Estimate: $1,000 - $1,500
The Collection of Victor Niederhoffer part II
Auction: September 19, 2019 11:00:00 AM EDT
July 19, no year given [ca. 1860s]. 1 1/2 pp. on one folded 8vo sheet; with light creasing along folds. In double-pane frame with late 19th-century albumen photo portrait of Hugo. To an unnamed correspondent, discussing the recipient‘s translation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, [roughly and partly translated from the French]: ”I received in the mail Macbeth. You have undertaken there a great task and you have completed it nobly. There is nothing more difficult than translating verse! Shakespeare is highly estimable reading and you have shown yourself capable of it. I send you my deep thanks, sir. My son [François-Victor Hugo] can appreciate, better than anyone, the problems and difficulties involved. He would concur with my congratulations...”.
François-Victor Hugo (1828-1873), the fourth of the five children of Victor Hugo and his wife, Adèle Foucher, is best known for his translation of the works of William Shakespeare into French, which were published in 18 volumes between 1859 and 1866.