks.
Date: |
Thursday, May 29 |
Time: |
10:30-12:00 noon |
Code: |
AY291 |
Fee: |
20€ |
Place: |
WICE |
|
|
|
|
