The following letter was written to Victor Hugo by his mistress Juliette Drouet. The two began their affair in 1833 after the production of Hugo’s play, Lucrezia Borgia, in which Drouet played the lead role of the murderous Princesse Négroni. … Continued
But victory did not come and neither did relief. I suppose the obsession to do oneself that old harm with all its aftereffects and menaces proved stronger, more powerful…
Thanks a million for the mescaline. Split it with Brion [Gysin] for a short trip home..
I think of you as my Mexican Zinnia. Others may have Mexicale Rose but you came in Zinnia time and I see three of them before me now, thoughtful in a quiet dreaminess.
Strange as you may think it, I find no longer any pleasure in such things, nor take any interest in going about among men. Whenever I try it, I fail utterly. I had rather be here at my work as long as the day continues; for the night cometh in which no man shall work.
I will make this remorseless villain loathe his own flesh in good time; he shall be cut down in his season; his pride shall be trampled into atoms; I will wither up his selfish soul by piecemeal.
I have written, what I like better than anything I have ever writ before, a thing called “The Nature of a Literary Man.” Perhaps, “Pym.” It expresses nothing but a series of individual impressions in “my latest style” and is crystal-clear.
…but I was a slave bound in a mill among beasts and devils; these beasts and these devils are now, together with myself, become children of light and liberty, and my feet and my wife’s feet are free from fetters.
List of Imitation Book-Backs: Five Minutes in China. 3 vols., Forty Winks at the Pyramids. 2 vols., Abernethy on the Constitution. 2 vols., Mr. Green’s Overland Mail. 2 vols…
Then again you must remember I don’t try to write for the public. I can’t. I haven’t that kind of intelligence. ‘To such as love this same beauty that I love somewhat after mine own fashion.’
