‘An unbearable smell emanated from the bed. I lifted the coverlet and took Balzac’s hand. It was drenched with sweat. I pressed it. He did not respond to the pressure.’
Victor Hugo, Choses vues, posthumous publication, 1887
This wrenching passage written by Hugo upon his last visit to Balzac’s illustrated the friendship that bound these two titans of literature. Following the death of the Comédie humaine author, Hugo delivered a moving homage expressing his admiration at the Père Lachaise cemetery.
Balzac did not much care for Victor Hugo’s novels but enjoyed his work as a poet and playwright. Their relationship was not without rough patches, though, as for instance when Balzac wrote a virulent review of Hernani or denounced a ‘rare accumulation of improbabilities.’
Notwithstanding, the two men had great respect for one another. Hugo is one of the rare authors to have sustained a long correspondence with Balzac, who dedicated to Hugo his masterpiece Illusions perdues. And Hugo was one of the few supporters of Balzac in his fruitless attempts to become a member of the Académie Française.
