He can talk about it for hours. Certainly, in one go. HAS the height of all the energy deployed and time spent in search of truths. Pascal Casanova will also talk about it this January 9 at 6 p.m. in the exhibition hall. Romantic truths and lies, those of Victor Hugo in the Claude Gueux affair. HAS At the end of the conference, the professor of modern literature at the Sainte-Jeanne-d’Arc institute in Brignoles will dedicate his latest work, Between us…
“Pull a thread”
If he has a deep passion for George Sand, the lecturer at the University of Free Time in Toulon found inspiration in another illustrious writer. In one of these novels, more precisely, studied by his students: Claude Gueux. “I said to myself, something doesn’t add up. I had some elements but I’m like Saint Thomas, I wanted to see archival pieces.”
He collects and sorts hundreds of handwritten ones. “Just pull a little thread. Sometimes it doesn’t happen and then everything unravels.” The truth is emerging “between lies, additions, omissions, false testimony…” on a long way. It took him almost a year to prepare this presentation.
The result of a study
During this quest, he actually dives into history. “In 1829, Victor Hugo wrote The last day of a condemned man. The character came out of his imagination. It is a plea for the abolition of the death penalty, one of his fights.” Then in 1832, the Claude Gueux affair broke out. “Victor Hugo was certainly informed by reading the Court Gazette.” He decides to take up his pen more romantic than ever. “Too bad if he lies, if he cheats, if he cuts corners and if he forgets. Its goal is to convince readers: the death penalty must be abolished.”
“A victim of society”
Victor Hugo made of Claude Gueux “almost a saint, a victim of society. He assumes that he is a poor worker who steals to feed his wife and child.” For the writer, he found himself unjustly locked up in Clairvaux prison (Aube). “He writes that a cellmate named Albin shared his pittance with Claude Gueux. And claims that a certain MD whom he presents as the director of the workshops and a tyrant, separated them.”
On November 7, 1831, Claude Gueux murdered MD with several blows of an axe. Then he attempted suicide. His trial takes place in Troyes. “In this year 1832, he was the 13th condemned to death and guillotined.“ There will be a total of 34, including 2 women.
“Victor Hugo ends his novel with this sentence: ”This head of the common man, cultivate it, clear it, water it, fertilize it, enlighten it, moralize it, use it; you won’t need to cut it”. We can only feel compassion. But…“
Behind the scenes
The research, notably in the departmental archives of Aube, undertaken by Pascal Casanova brings to light the other side of this romantic setting. “Claude Gueux was a habitual criminal, a repeat thief since he was 14. He had already met MD in prison and attempted to assassinate him with a saber. And Victor Hugo knows it but does not want to talk about it, Claude Gueux had a homosexual relationship with Albin. The latter pushed him to kill MD who was far from being the person described in the novel (see elsewhere).“
Some opponents will be indignant at Victor Hugo “but posterity will keep the text as he wrote“.
Everyone is invited to delve even deeper into this matter this January 9.
Pascal Casanova, aged 57, holds numerous conferences, particularly as a specialist on George Sand. “I know it by heart.“ Forty years of passion, born in his childhood, “especially when I learned that she had passed through Le Revest where my grandparents lived“.
He had also given a presentation on the novelist at the Jean-Moulin college auditorium which was sold out.
The professor of modern literature has another string to his bow: writing. He is notably the author of George Sand and Juliette Adam, story of a friendship under the southern sun (2018) et George Sand, from one faith to another (2020).
In October, he published his latest work, published by Les Presses du Midi. Between us… It is made up of six of these academic lectures and a play. “Most of the lectures are devoted to George Sand and his entourage, but the first is on Victor Hugo. I wanted to dedicate it to Robert Badinter.“
A surprising encounter
The connection between celebrities is the 19th century. But another point in common exists between Jules Verne and George Sand. “The same week, same month and same year, George Sand comes out Laura, journey into the crystal and Jules Verne Journey to the center of the Earth. The two novels are similar: same characters, story and plot.“ Coincidence, plagiarism? The two writers did not know each other.
Pascal Casanova perce “this great mystery“ while conducting the investigation. “Jules Verne read the pre-publication of this novel by George Sand in the Revue des Deux Mondes then, immediately afterwards, wrote his own.“
George Sand “Don’t be mad at him. She was a big-hearted woman. They will agree and write beautiful letters to each other“. A surprising literary encounter is the subtitle of this conference.
“I had a huge surprise when I started preparing for this conference four years ago.“ While he is in class, Pascal Casanova receives a call but, of course, does not pick up. “When I arrive home, I listen to the message. It was Robert Badinter, former minister behind the abolition of the death penalty in France in 1981.“ The professor had contacted the senate to have access to certain archives. “He had an annex to the Senate and was president of the Friends of Victor Hugo association.“
He calls the former minister. “We stayed for twenty minutes talking. He sent me his autographed opera on Claude Gueux. He asked me how my research was progressing.“ Pascal Casanova then informed him of a discovery « extraordinaire“.
Albin, Claude Gueux’s prison companion, “got him drunk with a liter of brandy to push him to murder Mr. Delacelle“.
