Exceptional ALS in French, one page, 5.25 x 8.25, August 20, 1851. Letter written from Paris and directed to a writer who supports his incarcerated son, in full (translated): "I leave words to my son. It is for him to tell you. It is for him to tell your honorable associates all that has meant to us the great act of sympathy which has come to-day to find him in the depths of his prison. You do better than make up for it; you glorify it. It will be the eternal honor of his life to have been the occasion of such a manifestation. This manifestation is more than a letter addressed by writers who are free to a writer who is oppressed; it is the line of alliance of all the forces of civilization converging henceforth towards a common end; it is the communion of two great peoples in a single idea of humanity. Receive, sir, and be pleased to transmit to your very honorable friends the expression of my lively cordiality and of my profound gratitude." A translation is affixed to the front of the second integral page, with the reverse bearing an affixed sheet. In fine condition.
In the early summer of 1851, Hugo's eldest son Charles, age 25, was arrested for writing critically about the death sentence of an executed man named Montcharmant. At his trial on June 11, Victor Hugo spoke spiritedly in his son's defense, but Charles was ultimately fined and sent to prison for six months. Later that same year, when Napoleon III restored the French monarchy and established an anti-parliamentary constitution, Hugo spoke out fearlessly against him and was forced to flee the country in exile, spending nearly two decades on the British isle of Guernsey where he would write Les Miserables.
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