« Pour qu'enfin justice soit rendue à la femme »

Autograph letter signed by Victor Hugo to Léon Richer, two pages in black ink on a double sheet framed in black. Crosswise folds inherent to envelope inserting. A central tear at the junction of the two sheets. Published in Œuvres complètes de Victor Hugo (Ollendorff, 1905).
Manuscript housed in a blue half morocco chemise and slipcase, marbled paper boards, marbled paper slipcase, signed Boichot.

A magnificent and important letter to Léon Richer, one of the first male feminist activists, considered by Hubertine Auclert as the "father of feminism" and later regarded by Simone de Beauvoir as its "true founder". This deeply humanist text is a compendium of Victor Hugo's campaign for the abolition of capital punishment and the female attainment of social equality and civil rights.

« Mardi 7 novembre [1871]
Monsieur,
on m'a demandé d'urgence mon intervention pour les condamnés à mort. L'accomplissement de ce devoir a retardé ma réponse à votre excellente lettre. Vous avez raison de compter sur moi pour affirmer l'avenir de la femme. Dès 1849, dans l'Assemblée nationale, je faisais éclater de rire la majorité réactionnaire en déclarant que le droit de l'homme avait pour corollaires le droit de la femme et le droit de l'enfant. En 1853, à Jersey, dans l'exil, j'ai fait la même déclaration sur la tombe d'une proscrite, Louise Julien, mais cette fois on n'a pas ri, on a pleuré. Cet effort pour qu'enfin justice soit rendue à la femme, je l'ai renouvelé dans les Misérables, je l'ai renouvelé dans le Congrès de Lausanne, et je viens de le renouveler encore dans ma lettre au Rappel que vous voulez bien me citer. J'ajoute que tout mon théâtre tend à la dignification de la femme. Mon plaidoyer pour la femme est, vous le voyez, ancien et persévérant, et n'a pas eu de solution de continuité. L'équilibre entre le droit de l'homme et le droit de la femme est une des conditions de la stabilité sociale. Cet équilibre se fera. Vous avez donc bien fait de vous mettre sous la protection de ce mot suprême : l'Avenir.
Je suis, Monsieur, avec ceux qui comme vous veulent le progrès, rien que le progrès, tout le progrès.
Je vous serre la main.
Victor Hugo »

[ "Tuesday, november 7 [1871]

Sir,

I have been urgently asked to intervene on behalf of those sentenced to death. The fulfillment of this duty has delayed my reply to your excellent letter. You are right to count on me to defend the future of women. As early as 1849, in the National Assembly, I made the reactionary majority burst into laughter by declaring the rights of man as natural counterparts to the rights of woman and the rights of children. In 1853, in my Jersey exile, I made the same declaration on the grave of an outlaw, Louise Julien, but this time people didn't laugh, they wept. I renewed this effort to finally do justice to women in Les Misérables, I renewed it in the Congrès de Lausanne, and I've just renewed it again in my letter to Le Rappel, which you are kind enough to publish. I would add that every single one of my theatrical works aims to dignify women. As you can see, my plea for women is long-standing and persevering, and no other has ventured to continue with this endeavor. Balance between men's rights and women's rights is one of the conditions of social stability. This balance will be achieved. I commend you for placing yourself under the protection of this supreme word: the Future.
I am, Sir, with those who, like you, want progress, nothing but progress, the whole of progress.
I shake your hand.
Victor H”]

Although this letter focuses primarily on advocating for women's rights, it begins with the death penalty: “I have been urgently asked to intervene on behalf of those sentenced to death. The fulfillment of this duty has delayed my reply to your excellent letter”. Shortly after the Paris Commune, the October 1871 pages of Hugo's diary later published as Choses vues [Things Seen] are studded with names of members of the uprising to whom the "national poet" offered his support: notably Gustave Maroteau, poet and founder of the journal Père Duchesne, “sentenced to death for press offenses!” (Choses vues, 3 October 1871), then to "Louise Michel emprisoned at Versailles and in danger of being sentenced to death" (ibid, 5 October 1871). Hugo's repeated "interventions" over some months finally resulted in an eloquent column headlining the November 1, 1871 issue of Le Rappel ("and I've just renewed it again in my letter to Le Rappel, which you are kind enough to publish"), in which he called for amnesty for Communards – using all the devices of his famed eloquence and numerous historical examples. This was one of his most important political battles.

One of Hugo's other major campaigns concerned the emancipation of women and the reversal of the sexual double standard which prevailed in relations between the sexes: in a patriarchal Second Empire, he was one of the few male voices to speak out against Civil Code law holding women in a state of inferiority. This opinion is once again reaffirmed in the present letter where he takes stock of his literary and political career, and positions himself at the forefront of the struggle: “You are right to count on me to defend the future of women […] Balance between men's rights and women's rights is one of the conditions of social stability”
Regarding the place of women in his literary work, he particularly refers to theater: "I would add that every single one of my theatrical works aims to dignify women." It's true that heroines play a central and decisive role in his works. Although embodying relatively caricatured roles in dramas from his Romantic era (young and pure ingenues, victims of men's desire, or neglected married women), female characters become "women violated by social laws [...], poor women" (O. Bara) in theater plays written during his Guernsey exile.
The "poor woman" character is precisely one of the pillars of the plot in Les Misérables, also mentioned in our letter: “I renewed this effort to finally do justice to women in Les Misérables” Cosette, the heroine of this great social realist novel, was inspired by a courageous orphaned female figure – the outlaw Louise Julien who died of phthisis at the age of thirty-six. " In 1853, in my Jersey exile, I made the same declaration on the grave of an outlaw, Louise Julien, but this time people didn't laugh, they wept" To the best of our knowledge, the present letter is the only document directly linking Cosette to Louise Julien, this ill-fated 1848 revolutionary. Hugo wrote and delivered a eulogy at her tomb: "It is not a woman I venerate in Louise Julien, it's the woman; the woman of our times, the woman worthy of becoming a citizen; the woman as we see her around us, in all her devotion, in all her gentleness, in all her sacrifice, in all her majesty! Friends, in future times, in that beautiful, peaceful, fraternal, and social Republic of the future, the role of women will be great; but what a magnificent prelude to this role that such martyrdoms so valiantly endured!" (Actes et Paroles [Deeds and Words], II Pendant l'exil)
This long speech was immediately reported in the English press and should be placed in the context of Les Châtiments, his first collection of poems written in exile and completed very shortly before. It contains three superb poems dedicated to women of the Republic: "Pauline Roland", "Les Martyres" and "Aux femmes". The summer of 1853 marks Victor Hugo's first campaigns for feminism, both in his literary works and political stance after witnessing the courage of proscribed women in the face of misery, violence, and the general lack of concern from the government for their condition. Twenty years later, his reference to Louise Julien in our letter reiterates Hugo's unconditional commitment.
This missive to Léon Richer ends prophetically: “Balance between men's rights and women's rights is one of the conditions of social stability. This balance will be achieved. I commend you for placing yourself under the protection of this supreme word: the Future.” As Hugo was writing this letter, Richer's magazine Droit des femmes had changed its title for L'Avenir des femmes. In 1872, it launched a petition for women's civil rights, supported by several personalities including Hugo who sent Léon Richer a second letter of support: "I associate myself wholeheartedly with your useful demonstration. For forty years, I have been pleading the great social cause to which you nobly devote yourselves." (June 8, 1872) Our letter, much less well known but just as important as this one, bears witness to the beginnings of the collaboration between Victor Hugo and Léon Richer in the fight for women's rights and emancipation, representing an essential moment in the history of feminism.
Coming from a modest background and having lost his father at an early age, Léon Richer had to provide for his mother and sister. In an extremely patriarchal society "he had the opportunity to appreciate the injustices of the [Civil] Code towards women, and to witness on an almost daily basis, the legally committed infamies against these eternal minors which were fully sanctioned by the law; his conscience was then revolted" (R. Viviani, Cinquante-ans de féminisme: 1870-1920, 1921). This realization led him to found in 1869 the weekly journal Le Droit des femmes, to redress the exclusion of women from the male-defined law enshrined in the Code. The following year, he founded with Maria Deraismes the Association pour le droit des femmes (Association for Women's Rights) and became its president, as no woman was then allowed to create nor run an association. Maria Deraismes left the Association in 1882, launched the Ligue française pour le droit des femmes and appointed Victor Hugo as honorary president.
Beautiful letter and powerful testimony to the humanist struggle championed by one of the most dedicated writers in French literary history: “I am, Sir, with those who, like you, want progress, nothing but progress, the whole of progress.”