In 1855, Victor Hugo, who had exiled himself from France because of what he proclaimed as the traitorous assumption of power by Louis Napoleon, settled at Hauteville House in Saint Peter Port in Guernsey, westernmost of the Channel Islands. There he stayed until 1870, writing three collections of poetry, one of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century,
Les Miserables(1862) and another,
Travailleurs de la Mer(1866), set in Guernsey and dedicated to the island where he had found refuge. In his only novel,
The Book of Ebenezer Le Page(published posthumously in 1981), Gerald Basil Edwards (1899-1976) wrote of the statue of Hugo, “a famous Frenchman who used to live in a big house up at Hauteville; but that was before my time. He wrote stories and poetry in French; but I haven’t…
1818 words
Citation: Pierce, Peter. "The Book of Ebenezer Le Page". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 15 November 2016 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35788, accessed 07 May 2024.]
