[Manuscript]. HUGO (Victor) (1802-1885). Autograph letter si - Lot 143

[Manuscript]. HUGO (Victor) (1802-1885). Autograph letter signed "Victor Hugo". Hauteville-House, November 2, 1862, to "Monsieur" [Ernest HAMEL (1826- 1898), French lawyer, writer, historian and politician]. 2 pp. bifeuillet in-8°. The poet congratulates HAMEL on his work on Marie-Tudor [Marie la Sanglante, histoire de la grande réaction catholique sous Marie Tudor, précédée d'un Essai sur la chute du catholicisme en Angleterre, Paris, Poulet-Malassis, 1862, 2 vols.]: "I have read your history of Marie la Sanglante. It's one of those excellent works that are both books of science and books of combat. You belong to the sacred legion of useful thinkers. Your words are full of fruit. HUGO praises his qualities as a historian, and alludes to HAMEL, the democrat opposed to NAPOLEON III, author of Histoire de Saint-Just, a deputy to the National Convention that was pilloried by the imperial police in 1859: "One senses in each of your pages the frank firmness of a philosopher. [You are worthy of rehabilitating the Saint Just and judging the Marie Tudor. HUGO himself had written a drama dedicated to this Queen of England, Marie Tudor, in 1833. As for HAMEL, he had published a Victor Hugo, Paris, Imprimerie de L. Tinterlin L. Tinterlin, 1860, 35 p. Interesting letter between two men who held each other in high esteem, both politically and literarily. Missing from the Correspondance, Imprimerie Nationale edition.