Eugène PELLETAN

Printed proof with autograph inscription and autograph correction "Victor Hugo à l'Espagne" instead of "Victor Hugo et l'Espagne" of an article by Hugo written in Guernsey dated in the print "Hauteville House, 22 October 1868". Published in La Liberté (26 October 1868), with a dedication to Emile de Girardin ("à mon cher et grand ami") which does not yet appear in this preparatory broadside. Folds inherent to the elongated format of the sheet, a small tear on one letter without loss.

Proof enhanced with an autograph correction to the title and an exceptional autograph inscription signed to literary critic and later political polemicist Eugène Pelletan:  "A Eugène Pelletan Victor Hugo".  The writer addresses this appeal to republican Spain following the September Revolution, which had ended the despotic reign of Isabella of Aragon. Hugo nurtured immense hope that a Spanish republic could be decisive not only for the prosperity of the Spanish people but also for European peace and democracy.

Pelletan had himself signed a scathing article the previous month on the departure of the Queen of Spain in his newspaper La Tribune. The present broadside provides unprecedented proof that Victor Hugo reacted in the wake of Pelletan and read his republican appeal, which he reiterates here through his lyrical verve, characteristic of his political writings. Both men endured a violent barrage of criticism after the publication of their articles.