UK archivist says uncovers real-life Quasimodo

LONDON (Reuters Life!) – A British archivist believes he has uncovered the real-life inspiration for French novelist Victor Hugo's mysterious character Quasimodo, the deformed bell ringer of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris.

Adrian Glew, who works on the Tate collection's archives in London, was studying the seven-volume handwritten autobiography of 19th century British sculptor Henry Sibson when he came across a reference to a Frenchman whose nickname was "le bossu," or hunchback.

It's been over a year since someone posted the reference to the OED citing Hugo's origination of the word coleslaw.

I discovered I do have access to the online OED through my local library, here's the direct quote:

Sliced cabbage dressed with salt, pepper, vinegar, etc., eaten either raw or slightly cooked. 1794 Massachusetts Spy 12 Nov. (Th.), A piece of sliced cabbage, by Dutchmen ycleped cold slaw. 1822 J. F. COOPER Spy II. ii. 32 Potatoes, onions, beets, cold-slaw, rice, and all the other minutiæ of a goodly dinner. 1862 tr. Hugo's Misérables III. 499 To leave my whole plateful without touching it! My coleslaugh which was so good. 1871 Lippincott's Mag. Feb. (De Vere), Coldslaw apparently cut with a harrow.  1886 MRS. RORER Philad. Cook Bk. 241 Cold Slaw, 1 quart of cut cabbage, etc... Serve when very cold.

So it appears, while not the first usage, that Wilbour's translation of Hugo was the first to spell it 'cole' instead of 'cold'.  Though, as someone pointed out in the earlier thread, it was probably a mistranslation.

I found two words that can be credited to Hugo in a way, in that they are derived from his characters

1) Gavroche
[Fr., f. the name of a gamin in Victor Hugo's Les Misérables.] 

    A street urchin or gamin, esp. in Paris.

Other OED references to Hugo

Bedazzlement:

The fact of being bedazzled; the action of bedazzling. 1806 KNOX & JEBB Corr. I. 295 To the bepuzzlement of the ignorant, and the bedazzlement of the superficial. 1877 V. Hugo's Miserables II. lxxix, All the other historians suffer with a certain bedazzlement in which they grope about.

Befeather

 trans. To deck with feathers. Hence befeathered ppl. a.  1611 COTGR., Emplumer..befeather..to dresse with feathers. 1635 QUARLES Emblems III. i. 33 (D.) Her dove-befeathered prison. c1850 tr. V. Hugo's Hunchback I i. 1 Some bedizened and befeathered embassy.

Begirding

That begirds or encloses all round. 1877 F. C. L. WRAXALL Hugo's Miserables V. xviii. 11 The masonry of the begirding drain.

Carry

55. carry through. trans. To conduct or bring safely through difficulties, or a crisis; to prosecute to the natural end.
Eden

Hence Edenic (idnk), a., of or pertaining to Eden; Edenize v. trans., to make like Eden; to admit into Eden or Paradise; Edenized ppl. a., Edenization.

Here's the text of an article that appeared in the New York Times on April 18, 1875:

The Society for the Improvement of the Condition of Women have sent an address to Victor Hugo appealing to him in the name of right, to lend the aid of his valuable voice. The poet replies in the following characteristic letter:

MESDAMES: I have received your address, which does me honor. I am aware of your noble and legitimate demands. In our society, such as it has been made woman suffers. She is right to claim a better fate. I myself am only a conscience, but I understand your rights, and to obtain them is one of the duties of my life. You are, therefore, not wrong to rely on my good-will and assistance. Man was the problem of the eighteenth century; woman is the problem of the nineteenth. And who says woman, says child -- that is, the future. The question thus put appears in all its profundity, and on its solution depends the fate of the supreme social battle. What a strange and anomalous situation! In reality, man depends on you, for woman holds the heart of man. Before the law she is a minor, incapable, without civil action, without political right -- in short, she is nothing; before the family altar she is everything, because she is the mother. The domestic hearth is what she makes it; at home she is the mistress of good and ill. Sovereignty complicated by oppression; woman can do all against man, but nothing for herself. It is imprudent of the law to make her so weak when she is so strong. Let us recognize that weakness and protect it; let us recognize that strength and counsel it. There lies the duty of man, and there is also his interest. No, I shall never cease to say it, the problem is laid down, and it must be solved. She who bears half the burden ought to have half the right. Half of the human race is deprived of equality; it must be given to them. This will be one of the grand glories of our grand century. Let the right of woman counterbalance the right of man -- that is to say, let the laws be placed in conformity with the morals and manners of the country. Accept, mesdames, my respects.

On this 122nd anniversary of Hugo's death, I thought I'd share the cover of a 1950s German translation of "Gavroche" (Gavroche's story told through excerpts from the novel).  The name of the artist is Kurt Zimmermann.



I'm in the process of setting up a gallery of images I've found, many from scanned books in Google Books. (The above isn't there as I'm pretty sure it's not public domain yet.)

I have found an 1899 reference to the Confederate Soldiers reading Les Miserables and referring to it as Lee's Miserables. Pickett and His Men, by Lasalle Corbell Pickett (the widow of General Pickett). The section of the memoir contains a glowing account of how much the written word means to a soldier, and in particular, how much a copy of Les Miserables meant. 

Text

Marvel Classic Comics commits a heinous crime, and turns Esmeralda into a buxom, fair skinned, blonde.
 

(Fortunately, the travesty is only on the cover, and Inside the comic she is drawn correctly.)
 
Classics Illustrated has a better cover



Of course, both get the title wrong, but that's the fault of the 1923 Lon Chaney movie.  (I believe that's the first occurrence of the incorrect title)