Seduction

Author’s Note

Pablo Picasso said, “Art is the lie that tells the truth.” Whenever possible in this novel, I’ve told the truth in order to tell my lie.

I am indebted to the truths I learned in Graham Robb’s Victor Hugo: A Biography as well as Conversations with Eternity: The Forgotten Masterpiece of Victor Hugo by Victor Hugo, John Chambers, and Martin Ebon.

So much about Victor Hugo’s life is as it appears in this book. His beloved daughter did drown, and he did discover the news of her death as I’ve described. He belonged to a hashish club with Dumas and Baudelaire. He exiled himself to the Isle of Jersey and lived at Marine Terrace. Descriptions of his daily regimes, his wife, his mistress, how he wrote, his family life, his pets, his beliefs in reincarnation and his engagement in more than one hundred séances are all based on his letters and conversations he himself transcribed. The séances began because he desperately wanted to know his daughter was at peace. They continued because, as he said, he became obsessed with the spirit world.

Victor Hugo claimed to have “spoken” with all the entities I mention in the book-including Jesus, Napoleon, Dante, Shakespeare and especially the spirit he called the Shadow of the Sepulcher. Hugo maintained that the Shadow asked him to write a poem to restore his reputation as an enlightened creature instead of an evil force, and indeed in 1859, Hugo wrote “La Fin de Satan” (The End of Satan).

And that’s where the facts end and my fiction picks up. The particular bargain that my Shadow offered Hugo is not recorded anywhere. Fantine Gaspard is also my invention. Hugo’s mistress was indeed installed in a house within walking distance of his family home, and Juliette did have servants, but who they were is unknown.

“The Body Electric” by Anne Downey does appear online, and she and her group were hit by lightning in the manner described.

Jersey itself is rendered as close as possible through the help of my amazing guide and wonderful photographer, Peter Webb. If you find yourself traveling to the Channel Islands, hire him and have him show you the mysterious caves and sights of the lovely and haunting island I’ve hardly done justice to in this book.

The Celts inhabited Jersey centuries ago; visual proof of it is everywhere you look. The dolmens and menhirs and passage graves I describe are for the most part the ones that actually exist. These Neolithic monuments have been dated as far back as 4800 BCE. Sadly human sacrifice was practiced by these spiritual people in a time very different from ours.

What we discover in Hugo’s cave is invented. But the photograph that gives Jac her clue about where that cave might be is real-Hugo’s son took that picture of his father, and it remains one of the most evocative portraits of the great writer, poet and statesman. Hugo was a genius-one of the most creative and important writers of his time, perhaps of all time, and he’s not only been a very gracious host for the last few years, but a very, very great inspiration.