Hauteville House is a house where Victor Hugo lived during his exile from France, located at 38 Rue Hauteville in St. Peter Port in Guernsey. In March 1927, the centenary year of Romanticism, Hugo's descendents Jeanne, Jean, Marguerite et François donated the house to the City of Paris. It currently houses an honorary consul to the French embassy at London and a Victor Hugo museum; house and garden are both open to the public.
Built around 1800 by an English privateer, the house came into the possession of William Ozanne. It gained the reputation of being haunted by the spirit of a woman who had committed suicide, and remained unoccupied for several years. Victor Hugo bought the house on 16 May 1856 with the revenues from the initial success of the publication of Les Contemplations. By owning it Hugo ensured that he could not be expelled from the island as Guernsey law prohibits the deporting of people with property on the island.
Hugo transformed, furnished and decorated the house during his exile from 1856 to 1870, and during a return visit in the summer of 1878. He named the house "Hautville", rather than Liberté, which had been his original intention. The house consists of four levels, with the top floor featuring a glazed lookout with a view of Saint Peter Port, Herm and Sark, and the islands near them. The garden is filled with trees and flowers that grow abundantly due to the mild climate.
Famous quotes containing the word house:
“The door is opening. A man you have never seen enters the room.
He tells you that it is time to go, but that you may stay,
If you wish. You reply that it is one and the same to you.
It was only later, after the house had materialized elsewhere,
That you remembered you forgot to ask him what form the change would take.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)