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Picking on a heavyweight

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From: The Spectator
Date: 19971220
Author:Johnson, Douglas

VICTOR HUGO by Graham Robb Picador, L20, pp. 657

Victor Hugo was with his son in Jersey. He had been in his exile there since August 1852. Francois-Victor had just joined him. The winds were howling in the Channel and no one was stirring near Hugo's house outside St Helier. The son asks the father what he intends to do on the island. The father says that he will gaze at the ocean. Then there is silence. The father asks, `And you?' 'I,' says the son, 'I shall translate Shakespeare.' `It's the same,' says the father.

Dr Robb might well have had this conversation in mind when he decided to ...

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