Do not tell me you have ever seen a more bewitchingly frail image of a writer in infancy than this engraving, "The Birth of Victor Hugo", of 1881, from the collections of the municipal library of Besançon, where the future classic of world…

Do not tell me you have ever seen a more bewitchingly frail image of a writer in infancy than this engraving, "The Birth of Victor Hugo", of 1881, from the collections of the municipal library of Besançon, where the future classic of world literature came into the world on 26 February 1802. The infant Victor looks so tiny for good reason: he was born very weak, and everyone supposed that the child would not live three days; his mother did not part from him day or night until he showed some sign of hope. Hugo himself spoke of his birth brilliantly in an autobiographical poem: this century was two years old...