Adele Hugo
| Adèle Hugo | |
|---|---|
Adèle Hugo
|
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| Born | 28 July 1830 Paris, France |
| Died | 21 April 1915 (aged 84) Suresnes, France |
| Parent(s) |
Victor Hugo Adèle Foucher |
Adèle Hugo (28 July 1830 - 21 April 1915) was the fifth and youngest child of French writer Victor Hugo. She is remembered for developing schizophrenia as a young woman, which led to a romantic obsession with a British military officer who rejected her. Her story has been retold in film and books, such as The Story of Adele H.
Adèle Hugo was raised in a cultured, affluent home in Paris, the youngest child of Adèle (née Foucher) and Victor Hugo, France's most famous writer. Adèle enjoyed playing the piano, and was known for her beauty and long dark hair. She sat for portraits by several well-known Parisian artists. In 1851, the Hugo family moved to the island of Jersey, after Victor Hugo was forced into political exile. The family remained on the Channel Islands until 1870. It was in Jersey that Adèle met Albert Pinson, the object of her obsession.
Signs of mental illness became apparent in Adèle in 1856. Adèle became romantically involved with a British army officer, Albert Pinson. Pinson proposed marriage to Adèle in 1855, but she rejected the proposal. Adèle had a change of heart, wanting to reconcile with Pinson, but he refused to be involved any further with Adèle. Pinson continued his military career, being sent to the Sixteenth Foot Regiment in Bedfordshire in 1856, where he seldom saw Adèle. Pinson then went to Ireland in 1858, upon promotion to lieutenant, where he was stationed until 1861.
Despite Pinson's rejection, she continued pursuing him. Pinson developed a reputation for living a "life of debauchery". Adèle followed him when he was stationed to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada in 1863. Adèle's family worried for her well-being, and tried to track her whereabouts by letters:
Contemporary reports, given by those who may have had some contact with Adèle or who knew her personally, came from her lawyers Mr. Motton and Mr. Lenoir, her neighbors, the local sheriff, and the owner of a bookstore from whom she purchased writing supplies (Guille 132). It is from the document provided by the families with whom Adèle lived, the Saunders and the Mottons, that we have the greatest detail concerning her life during this three-year period. Mrs. Saunders's faithful correspondence with François-Victor in particular, permitted the Hugo family to be kept abreast of Adèle's health, her activities, and her visitors. Their correspondence spans not only the time during which Adèle was a lodger in the Saunders home, but also the time leading up to her departure from Halifax in December of 1866 when she resided with the Motton family two miles outside of town (Guille 100).
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