I gave a first reading of texts and poems by Victor Hugo in front of an audience in June 2021, in the gardens of the Chateaubriand house. Contrary to the phrase by André Gide, a fine analyst, “Who is the greatest French poet? Victor Hugo, alas,” for me there are dazzling moments in Victor Hugo’s writings that go beyond a gifted craftsman, and the joys of writing that arise from his highly fertile creative output.

Alongside the show La Fontaine et le confinement that I have been performing since 2022, I wanted to return to this more pared-back exercise to offer the public a pure reading of texts, notably the sublime Booz endormi (Boaz Asleep), which Marcel Proust described as the most beautiful poem of the 19^th century, poems about the death of his daughter, and comments from writers such as Charles Baudelaire and Charles Péguy on Victor Hugo. The reading begins at the time of his exile to Jersey and Guernsey, and notably evokes the death of his daughter Léopoldine.

I dedicate this reading to the director Sophie Fillières, who passed away in the summer of 2023, with whom I had the immense of preparing a film about Victor Hugo.

Fabrice Luchini.

Texts and poems
Victor Hugo as seen by Charles Péguy and Charles Baudelaire.

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