21st April 2017
In the early 1860s Hugo completed and revised his novel Les Misérables, a work that he had started in the 1840s. As he wrote about Cosette, Eponine, Fantine, Gavroche, Javert… he could not help but observe the poor, the suffering, and the wretched all around him in Guernsey. He had an active compassion and tried to help. Part of the Victor Hugo and Guernsey project.
19th April 2017
From the Gazette de Guernsey, January-September 1808, the spelling exactly as it was published. The 18th January was the occasion of a ball at the Assembly Rooms. The plate is dated October 1807 and is from the Library Collection.
12th April 2017
A lucky ticket, From the Gazette de Guernesey, 6 April 1822. A parody of a piece of puff for the Guernsey Lottery, the poem may be the work of Dr James Tupper - 'Monsieur Toupar' - who is known to have written light-hearted poems in Guernsey French.
10th February 2017
'Guernsey's unvisited valley, where a water mill is working.' From Victor Coysh's scrapbook, and probably written by him, 1931. The wheel was demolished during the Occupation, but has since been restored by the National Trust of Guernsey.
3rd February 2017
In a MSS book in the Library (Staff). 'Sir Stafford Carey's MSS. Taken by the Smiths and, after being kept in an barn, handed over by them to Wilfred Carey. March 1921.'
23rd January 2017
October 1820. From a commonplace book in the Library, Flowers, from the Garden of Imagination. The compiler of the book is unknown, but there is a cipher on the flyleaf that appears to read 'FDC.' Another poem, To a Lady, is dated 'Guildford, August 2, 1817,' and has the legend, 'On her Friend's leaving Guildford for Ireland, where she is soon to join her.'
20th January 2017
The Governor of Guernsey to Mr Carey, concerning Newfoundland. From Chefs Plaids &c p. 88.
19th January 2017
Daniel Girard, Castle Porter, that is, prison warden/jailkeeper, lost his prisoner, George Pellew, who had been committed to his care by Jean Dobrée. Pellew owed Dobrée money. The Royal Court, under the auspices of the Juge-Délegué, William Le Marchant, had ruled on 8 March 1719 that Daniel Girard should not be required in any way to compensate Dobrée. Dobrée appealed to the Privy Council, who requested a report on precedents to the Royal Court. The following letter is what the Royal Court produced in reply; on reading it, the Privy Councillors confirmed the Royal Court's initial judgment and dismissed the appeal.
5th December 2016
Guernsey centenarians before Mrs Neve.
2nd December 2016
Two accounts of Victor Hugo's Christmas party for the poor children, from 1865, one from The Star, edited by John Talbot, and the other by E L Samuel, from the Daily Post. The illustration is an engraving (with suspiciously well-dressed children!) from Alfred Barbou's biography of Hugo, here in English translation, Victor Hugo and his time, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle, and Rivington, 1883; we also have the original French version in the Library. [D Bott]
8th November 2016
A new digital project based upon the book, Victor Hugo's Guernsey Neighbours, by Gregory Stevens Cox, MBE, MA (Oxon), Ph.D. The publication of the book was timed to coincide with the Victor Hugo in Guernsey Festival which took place in Guernsey in May, 2016. From this festival was born The Victor Hugo in Guernsey Society. The Festival celebrated the 150th anniversary of the publication of Victor Hugo's great novel, Les Travailleurs de la mer, or Toilers of the sea, which with its references to actual people and localities demonstrates a detailed knowledge of and interest in the island, and an understanding and empathy for Guernsey's culture and inhabitants, unparalleled until the publication of G B Edwards' Ebenezer Le Page in 1981. Hugo was not only influenced by Guernsey in writing this novel, however, but absorbed everything around him in his new home, and the legacy of Guernsey can be detected in every aspect of his life and work. The intention of this project, hosted by the Priaulx Library, is that it should collect and examine that island influence, and we welcome any contribution.
31st October 2016
From Thomas Gosselin's Livre des domestiques depuis 1811, in the Library collection.
