The son of a general, Victor Hugo was confronted from childhood with the violent events of his time. This gave him the determination that men of the spirit should succeed men of the sword, which is why as a simple citizen, even of France, deputy, proscribed, or senator, he was always deeply a man of peace. This struggle had for him a purpose, to connect men to each other, as he writes in Philosophical Prose: Man made people, it is freedom; people made man, it is brotherhood. Freedom and fraternity combined is harmony. Harmony; more than peace. Men in peace are passive; men in harmony are active.”
The new exhibition of the Literary House of Victor Hugo aims to highlight the different facets of the peaceful action of the great man, presenting original editions, engravings, objects, letters and manuscripts on the subject, some exceptional since they have been classified as national treasures under the title of historical monuments.